We don’t often cover our country’s performance at the Eurovision Song Contest here on LDV, but Nigel Jones (the other one) used it as an opportunity to ask a serious question in the Lords. He asked Brexit minister Lord David Frost:
Is the minister making any progress on negotiating a new deal for the creative sector touring Europe?
While he’s thinking of a plausible answer to that, when he decided in the negotiations to reject the EU’s generous offer and threw touring musicians under a bus, did he anticipate, is he surprised by or does he accept any responsibility at all for the humiliation of our country scoring zero – nul points – in the Eurovision song contest?
David Frost replied:
I am happy to accept responsibility for many things but I don’t think I can reasonably have accepted the effect of the result on Saturday night.
Of course we work to support all our creative industries in the situation that now prevails.
I have written before about the almost insurmountable challenges facing musicians who want to tour in Europe and the consequences for a large sector in the creative industries.
* 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.
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6 Comments
A really daft parallel, by a peer, to say the policies of the Uk on toring the EU nations might have led juries and voters to vote anyone but the UK?!
EUrophilia is pathetic and makes this party seem silly.
You can say exactly the same about Europhobia and how that has affected the UK fishing industry so it cuts both ways.
Sorry Lorenzo, I disagree. I think a flippant point was being made to illustrate a very serious point about the difficulties for touring musicians. Without the flippant context, I don’t think we would be reading this.
I would agree with Lorenzo that this is not great and I hope there was more to the exchange than is reported here.
Otherwise, Nigel Jones simply invited David Frost to give a silly response to the silly Eurovision question and gloss over an important topic without looking evasive. Nul points.
I really don’t think that a poor performance by a mediocre act, which received zero points because only the most favoured acts are voted for by any panel, has any relevance to our loss of Freedom of Movement and the inability of UK musicians, and many other trades, to work in the EU.
It only demeans any campaign for the restoration of Freedom of Movement (to work, rest, and play) by referring to Eurovision.
It would be better to concentrate on the problem, the inability of anyone on both sides of the English Channel, to freely live, work or visit on the other side. Maybe recruit Tim Martin as a campaigner, he seems to have now changed his mind on EU workers!
The Covid situation isn’t looking at all good. But here on LDV this is all ignored and the topic that really matters is the poor UK result in the Eurovision Song Contest!