When there is a government involved you just know that the Law of Unintended Consequences is bound to be present as well. A Hot Chick called Lakshmi links to a piece of news in the Grauniad about the future of live music in the UK.
Government rules designed to make it easier for venues to tap into a burgeoning demand for live music threaten to more than halve the number of concerts taking place in the UK owing to inertia among owners in applying for the new licences.
Some of Britain's most prominent jazz musicians, including Jamie Cullum, Humphrey Lyttelton and Jacqui and Alec Dankworth, also protested yesterday, saying the process of applying for licences was so time consuming and expensive - despite the government's promise of a "tick box" application - that pub, bar and restaurant owners were likely simply to give up.
New research shows that almost seven in 10 owners or managers of small music venues are unaware of the implications of the 2003 Licensing Act, which requires them to reapply for their live music licence by August 6.
I mean really you couldn't make it up could you? The introduction of rules designed to make it easier to have live music ends up reducing the number of places that do so.
The Grauniad can't seem to quite bring itself to criticise HMG for this result and, charitably, perhaps they have a point since it will only occur when you throw in two local government failings: good old "more than my job's worth" bureaucrats and the habit of failing to inform the public about things that they need to know that was so lampooned by Douglas Adams.