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YFA: News Licensing Bill: Letter to MPs |
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| Licensing Bill: Letter to MPs | |||||
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YFA has written to all MPs for Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire, asking them to support amendments to include safeguards to allow our community-based musical heritage to flourish, and urging them to sign Early Day Motion 331 - Licensing of Live Music. You can help by signing an online petition to be delivered to the Prime Minister on 15 March 2003: http://www.petitiononline.com/2inabar/petition.html Update: The petition was delivered on 16 June, to coincide with the bill's return from committee to the Commons. Together, the electronic and paper petitions amounted to 110,000 signatures. The content of our letter to MPs is: Licensing Bill and Early Day Motion 331 Area of main concern: Public entertainment licensing Traditional music, song and dance have been part of our cultural heritage for centuries. Thousands of people in Yorkshire take part in these activities, often in pubs and at festivals. Many more thousands enjoy watching and listening. The Licensing Bill threatens to stop or disrupt much of this activity because it's capable of harsh interpretation. The Times wrote on 3 December 2002: "Carol singers could face prosecution if they do not buy a licence to perform, lawyers studying the Government's Licensing Bill say. One said that even a householder who let a group sing in his front garden could face a maximum fine of £20,000 or six months in jail if local authority inspectors applied a strict reading of the Bill." This is extremely alarming. Traditional music sessions and singarounds are informal and casual. They're as much a part of pub culture as chatting and joking. They give aspiring folk musicians a chance to develop their skills and repertoire by listening and learning. Usually no money changes hands; people simply play tunes and sing for their own enjoyment. Treating this as regulated entertainment is an unfair and disproportionate approach. Surely existing legislation on health and safety and noise could deal with any potential problems in this area. Traditional music-making is absolutely harmless. It's nearly always unamplified, and far quieter than most jukeboxes or amplified entertainment. There are no rival groups trying to outdo each other or behave aggressively. Many musicians are seriously worried at the potential consequences of this bill as it could criminalise the provision of almost all live music without a licence. Even three people singing quietly to themselves in a corner of unlicensed premises could face prosecution. This can not be right, and it must not be allowed to become law. It's not just the harshness and "catch-all" provisions of the bill that we object to. The bureaucracy of consulting planning departments, environmental health, police and fire authorities will deter people from applying for a licence - it would be far easier to say "no music or dance - just crank up the jukebox." And the result would be louder amplified music. There is a real possibility that this bill, if enacted without proper safeguards, could destroy a centuries-old tradition of people enjoying creative conviviality. It would be an act of gross cultural vandalism if this government (led by a musician!) were to succeed, where the Puritans failed, in stamping out English music, song and dance. It's likely that the Musicians' Union will be making representations to the UK Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights, as it believes the government's approach is disproportionate and incompatible with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, now incorporated into UK law. Please help us to maintain our traditional music, song and dance by supporting amendments to include safeguards to allow our community-based musical heritage to flourish. Amendments which could help include
which calls on the government to amend the relevant parts of the bill in order to remove the iniquities faced by musicians and the music industry as a whole. Yours sincerely Paul Hudson Chairman Yorkshire Folk Arts
17th December 2002.
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