News and Media Links

Guardian Politics: Alcoholic Britain should not be offered another drink - Martin Kettle. Why the licensing bill will increase the problem it is supposed to control.

Guardian Politics: Save the nation's music - Leader. Churches should not be licensed.

Guardian Politics: Pub revolution 'will cut trouble' - Anne Perkins, political correspondent. Round-the-clock licences will enrich lives, say ministers, but musicians fear reforms will jeopardise jazz and folk in hundreds of clubs.

Telegraph: Licensing crackdown threatens live music - David Millward. The Musicians' Union claims the Licensing Bill could turn buskers into criminals, restrict carol singers and bell ringers, and scrap the "two in a bar" rule.

Telegraph: By next Christmas, carol singers will be criminals - Billy Bragg. The mummers, the Nativity play, the panto, the carol concert all provide opportunities for newcomers to meet their fellow villagers and appreciate the age-old values of the local community. Yet all these activities are under threat from the licensing Bill that is currently passing through Parliament.

Telegraph: Village halls' cash hopes dashed - David Sapsted. Village hall committees must pay extra costs to comply with legislation to make facilities available to the disabled and are also facing a new headache with the Licensing Bill which would end the halls' traditional exemption from fees for a public entertainment licence and reduce the number of occasional liquor licences they can apply for, from the current 12 to five a year.

Telegraph: More red tape, vicar? - Leader. Perhaps Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, could tell us when was the last time that the audience at a performance of Bach's Matthew Passion caused crime, disorder, public nuisance or threatened the welfare of children.

Independent: Thousands of pubs expected to apply for 24-hour opening - Nigel Morris, political correspondent. Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, predicted that about 2 per cent of the 180,000 licensed premises would ask for 24-hour licences. Bars and nightspots in big cities and holiday resorts, such as Brighton and Blackpool, are likely to make up most applicants.

Independent: Fancy a quick one? You've got 36 hours to get them in - James Morrison. "What will happen is that, in suburban and outlying areas, little will change and those who want to carry on drinking will be forced into town centres, as they are now. The rowdy binge-drinking culture there will continue."

BBC News: Fears for children in pub reforms - Children could end up in lap-dancing pubs and clubs under plans to reform licensing laws, the government is warned.

BBC News: Last orders for pub hours - Pubs could open 24-hours a day and there would be tougher laws on under-age drinking in plans to relax UK licensing laws.

BBC News: Buskers make protest heard - Plans to introduce a licensing scheme in central London spark a noisy protest by buskers.

BBC News: Drinking law shake-up unveiled - Two senior ministers pop into a Westminster pub to launch a bill which paves the way for round-the-clock drinking.