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Friday, February 14, 2020
“Back to the bad old days”: UK crews face Brexit backlash
IQ Magazine: Some British touring crews are reportedly being held up at European border crossings following the UK’s recent exit from the EU, despite the Brexit transition period running until the end of this year.
I didn’t really realize the scope of impact that the UK leaving the EU would have on the touring industry. It must have been something so natural for British artists and production staff, to be able to get into the EU and do what they do. Now, difficulties start to arise when they travel across Europe and enter different borders. When I read the part about how someone’s crew got stopped and held for six hours on the Italian border the day after Britain officially left the UK, I could just imagine how that screwed up the schedule for the next event. The article also brings up another good point about work visas and touring visas. I’d imagine them to be pretty expensive from this point on. I also wonder how the UK leaving the EU affects the film industry. Is there a change in procedure and application for filming in the EU? I don’t think people thought through what leaving the EU meant when the vote happened...
I had no clue how rude the EU is being towards people from the UK. I think this is very uncalled for on the traffic patrol people. The touring musicians have no direct control over whether their country is part of the EU or not and should not be punished like they are. When I was traveling through Europe and we drove through multiple countries, I don’t remember being stopped by a border patrol type of set up. When we did have to get our passports checked, it took no more than 20 minutes. Making people from the UK wait for hours on end for no reason other than because they are part of the United Kingdom. From this article, it is good to have some hope that the Musician’s Union has plans to at least help touring groups travel with more ease. Sadly, it does not help the general public who wish to travel easily through the EU. I wonder if all this Brexit stuff impacts folks from the EU traveling through the UK the same way that the EU is making traveling hard for UK friends.
Brexit is such a frustrating issue that has been going on for years, and will be getting worse now that it is official. Back when the vote had just gone through, I saw several online posts and articles from ‘leave’ voters angry that they now had to pay money and wait to get through customs when they were leaving their country, and the response was “well what did you think was going to happen?”. The answer is that many people didn’t think about how it would affect them and their fellow citizens, because the issue was made out to be entirely about immigration and closing Britain’s borders to refugees. Now there are consequences, and it’s frustrating for the people, and specifically the touring people, who didn’t want this to happen in the first place, and are now feeling those consequences. I don’t think that the traffic control agencies are to blame here - Britain did this to itself, and the other countries are just doing what Britain wanted them to do, by treating them as a non-member of the EU. But the people being affected by this are not Britain as a whole, and did not make this decision by themselves.
3 comments:
I didn’t really realize the scope of impact that the UK leaving the EU would have on the touring industry. It must have been something so natural for British artists and production staff, to be able to get into the EU and do what they do. Now, difficulties start to arise when they travel across Europe and enter different borders. When I read the part about how someone’s crew got stopped and held for six hours on the Italian border the day after Britain officially left the UK, I could just imagine how that screwed up the schedule for the next event. The article also brings up another good point about work visas and touring visas. I’d imagine them to be pretty expensive from this point on. I also wonder how the UK leaving the EU affects the film industry. Is there a change in procedure and application for filming in the EU? I don’t think people thought through what leaving the EU meant when the vote happened...
I had no clue how rude the EU is being towards people from the UK. I think this is very uncalled for on the traffic patrol people. The touring musicians have no direct control over whether their country is part of the EU or not and should not be punished like they are. When I was traveling through Europe and we drove through multiple countries, I don’t remember being stopped by a border patrol type of set up. When we did have to get our passports checked, it took no more than 20 minutes. Making people from the UK wait for hours on end for no reason other than because they are part of the United Kingdom. From this article, it is good to have some hope that the Musician’s Union has plans to at least help touring groups travel with more ease. Sadly, it does not help the general public who wish to travel easily through the EU. I wonder if all this Brexit stuff impacts folks from the EU traveling through the UK the same way that the EU is making traveling hard for UK friends.
Brexit is such a frustrating issue that has been going on for years, and will be getting worse now that it is official. Back when the vote had just gone through, I saw several online posts and articles from ‘leave’ voters angry that they now had to pay money and wait to get through customs when they were leaving their country, and the response was “well what did you think was going to happen?”. The answer is that many people didn’t think about how it would affect them and their fellow citizens, because the issue was made out to be entirely about immigration and closing Britain’s borders to refugees. Now there are consequences, and it’s frustrating for the people, and specifically the touring people, who didn’t want this to happen in the first place, and are now feeling those consequences. I don’t think that the traffic control agencies are to blame here - Britain did this to itself, and the other countries are just doing what Britain wanted them to do, by treating them as a non-member of the EU. But the people being affected by this are not Britain as a whole, and did not make this decision by themselves.
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