A petition to allow for free visa permits for theatre workers across the UK has gained a sizeable following over the last week. The petition specifically asks that the government negotiate a free cultural work permit that allows for visa free travel throughout all 27 EU member states. The visas would cover all touring professionals and artists. But will it make a difference?
The petition was set up after the United Kingdom’s Brexit deal was negotiated following four years of talks. There was a fear that freelance professionals would not be able to move freely on tours due to the time commitment and cost, therefore resulting in possible unemployment.
The petition states that “the UK has a huge music/event touring industry which has suffered immensely due to Covid. After the end of the transition period we face further hardship when trying to tour the EU on a professional basis with potentially each country asking for its own visa.”
The petition’s creator Tim Brennan explains that “as a freelancer I and many like me travel through the EU countless times a year on different tours and events, [but] this will become impossible due to cost and time if we do not have visa free travel..”
Several high profile artists, politicians and unions have rallied behind the call for the visas, claiming the theatre and touring industries have been neglected in the Brexit deal. This includes Tim Burgess, English musician and singer/songwriter best known as the lead singer of the alternative rock band The Charlatans, who tweeted his support for the petition.
The actors’ union, Equity, also backed the support for visas and said creative workers had been forgotten in the Brexit deal.
The Shadow Secretary of State for Housing and Homelessness, Thangham Debbonaire, is another one who supports the petition. She said that “after an awful year a further kick from the govt who appear to have simply written off EU touring in their Brexit trade deal.” Debbonaire added that many Labour MPs had backed the need for visas in the trade agreement including Shadow Culture Secretary Jo Stevens.
Under the current deal, individuals may make visa-free free business trips to the EU for 90 days in a six month period, but there are restrictions as to what they can do. You can attend meeting, conferences and conduct research but selling goods or services directly to the public will require a visa permit.
UK performers would be considered third country nationals which means adhering to the immigration rules of each EU member state where they work. Alongside the issue of working in EU countries there is also the problem of what can come in and out of the country, if certain equipment or instruments contain ivory or contraband materials they could be confiscated without the appropriate documentation. It is for these reasons, among others, that those who have signed the petition feel that theatre worker visas are necessary.
After a week the petition had reached over 170,000 signatures but after the UK officially left the EU in the new year it has since reached over 225,000. As per the rules with parliamentary petitions, any petition with more than 10,000 signatures will get a government response and any above 100,000 will be considered for a debate. It has been 10 days and there has been no update from the government on this petition.
It raises the question, do petitions work? In the past few years it has become the standard to rally behind a petition to effect change from those in higher power. Over 40,000 petitions have been created since the system was created by Parliament in 2015. Back in March a petition to revoke Article 50 due to the Brexit talks reaching an impass reached a record breaking 6 million signatures but as we can see this didn’t correlate into actual change. Cristina Leston Bandeira and Viktoria Spaiser of The Constitution Unit conducted research into the public opinion of the validity of parliamentary discussion of petition issues. Their research concluded that debates should be adapted to be more inclusive of the original petitions’ aims.
Petitions are a good way of engaging the public with parliamentary issues and with this petition it is hoped it will reach debate and ultimately enact what it set out to do, providing support for a creative industry that fears the impact Brexit will have on its output.
Words by Jaimie Kay.
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