A government ban on dancing on Sundays in the UK is to be repealed, after officials branded the 220 year old law “plainly daft.”
An amendment of the 1780 Sunday Observances Act will legitimise public dances on the Christian Sabbath and allow clubs to open on Sundays, as well as allowing alcohol to be served until 12.30am on Monday mornings.
Home Office minister Mike O’Brien said, “Be it line dancing, square dancing, ballroom dancing or disco, it is plainly daft to have a ban on dancing because it is a Sunday. This ban is antiquated and should have gone years ago. If people want a bit of Sunday Night Fever, that’s fine by me.”
The measure is now awaiting consideration by the Deregulation Committees of the House Of Commons and House Of Lords, and should become law this summer.
Terry Hart, press spokesperson for London’s longest-running Sunday night club Addicted To DTPM, now held at the capital’s superclub Fabric on Charterhouse Street, EC1, told nme.com: “It’s been a long time coming. Sunday isn’t just a day for religious observance.”
Mark Rodol, creative director from another London superclub Ministry Of Sound, in Elephant & Castle, SE1, was equally jubilant.
“Even more of a reason not to go to work on a Monday!”
However, opening times and entertainment/alcohol licences will still be decided by the relevant local authority to clubs and venues wishing to open on Sunday, whether ot not the law is scrapped.