and what a responsible big brother he is....first I hear on the culture show that the new licensing laws are about to make it very difficult for people putting on musical events on a small scale. I checked this out today and it does appear to be true, check this link.
It sems that it will be ok for pubs that already have an entertainments liscence but the ones that suffer will be the ones that don't. Up until now they were allowed to have small scale acoustic performances of 1 or 2 people. So this could include pubs that run folk clubs etc. The new rule suggest that it will be a fairer system now that they have abolished the two in a bar loophole, however I disagree, some of those pubs will never be granted a full entertainment liscence because of their location, and quite rightly so - a full entertainments liscence would mean that they could have a full scale electric rock band if they wanted. But the other glaringly obvious fact is that the government are going to making a lot more money out of it all, whilst small businesses suffer.
And this will affect outdoor entertainments like street fairs and festivals too....
and if that wasn't enough to get your toes curling uncomfortably it was implied on the news that dear old Tone is about to do a u-turn on the nuclear power issue and announce plans to build a load more nuclear power stations...can you believe it?? what amazed me though was that according to the news report I saw on the BBC Britain has 22 nuclear power stations already! 22! I had no idea at all that there were that many.
Anyway the trouble is it seems that gas is running short and prices are rising etc etc. Maybe someone should suggest applying more stringent measures to save energy rather than just raising the supply for the rising demand. For instance how about a law making it an offence for shops to keep their doors open all day long in the winter. It is a common marketing belief that an open door means you are more welcoming and hence more likely to get passing trade. Well yes that seems logical, but in the depths of winter does it make sense for shopkeepers to be standing in hats etc whilst the heat slips unnoticed out into the street. Or worse still (the increasingly common practice) that there is a massive heater above the door blasting out heat to try and combat the icy blasts.
And then I read in last weeks Sunday paper that the British government were thinking of pulling out of the global warming agreement (the Kyoto protocol). Now is that dim or what?
Now if you want my opinion (which I'm sure you don't but I'll give it to you anyway!) there is a lot of sensible measures that governments could take to reduce energy wastage. For example:
Only manufacturing low energy lightbulbs for ordiary household use.
prohibiting councils from lighting their Christmas lights until December.
Making sure that every household has loft insulation.
Banning shops from keeping their doors open all day in cold weather and fining them if they do.
incentives to schools colleges and business to use low energy lighting.
Scrap any plans for new nuclear missiles (for gods sake!) and spend the money on renewable, sustainable energy.
etc etc...
