Boris promises meeting on musician EU visas
mainDuring yesterday’s PMQ, Boris Johnson was asked by Kevin Brennan MP:
There is a real disappointment that a reciprocal work permit free deal for touring musicians and performers has not been agreed with the EU. No one is interested in a blame game, it’s clearly fixable, and in Britain’s economic and cultural interest to do so quickly, but it needs leadership from the top. So will the Prime Minister meet on this with a small group of MPs, including the Conservative Chair of the Culture Select Committee? We are all singing from the same song sheet, will he please say ‘yes’ to the meeting?
The PM replied: I will of course ensure that there is a proper meeting with the honourable gentleman and his colleagues on this subject, which is extremely important, and I know that our friends in the EU will be wanting to go further to improve things, not just for musicians, but for business travellers of all kinds, because there is a mutual benefit.
Wait for the U-turn!
This is the beginnings (we hope) of good news. Especial thanks to Kevin Brennan MP, who has been on the case for musicians and those working in the wider Arts throughout the pandemic and Brexit negotiations. This issue of visa-free travel for those working in the Arts urgently needs to be fixed: doing so will bring only benefit to both the UK and to the EU – by fixing it, everyone wins.
The culture select committee has 11 members, and is chaired by Julian Knight. In particular, if any SD readers are constituents of any of these MPs listed below, a direct email with a personal story of how they (or their colleagues) are losing work, and that fixing this will directly bring EU money into the UK’s coffers (as well as create employment for those working in the UK’s Arts industry), will help strengthen the case for urgent action. It is in everyone’s interests that visa free travel for musicians and those working in the wider Arts joins the already quite extensive list of categories of those who already qualify for visa free travel into and out of the EU. There is a significant will across the EU to resolve this, and surely it can only be in the UK’s interests that this huge sector can continue to generate significant income for UK plc (the music industry alone is worth more than £5 billion annually to the UK economy: the creative arts in total generate more than £100 billion).
This is the committee (with party and constituency):
Julian Knight – chairman (Conservative, Solihull)
Kevin Brennan (Labour, Cardiff West)
Steve Brine (Conservative, Winchester)
Alex Davies-Jones (Labour, Pontypridd)
Clive Efford (Labour, Eltham)
Julie Elliott (Labour, Sunderland Central)
Rt Hon Damian Green (Conservative, Ashford)
Rt Hon Damian Hinds (Conservative, East Hampshire)
John Nicolson (SNP, Ochil and South Perthshire)
Giles Watling (Conservative, Clacton)
Heather Wheeler (Conservative, South Derbyshire)
****This is the beginnings (we hope)****
WHO is ‘WE’?
****It is in everyone’s interests that visa free travel for musicians and those working in the wider Arts joins the already quite extensive list of categories of those who already qualify for visa free travel into and out of the EU****
‘everyone’s interests’? For whom do you speak? Name/list them.
****it can only be in the UK’s interests that this huge sector can continue to generate significant income for UK plc (the music industry alone is worth more than £5 billion annually to the UK economy****
You sound like a Labour MP glitching with a false fact and unproven number stuck in your little brain, unable to verify if it’s true, but spouting it nonetheless. No one is listening to you, least of all the MPs you think will suddenly take up your self-serving cause. Trust me, they are NOT listening to your whining.
What makes you think that Joe Public gives a hoot about the cause of classical musicians?
What makes you think that a Tory government (a government that is constantly abused by the woke ringleaders of the ‘save our music industry’ brigade of mostly screaming women on Twitter) will look kindly at your constant begging for attention?
Grow up. You won’t save the music industry your way – so think out of the box. The answer is there if you look.
FM
I popped back to check on you all and to see if any of you are braving up yet. Seems not. Talk about cowed.
Why do the words ‘verbal’ and ‘sh*te’ spring to mind?
To Firing Back:
You are being obtuse; or,
you are deranged.
There can be no other explanation for the way you responded to Robert King on a specialist music blog such as this.
Actually, I think you may be obtuse AND deranged.
Problem of course is that you cannot believe a word our Prime Minister says. He is so pathetically desperate to be liked that he will agree to anything on the spot, making it up as he goes along, and then do something totally different.