You will recall that paper Petitions were submitted to the House of Commons towards the end of 2006 - 3 "went missing" in the House of Commons Post Room and subsequently, 79,904 people signed up to the e-Petition at No 10 Downing Street calling for urgent reviews for less burdensome licensing legislation.

After 15 months involvement as a campaigner, I have now decided to call it a day. Why?, I hear you ask. Quite a few reasons! None of the contacts made to the Government (except for the superb assistance I have had through my own MP), the BBC Regions and the National press have had the courtesy to respond - surprise, surprise. The DCMS have repeatedly given "stock answers" to every valid question raised and all answers to date can only be described as repeated contradictions in terms.

Why is this Act illegal? Lord Lester of Hearne Hill - Peer and QC - specialising in human rights - warned the Government in July 2003 (Hansard) that the Act would be in breach of Section 10 of the European Court of Human rights based on proportionality and cultural bias vis-a-vis live -v- recorded music. The Government chose to ignore his - and other -Governmental Committee's warnings.

In 2000, the Government stated that because "more than 1500 fires in clubs and pubs in England and Wales" this was the primary reason for drawing up draft legislation. This statement was false. The National Statistics Office have failed to keep accurate fire records for the past 7 years.

1. 789 fires in England and Wales were recorded as malicious with no fatalities.

2. No fires could be attributed to electrical faults in musician's instruments or amplifiers.

At the same time, the Government said that it wanted the Act to be a deterremt against small live bands and to bring the Licensing regime under one roof, i.e., instead of applying to a local Magistrate's Court, it decided to incorporate 9 additional Local Authority bodies to "save taxpayer's money". The Government have since admitted that taxpery's money has not been saved.

1. The Government's deterrent aimed at live bands worked.

2. We have lost 40% of our small venues.

3. The Live Music Forum have recently recommended (a) fast tracking the licensing application procedures and (b) that "Ministers should robustly censure the small minority of those licensing authorities which, knowingly or otherwise, have developed repeated patterns of heavy handed, negative decision-making which are contrary to both the letter of the law and the spirit of Section 182 Guidance". The Government themselves are guilty of heavy-handed legislation - but they won't put their hands up and admit that they got it wrong.

4. Professional live musicians are losing jobs and income.

5. We have lost our rights to freedom of expression. We are well on the way to losing cultural, tradition and heritage forever. Aren't we supposed to be living in a multi-cultural, multi-racial society and help to bring about social integration and cohesion?

6. The Government are still refusing to answer why they have banned Christmas music with the exception of "only music with religious content".

7. Thousands of live musicians are cancelling plans leading up to Christmas which would have raised a great deal of money for needy charities.

8. In the 2006 MORI Poll, 45% of complaints related to domestic music. The 7% of complaints re live music was, in the absence of National data, equally proportioned to 3.5% respectively.

9. The Government's Policy Statement targets cannot possibly be acheived whilst loud, recorded music and huge screens are permitted - free of charge - in town and city centres. This certainly does nothing, for example, to help protect children from harm.

10. What about all our younger generations who are enjoying studying (and whose parents are paying for them) to become professional musicians, singers and dancers?

11. What about all our wonderful community and village halls now grossly under-used? What a waste of taxpayer's money.

12. Gone are the days when families and friends could meet regularly in a community venue or a school to enjoy dancing to live music and be entertained. Today, extortionate costs for licences and tickets is putting people off. Selling alcohol and even making a small profit to cover expenses is illegal. Alcohol abuse is up by 15% this year, placing every increasing financial demands on the police, ambulance services, hospitals and courts. Musicians are the innocent party in all this and we are all suffering as a result.

This year, the Government and the DCMS announced that "the Act has had a neutral effect" - so they invited the Chairman of the Live Music Forum, Fergal Sharkey, to travel around England and Wales to CHALLENGE LOCAL AUTHORITIES TO PROMOTE LIVE MUSIC - AT THE TAXPAYER'S EXPENSE.

With the list of the Government's horrendous failures increasing day by day, I feel that for little old me me to continue applying pressure on this Government to bring about changes to the PEL Act will end up even nearer the bottom of the ever-growing pile of national concerns. I've hit a brick wall - so have taken the decision not to continue - until such time as we have a Prime Minister with a Government that will start listening to our concerns and either make this legislation fair for all or, better still, abolish it. This legislation is not a European Directive.

I have also regret to inform you that I have now lost user access to edit and update my www.keeplivemusic.co.uk website but you can, if you have a few more moments to spare, please take a look at it - then all will not be in vain!

A number of issues and questions have been submitted to James Purnell MP, The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. I have yet to receive any response, The Government is due to make a public statement towards the end of this year - presumably on the DCMS web site or The Live Music Form web site.

As you can imagine, having invested a great deal of effort, time and money in to this project, I feel that maybe someone out there with a famous name could attract the attention of the Government, media and press more than I. If you feel you would like to carry on - or you know of someone higher up that "famous people ladder", I'll be more than happy to pass on all my information and evidence in support.

May I take this opportunity of thanking you all for your support and encouragement to date. I have had the pleasure of meeting so many, really supportive, live music friends during my involvement and now is the right time to say a huge "thank you". I have absolutely no regrets getting involved. I'm glad I did - but now I feel the time right time to "hand over" and move on.