Licensing Act

Indeed. My hon. Friend is a man who discovered Sting, pogoed to The Undertones and got down with Lemmy from Motörhead. He is about as cool as they come. He puts to shame some of the Conservative MPs who will be joining us in 2010 and who regularly feature in articles bigging up the Conservatives as the new cool political party. Whether he likes it or not, he is clearly as Cameroonian and hip as they come, and perhaps is now an honorary member of the Notting Hill set. He is also a very effective Chairman of the Select Committee, which continues to make an extraordinary impact in areas of policy surrounding culture, media and sport. We are now without my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Philip Davies), who is, perhaps, the antithesis of my hon. Friend the Member for Maldon and East Chelmsford. He is studiedly anti-cool—a sort of black hole of non-coolness and distinctly out of step with developing Conservative policy, which is perhaps why he is not here. Another hon. Member who is sadly absent is the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik), and he really is cool. He takes a close interest in popular contemporary music, as we know from the gossip columns of the newspaper. I can reveal exclusively—I learned this yesterday from ITV—that he is to appear in the new year in "Celebrity Come Dine With Me", so he continues to make an impact in that area. I turn now to another hon. Member who has left the debate. Every single Member who has contributed to this debate, apart from the Chairman of the Select Committee, the Front-Bench spokesmen and the Minister, has left this debate. I cast no aspersions on the speech of the hon. Member for Teignbridge (Richard Younger-Ross) to which I will return in a minute. We heard from the hon. Member for Selby (Mr. Grogan), who is a fine contributor on all matters related to culture, media and sport. Sadly, he is to retire at the next election. Halfway through his speech, I thought that he could become a Conservative working peer after the election because of his support for our policy. However, considering that he has supported the policies of all three parties, he would perhaps be better off as a Liberal Democrat working peer. Finally, we heard an excellent contribution from the hon. Member for Teignbridge, who is a fine spokesman on culture, media and sport for the Liberal Democrats. Opposition Members welcome this debate, and I shall begin by focusing on the importance of live music. Picking up the mantle left by the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire, who talked in great detail and with affection about his constituency, perhaps I could do the same about my own fine constituency of Wantage. In Faringdon, in the west of the constituency, we have the Faringdon arts festival, which I open every year. It holds a live performance in Faringdon's historic market square with a range of bands whose names I cannot remember. I know, however, that one of the guitarists is a producer on GMTV. The festival has been organised for several years by an excellent local resident, David Reynolds. Moving over to Wantage and Grove, we have the Wantage silver band. It is important in this debate to emphasise that brass bands are not simply a province of the north, and we have our own excellent brass bands in the south, which are campaigning to raise funds for their own homes. If any Members want to see me afterwards and write me a cheque, that would be most welcome. The Didcot arts centre was recently opened by a Conservative council in south Oxfordshire and is fast becoming a very important venue for live music. There is also the unsurpassable Wallingford blues and beer festival, in the east of my constituency on the banks of the River Thames. There is also the very well known Truck music festival, held in Steventon on Europe's largest village green. We are awash with talented and world-famous musicians: Sandy Shaw; Brian Eno, and Radiohead have their offices in Sutton Courtenay. My hon. Friend the Member for Maldon and East Chelmsford can come and meet them. We also have Whispering Bob Harris and Mark, the keyboard player from Marillion. To cover every base, I should not omit sport: I am the president of Didcot Town football club, so I am well aware of its sporting difficulties, and I am also aware that, as a Member of this House, one should never accept a vice-chairmanship or a vice-presidency; always go for the top. To pick up on the points that were made about helping the police to deal with violence that is potentially alcohol-related, I was very pleased two weeks ago to attend the launch of the Wantage and Grove street pastors organisation. I would not want to give the impression that Wantage and Grove is awash with alcohol-related violence; it certainly is not. However, the street pastors are a community group of local Christians go on to the streets of Wantage and Grove on a Friday night, to help the local community deal with the after-effects of a good Friday night out. [Interruption.] I am delighted to welcome the hon. Member for Selby back to the Chamber and to let him know that if he reads Hansard he will see some glowing remarks that I made about him while he was absent, dealing with the pressing needs of his constituents. The Licensing Act 2003, in both its tortuous passage into legislation and its tortuous life since, has been pretty much a complete Horlicks, which is why we have pledged—I think that my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley could support this pledge—to undertake a proper, thorough and strategic review of the Act if we win the election. I am mindful of the danger of saying that, and I am also mindful of the groans as people raise their eyes to the ceiling, given that this Government, who passed the Act after endless consultation, has managed to undertake eight reviews of that legislation in the six years since it was passed into law. Here we are at an historic moment, when the Minister, in just a few minutes, will announce the ninth review of this extraordinary Act. The Government love reviews—they cannot get up in the morning without reviewing how they got out of bed—and they have actually built into the legislation ongoing reviews. Local authorities now have to review their own licensing policies every three years. If a Minister accidentally fails to call for a review, he can be sure that at least the local authorities are conducting reviews. Consequently, at any time there is sure to be a review of the Licensing Act going on somewhere in this country. What we have had with the Licensing Act is a huge amount of bureaucratic meddling and typical Labour top-down prescription. The latest Government review, as UK Music has pointed out, is simply a fig leaf. Given the parliamentary timetable and the pressure on that timetable, it is very unlikely that it will be conducted in time for a legislative reform order before the next election; it is just another fobbing-off. In fact, in support of that assessment, I shall quote someone with a great deal of credibility—none other than Feargal Sharkey, the close friend of my hon. Friend the Member for Maldon and East Chelmsford. I am tempted to try to deliver the quote in Mr. Sharkey's voice, because my constituency is also the home of Rory Bremner and he has taught me everything I know about how to imitate celebrities, but I will not risk it under your chairmanship, Miss Begg. Feargal Sharkey said:""After six years of legislation, eight consultations, two Government research projects, two national review processes and a Parliamentary Select Committee report"—" He might have added, "And a partridge in a pear tree", but he did not—""all of which have highlighted the harmful impact these regulations are having on the British music industry, Government's only reaction is yet another review."" That is the view of someone whom the Government themselves have appointed as their live music champion. Even he is completely disillusioned with what has been going on. As for the changes brought about by the Licensing Act to the availability of live music, before it was passed into law every bar could enjoy the "two in the bar" rule, so that someone could go to any bar and enjoy music played by one or two musicians. However, 40 per cent. of our bars and clubs no longer have the automatic right to stage live music. Extraordinarily, even private concerts and charity events are covered by this onerous legislation. My hon. Friend the Member for Maldon and East Chelmsford was quite right to point out the astonishing fact that, à la Baroness Scotland, the regulations passed by the Government are now so complicated that even the Government who passed them do not understand them. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport held a live concert by a fantastic band, The Frontiers, on 17 July and it did not even realise that it had to get a licence. Now if that does not sum up the extraordinary position—