I’ve just got back from a holiday, replenishing my Vitamin D in the Canaries. Although I had a wonderfully relaxing time I didn’t want to cut myself off completely from things happening back in the UK.

Like most hotels across the world, we were offered just two English language TVchannels – BBC World and Sky News – which was a bit limiting. Unlike business hotels, holiday hotels  took a while to realise that their customers would value free Wi-Fi anywhere on site, but that is now pretty standard. So I could also listen online to the radio live and on catch-up whenever I wanted through the BBC and other channels. But that did not apply to TV programmes.

Whenever I tried to access www.bbc.co.uk, I was redirected to www.bbc.com, so I wasn’t able to watch UK based BBC television programmes live or on catch-up. This didn’t exactly spoil my holiday but I was rather keen to see the final two episodes of Apple Tree Yard, which had left us with a cliffhanger. No doubt other holidaymakers would have appreciated a chance to follow their own favourite soaps and series, as well as news from their home towns.

So I was intrigued to catch a press release from Catherine Bearder which has largely been ignored by the media. The 28 EU member countries have agreed a protocol which will allow residents travelling to other EU countries to view catch-up TV, online, from their home countries. The proposal now needs to do the rounds of EU governments and the EU Parliament, so it will probably come into law in 2018.

She says:

This is fantastic news for British consumers whilst we are still members of the EU.

The frustration of missing your favourite shows when abroad will soon be a thing of the past.

Breaking down barriers and making life easier for consumers is what being in Europe is all about – we must make sure our Brexit Government does not lose these things in the negotiations.

The irony has not escaped me. Maybe she is right to be optimistic, but I will need some convincing that we won’t lose this minor pleasure through the heavy hand of Brexit.

* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.