Dept of Culture Media Sport & Lies

Subject: RE: Dept of Culture Media Sport & Lies
From: The Shambles
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 01:39 PM

Jowell slapped down by police over drink laws
by JAMES SLACK, Daily Mail

07:37am 16th November 2005

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=368747&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=

Subject: RE: Dept of Culture Media Sport & Lies
From: The Shambles
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 11:50 AM

The following from Hamish Birchall

In an attempt to discover why, how and when DCMS covertly altered former licensing minister Richard Caborn's original statement concerning the 1.7 million live gig claim, a written question has been put down in the Lords (an amendment will ensure that it is clear that the date of the press release was 25 August 2004). The government has to reply within two weeks:

ENDS

The Question.

The Lord RedesdaleTo ask Her Majestys Government what consultations they held with (a) Market and Opinion Research International, and (b) the Live Music Forum prior to the addition of an extra point under Notes to Editorsand the change to the quotation by the Minister of State for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport contained in the press release issued by the Department on 25th August, entitled Live Music SceneThe Verdict; who sanctioned those changes; and when they were made.    (HL2339)

Subject: RE: Dept of Culture Media Sport & Lies
From: The Shambles
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 06:06 AM

There is almost the suggestion in Mr Foster's statement - that it is thought by some that lying about such small matters as the state of live music is now acceptable............Or a least that some form of apology is needed for taking our Government to task when they lie to us on such 'relatively' unimportant matters.

There is a thinking which seems to think that because we were lied to about Iraq and our Government appear to have gotten away with such huge falsehoods (or at least were re-elected) that we should perhaps also give-up on trying to correct smaller attempts by our Government to lie to us.

My view is that by taking issue and correcting when we can - the small shit we are provided with - that we may make the practice less acceptable and routine and prevent the big shit from descending upon us. And by enough of us sticking to this process we may even be able to create the machinery by which those who were responsible for these huge falsehoods can pay the price........?

This matter shoud be perhaps seen in the light of the Government's attempts in the run-up to the Licensing Act 2003 to discredit the many real and factual concerns of musicians like Hamish Birchall as lies and misinformation. He should be respected as one who is determined to ensure that the truth about the state of live music is first established. This is vital if the following undertaking - given by the Government in response to the E Petition - is to have any chance of improving the real situation.

We have also given an undertaking that we will review the existing descriptions of entertainment in the Act six to twelve months after the end of the transition period. If the Act has had an unintended, disproportionate negative effect on the provision of live music -or other forms of regulated entertainment-, there are powers already in the Bill to modify the position through secondary legislation. However we believe that the provisions in the Licensing Act will allow live music and other regulated entertainment to thrive.

Subject: RE: Dept of Culture Media Sport & Lies
From: greg stephens
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 05:22 AM

Who is the Don Foster who leaps in at the end of the discussion, and rather spoils the focus bt dragging in Iraq?

Subject: RE: Dept of Culture Media Sport & Lies
From: The Shambles
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 05:04 AM

The following from Hamish Birchall

See below for a transcript of this morning's BBC R4 Today item about the 1.7 million gig claim for 'bars, clubs and restaurants' found to be misleading by the Market Research Standards Board (MRSB).

A few caveats first, however:

The BBC mistakenly called the MRSB a 'government body' in the opening commentary. The Market Research Society is in fact an independent professional body 'that exists to set and enforce the ethical standards to be observed by research practitioners'. See their website: http://www.mrs.org.uk/
MRSB only has power to discipline its members, who are individual market researchers, not companies or corporations.
A MORI employee was disciplined essentially because MORI has joint responsibility with DCMS for any press releases or publications including the live music survey findings, and the 1.7 million gig claim as it was originally made should not have been published without qualification.
The fact that DCMS later covertly altered the former licensing minister's quote in the 25 August 2004 press release is not made clear in this piece. The MRS confirmed to me yesterday that alteration of the minister's quote was NOT included in their disciplinary action. How it came to be done is now the subject of a further MRSB investigation, following another complaint from me, and is likely to be the subject of Parliamentary questions.
In November 2004 and January 2005, DCMS ministers were questioned in Parliament about the 1.7 million estimate relating to 'bars, clubs and restaurants'. No apologies were offered, despite the fact that in a letter to me dated 10 December 2004 DCMS Licensing Implementation and Communications Manager Jason De Bono wrote: 'I can confirm that the 1.7 million estimate was for the whole sample. The reference to "bars, clubs and restaurants" made by Richard Caborn was shorthand for this - there was of course no intention to mislead.'
I did bring other complaints about the validity of the survey, but the 1.7 million live gig claim was top of my list. The MRSB has not recommended disciplinary action in relation to my other complaints, but nor have they yet explained why they were not upheld.
Within an hour or two of the BBC Today programme, a web cast is usually available. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/
~ ~ ~

TRANSCRIPT OF BBC Today broadcast - Friday 11 November 2005 - 6.51-7.54am approx

DCMS 1.7 million live gig claim for bars, clubs and restaurants was misleading.


EDWARD STOURTON: The time now is 9 minutes to 7. The Market Research Standards Board, the government body which is charged with running checks on the accuracy of market research, has ruled that one of the government's own press releases was misleading. The release dealt with the impact of the new Licensing Act on live music in small venues, the subject of much grumbling among musicians. Nicola Stanbridge reports:

[background jazz fade in]

NICOLA STANBRIDGE: For ten years this little restaurant called La Brocca in Hampstead has had a reputation for live jazz music, acting as a springboard for young musicians. Under the old Licensing Act, two musicians could play without an entertainment licence. Under new rules the venue needs one. But the cost is prohibitive, and La Brocca is closing its doors to musicians, one of many examples this programme has heard of. Its owner is David Locke.

DAVID LOCKE: It's expensive to get a licence, and live music in bars and pubs and restaurants is not profitable. It's a philanthropic thing really to put jazz or folk music in a pub. You know, to have to go to a lot of cost to get a music licence, you know, to do various modifications - all sorts of stuff - just isn't viable and people won't do it because they can't afford to do it.

NICOLA STANBRIDGE: This is at odds with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport which has always insisted the new Licensing Act is an easy box-ticking way of getting a public entertainment licence, making it much easier to put on music. [jazz fades out] Last August the minister responsible, Richard Caborn, said there was a flourishing music scene: 'an estimated 1.7 million gigs were staged in the last year alone in bars, clubs and restaurants whose main business isn't putting on live music'. That was based on a MORI survey, but musicians disputed the scene was flourishing, insisting it was vulnerable and likely to worsen under the new Licensing Act. One musician, Hamish Birchall, decided to add the sums up for himself.

HAMISH BIRCHALL: It looked as if 1.7 million was rather high for bars, clubs and restaurants. I studied MORI survey's full report and it has a table showing seven different venue categories. You get a figure of about 1.7, 1.8 million for the WHOLE survey, not for a sub-set of three venue categories.

NICOLA STANBRIDGE: Hamish Birchall filed a complaint with the Market Research Standards Board which agreed the statement was indeed misleading. The 1.7 million related to the whole sample surveyed. The Board recommended a footnote be added and disciplinary action. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport did change the press release, broadening the 1.7 million number of gigs to include 'other venues'. In a statement they said this was not a fundamental change, or a change of meaning, and as such there was no need to issue a new press notice. They said they didn't set out to misinterpret the research or mislead the public. And MORI concurred, adding in a statement that the original press release did include an executive summary of the MORI research, and a breakdown of all the venues surveyed, and that other complaints by Mr Birchall were not upheld. The Liberal Democrat Culture spokesman Don Foster says it raises questions about future government statements.

DON FOSTER: The government having been rapped over the knuckles for misleading the public in a press release should at the same time be acknowledging that they made a mistake and should be apologising for doing it. We need to be much more vigilant in the future about what this government is saying, whether it's the Iraq dossier, burying bad news, or whether it's even about the state of live music in this country.

SARAH MONTAGUE: Nicola Stanbridge reporting. The time now 6 minutes to 7.

ENDS

Subject: Dept of Culture Media Sport & Lies
From: GUEST,ET
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 02:36 AM

This was reported on the Today Programme early today. Well done Hamish for your continued campaign

"Government officials published misleading claims about the state of live music in Britain ahead of the new Licensing Act, the UK's market research watchdog has ruled.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport's first Live Music Survey - intended to assess what impact the legislation would have - claimed that 1.7 million gigs had taken place in bars, clubs and restaurants whose main business is not live music.

However the Market Research Standards Board says the claim about the research carried out by pollsters MORI was inaccurate because a quarter of the gigs took place in other sorts of venues not listed in the subsequent press release issued last year. Included among the sites were thousands of churches, community halls, hotels and private clubs and associations, many of which do not involve public, professional performances.

DCMS officials have hurriedly edited archived comments by minister Richard Caborn on the department's website and disciplinary action is now being taken against the MORI employee responsible for the survey.

Live music campaigner Hamish Birchall, whose complaint about the DCMS claim triggered the investigation, told The Stage: "It helped them at the time to argue that licensing hadn't harmed music in bars, and enabled them to justify to their own MPs that [further] licensing wouldn't harm live music. It goes to the heart of the government's case for reform."

A spokeswoman would not comment on the change to the minister's statement, which now includes the words "and other venues". She denied that the original quote had been misleading.

"The purpose of the press notice was to outline the music survey concisely and point people towards the report," she said. "We wanted to get across the point that this was about small venues and not Wembley Arena. In the many interviews/briefings we conducted at the time it was made very clear the extent of the venues surveyed."

MRSB has said the figure quoted should have been much lower, at 1.3 million, excluding hotels, churches and community halls. But Birchall claims the true figure is 850,000, excluding members clubs and associations, which have been exempt from entertainment licensing.

He added: "The point of the survey was how much licensing affected the decision to have live music. If a venue is not required to be licensed, clearly it is not affected by licensing in its decision-making process. So what's the point of looking at that category of venue?"

A MORI spokesman agreed the original press release might possibly have been construed as misleading.

He said: "This was a genuine mistake. At no point was there any intention to paint a false picture, particularly as the full study report was released at exactly the same time as the press release and was made freely available to all on the DCMS website."