On her website, Sharon Hodgson says:

"The fact of the matter is that a few people are making large amounts of money by exploiting the hard work of people involved in the live entertainment industry and the passion of fans, whilst contributing nothing to either."

Er... then you can say the exact same thing about the Stock Markets Sharon - where millions of people speculate on some $36.6 trillion globally without adding much value to anyone.  Let's throw in Forex and any commodity trading for that matter.

 Or any middle man involved in any financial transations. Heck, why not throw in UK bankers as well. They don't do much to earn their billions in bonuses. Particularly in the light of being bailed out by taxpayers in the UK during the last financial meltdown.  Should they not be taken to task? How can an industry, that by the estimates of the International Monetary Fund has lost £2 trillion since the financial crisis broke, which has been bailed out by governments worldwide, pay ridiculous sums of money for what is a socially useless function. 

And don't forget that Seatwave, Viagogo and Getmein - all secondary ticket marketplaces in the UK employ hundreds of people. Throw in eBay and we are talking about thousands. And pay taxes, including VAT.

As we wrote last week:

Politicians love emotional issues such as this as it helps 'elect' them and improves popularity with their voters. Most bands, promoters, venues, and managers have been playing the secondary ticketing market for years - reserving blocks of seats to dump and make money with in the secondary ticket market. And everyone in the business is really more irate about not pocketing the extra money over really caring about giving cheap seats to fans. 

Doesn't the UK parliament have better things to do when the countries' deficit is skyrocketing,  UK Unemployment is at a Record High, Students are rioting in London over increased university fees, the UK's much treasured National Health Service is being hacked up despite promises not to touch it, London's poorest boroughs face the deepest funding cuts.

Band's ought to figure out how to participate in the secondary ticket market rather than fight a losing battle with politicians who have better things to do. 

Ticketmaster, Seetickets, Live Nation International and the UK Concert Promoters Association are already playing the secondary ticket market. What does that say?

Joe Cohen from Seatwave told Sky News:

"Ninety-nine per cent of people who have ever sold tickets on Seatwave have sold fewer than five tickets and VAT is collected and handed over to HMRC on all tickets traded through our marketplace.

"How can anyone, in the current environment, propose to take Government, parliament and police time and money to regulate a service that lowers prices for consumers and is broadly supported by the public?"

From Music Week, Viagogo reacts:

Predictably, secondary ticketing operator Viagogo reacted angrily to the news. “Viagogo believes that if a person has spent their hard-earned money on a ticket and can no longer use it, they should have the right to resell it at a price they choose,” said the company’s UK director Edward Parkinson.

“Why should tickets be any different to cars, books or handbags? Viagogo supports all measures to protect fans from the real issues of fraud and online ticket scams. However the proposed Bill, while it may be well intentioned, would simply drive ticket resale underground, increasing fraud and pushing up prices for fans.”

Graham Burns, who runs ASTA in the UK, told USA's TicketNews that the bill will give promoters an unfair advantage over the secondary market:

"Frankly we find the proposal hilarious, if it were not for the fact that the consumer would be so disadvantaged! What this actually means in real terms is that the Promoters and managers who are certain of a sell out can price the tickets for those guaranteed sold out events as high as they like knowing that the tickets will not be available on the open market. The events that may not be so popular can be left open, free to trade and if it starts to go South, the tickets can be back doored to the Secondary Market as they are now for distribution - the Ticket Broker can 'do his best!'" he said.

"This proposed legislation is designed that the Promoters can control the flow of tickets to the public on their terms. They are becoming frightened that the Secondary Markets are now becoming educated, the consumer is able to choose. The Promoters and Managers want to maximise their revenue - as they do now - instead of by allowing the customer choice - by controlling the flow of tickets on their terms," he added.