I heard the other day that there are two things that we should not know how they are made - sausages and laws.

But once we do find out - and with this legislation many of us have found this out in rather unsavoury detail - it is rather important that we are not subsequently persuaded that the ingredients were not the ones that we plainly saw go in to the making.

We are all now involved in damage limitation as to how the Act will affect our various activites. Some of us like Gareth have divided loyalties and the damage limitation that would appear to concern him most is the damage done to his Party.

Now we have our opinions and these will differ but Gareth's Labour Party seems to have really come to believe that the truth is what they can get away with saying it is.

Hamish Birchall is a straight-shooter. Partly because he recognises that not telling the truth would always backfire, but mainly because the truth matters to him. As he has again done here - he has always taken the upmost care to ensure that the information supplied is correct and is always quick to ammend even the smallest detail - if it should be even thought to be questionable. The response to this from Gareth in this thread has not reflected this approch.   

If I am 'het-up' now - it has been as a result of the continuing unfounded smears that have form the main part of the Labour Party's approach to this issue and sadly have convinced many that the world is indeed flat - despite all the firm evidence provided to the contrary.

No one is more sorry about the damage done to a Party I (and many of us) have always supported. The fact remains that this Party has not introduced measures that supported us and no attempt to re-write history will ever change that sad fact. Unless they now recognise it and work to undo this damage.

For the Act could not have been more damaging - if that had been their intention. It was not their intention and many of them are upset that we may think it was. But if good intentions were enough - we would not ever requre any legislation.

Gareth will us have blame ourselves - Civil Servants - Local Authorities - the LGA etc. And it is true that all these factors have all played a part but - it was the Government's job to deal with and protect us from these lobbies and this they have failed to do.

However it is time they and their apologists now stop the pretence that the 'lies' were being told anywhere else but from their side. If they wish to continue with this - we must insist that they first provide the evidence for their assertions, before we give them any future creditibilty our allow them to sow any seeds of doubt?

When Gareth claims the measure he refers to were introduced by the Act - when my MP informs me that small events are exempt from the Licensing and when the local MP informs her constituents that the Act has ensured the continuation (unlicensed) of the Shieffied Carols - they all want to believe it They so want to believe that what they are told to tell people is the truth.

But it does not make it so............