Extracts from Commons proceedings: Musicians - Jan 11
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 08:15
Extract from Commons statement on Economic update Patrick Grady
(Glasgow North) (SNP): Musicians and performers in Glasgow North
have already very often been excluded from the Chancellor’s support
packages, and they will find it difficult to look towards a
brighter future when they then hear that the Government have failed
to negotiate visa-free touring for them across the European Union.
Many of us have been warning that Brexit would simply compound the
economic crisis caused by a...Request free trial
Extract from Commons
statement on Economic update
(Glasgow
North) (SNP): Musicians and performers in Glasgow
North have already very often been excluded from the Chancellor’s
support packages, and they will find it difficult to look towards a
brighter future when they then hear that the Government have failed
to negotiate visa-free touring for them across the European Union.
Many of us have been warning that Brexit would simply compound the
economic crisis caused by a pandemic, and that kind of decision
seems to prove the point, does it not?
The Chancellor of the Exchequer (): We have provided significant support to our
cultural industries. I think it is right that we highlight the
contribution they make both to our society and to our economy. I
struggle to find any other countries that have matched the £1.5
billion of support we have provided, which has now gone out, I
believe, to over 3,000 different cultural institutions, supporting
the livelihoods and local institutions that cover performing arts,
such as musicians, and we know that they will play
an important part in our recovery.
Extracts from Commons
debate on Global Britain
(Stirling)
(SNP) [V]:...Just as Scotland wants to stay in Erasmus, we
want also to help our creative sector. Another thing we are losing
is musicians’ visas. According to the
Musicians’ Union, 78% of
musicians and creatives have travelled to the EU
or the European economic area over the last year to trade, to do
their business and to do the cultural exchange—that soft
diplomacy—that global Britain surely relies upon. There was an
offer from the EU side to maintain a 90-day visa that would deal
with the EEA as a bloc for all our creatives travelling abroad. The
UK Government rejected it in an act of vindictiveness against our
creatives, because they did not want inward travel to come to us.
Again, I really hope that can be reversed, because it was a poor
decision...
(Ealing Central
and Acton) (Lab):...Erasmus—gone, with its replacement set
to foster British uniglotism. Touring musicians,
facing ruinously costly obstacles for themselves and gear to get in
the van and go—gone. Eighty per cent. of our economy is services,
the biggest chunk being financial services. It got 90 mentions
while fishing, 1% of the economy, featured 368 times. Too much of
this is left “TBC”, and other horrors are only now coming to light.
There is no end to red tape, as previously promised, for
export/import firms that are reporting untold VAT complications and
costs...
To read the whole debate, CLICK
HERE
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