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Ticket Touting

I will come to the Government's place in this a few pages further on in my speech. I hope that I can answer the hon. Gentleman's question then, but if I do not, he should feel free to ask it again. I gave one example, but there are plenty of others. Tickets for the Bon Jovi concerts, which are starting soon, were going for more than £400 on eBay. It was not disabled people, but ordinary people who were selling their £70 or £80 tickets for £400. The most expensive ticket for Take That came in at about £2,500, while the tickets for the Police concerts hit a record of about £3,500. There are lots of examples of people grossly and obscenely making money. My objection is that they are deliberately selling tickets to make money on the back of fans who probably should have got the tickets at the proper price in the first place. I accept that the Government have tried to grasp the nettle to some extent. We have the proposed agreement on crown jewel events, but there is little detail, and I know from talking to people in the industry that they want some detail about what constitutes a crown jewel event. One argument that I hear against banning ticket touting—I am sure that it has been made in the debate in certain ways—is that it is simply not enforceable. I wonder whether it would not be more of a problem if we had a voluntary agreement on a limited number of events—if we say that we cannot have ticket touting for the crown jewel events, but that we can have it for other events. Concerts would come into that, because fewer people would be involved—perhaps only 5,000, 6,000, 7,000 or 10,000 people go to a concert. However, the new Wembley can hold about 80,000 for a cup final, so it would be much more difficult to deal with that. The other problem is that ticket touting goes on. A gentleman from Ticketmaster told me that he had been to the England-Croatia game. Walking up to the ground, he passed ticket touts selling tickets while policemen were standing nearby. That is just not on. There is a law against ticket touting, and if the police see it, they should do something about it. That is why we have got ourselves into this state—we have not done anything about it in years gone by, and people do not see touting as a criminal act. The key point that the chief executive of Get Me In!, Andrew Blachman, made to me was that he would not allow the sale of Olympic games tickets on his site, and I must assume that eBay, viagogo and all the big sites will do the same. If we can bring in a law that makes ticket-touting illegal for an event such as the Olympic games, and if we have said that we shall do the same for the Commonwealth games in Glasgow, why will we not do it for any other event that just happens to be smaller? Does that mean that it is okay to do something about a big event with worldwide coverage, at which we do not want ticket touting, but that it is not okay to protect the people—young people, in particular—who go to pop concerts, from ticket touting? We must think seriously about that. The House of Commons agreed on the ban, and we voted on it. I am glad to say that we managed to secure it for Glasgow as well; I look forward to the Commonwealth games there. What I cannot understand is the inconsistency. Is it any wonder that we do not do anything about ticket touting? Our stance on the practice does not enable people to say, ““These are the rules, this is the law, and this is what should happen.”” That is what we should think about. I have talked to people involved with big events, and in particular to Geoff Ellis of T in the Park, who has worked tirelessly to stop ticket touts selling tickets at his event, and who has taken people to court for stealing his logo to enable them to sell tickets. He should not have to pay for all that. He should have the help of the law to ensure that the young people who come to the events pay the minimum—they pay a lot of money anyway—and do not need to worry about being ripped off by crooks. The heart of the question is the need to sort out what kind of country we want to live in. I cannot subscribe to a solution that allows exploitation and brings everything back to a bidding war. Having spoken to people involved, I know that there is a real worry; by permitting sales by ticket touts we spurn the industry's consumer-friendly pricing policy. My great fear is that they will start to do the primary selling, prices will go through the roof for big events, and small events will not take place because there will not be enough money in them and no one will be able to afford to buy tickets. The musical talent that we have amassed over the years is second to none in the world, and we have begun to invest more in sporting events. I fear that if we put all our money into events such as the Olympic and Commonwealth games, and forget support for grass roots athletes, and if, because of lack of money, people cannot pay to go to those events, we shall go down a road we do not want to go down. I shall finish with another statement by Pink Floyd—from ““Dark Side of the Moon””, if anyone is interested. Pink Floyd said:"““Get a good job with more pay and you're okay””." It might be a good lyric, but it is not the mantra that I want our cultural events to live by.