ON FEBRUARY 12, the Guardian published an illuminating and soul-destroying article by Joseph Middleton. 

The director of Leeds Lieder festival highlights how the nature of the current Brexit agreement is implemented has created insane scenarios, including having to fork out £600 for a gig he had had in the diary for two years. 

The article goes on to describe how a lot of the chaos has been hidden away because so many cancellations were a result of Covid-19, and not because performers lost out on work due to bureaucracy. 

Middleton has not been the first person in the music industry to criticise the nature of the Brexit agreement. 

For those who have not followed the discussions, the biggest issue is the lack of clarity and consistency in what is needed for travel and work. 

Despite the EU being a single economic bloc, each state has been free to enforce different rules, meaning working in one nation has different rules from others. 

From the point of view of travel across the globe, this is not that surprising, as many states have varying rules on travel and work. 

However, this reality is still extremely sour, especially for an industry that is so dependent on travel. 

On the same day that the Guardian published this article, Classical-Music.uk republished an article from 2018 that highlighted a troubling situation in Yorkshire, where Bingley Grammar School was charging pupils £5 per week to be able to study for a music GCSE. 

This was met with a lot of outrage and indignation. However, the culling and decimation of the music-education sector has continued. This really highlights the nature of the biggest problem the arts on this island in general. 

Music as an industry has struggled to be egalitarian, and music education has undergone heavy attacks on all fronts — be it via cuts to county music services, demonising music as “unacademic,” or increasing strain on amateur groups to keep running despite rising rents and generally lower participation. 

Much inequality and strife within our industry is a reflection of material circumstance. 

However, as we are now being met with this lopsided Brexit agreement, many musicians will struggle to continue in the industry. 

As a result, it is becoming more difficult to share our culture with others, and the arts are drifting further and further away from the British public. 
 
The solution to the situation is difficult, especially if we want to build the music industry in a way that actually encourages the British public en masse to support it. 

The People’s Vote campaign was a disaster for many, and ultimately showed that many of those who longed to remain in the EU thought solely about their holidays abroad and never considered how freedom of movement can be used to attack workers. 

The Musician’s Passport campaign by the Musicians Union is a good step in the right direction, as it would simplify the nature of touring — however, that does not address issues at home, which are increasingly pertinent, as travel is still very difficult during the pandemic. 

The solution is ultimately quite simple: we need an infrastructure that allows the arts to live on this country, regardless of ability to travel abroad. 

We are a nation of 65 million people, how are nations — whether with larger or smaller populations — better equipped to provide long-lasting work for their artists? 

We are also one of the richest nations in the world — so how are we unable to afford such a luxury? 

Many well-meaning campaigners highlight how much money the arts contribute to our economy, which is without a doubt true. But this inadvertently portrays the value of our nations’ art as solely of economic value. 

This means cuts and other forms of decimation of the industry are just seen as cost-effective management, not an attack on a humanistic endeavour. 

The arts in this country have value simply because they are ours. 

The evolution of art is a result of many things but is always born out of its surroundings and its time. 

Mozart would not be Mozart if he had been Jamaican. He could have been born in a different time, location and still retain the same natural talent, but his work would have been different because the surrounding influences would have been different. 

British art, English art, Welsh art, Scottish art, Cornish art, Northumbrian art, or Shetlandic art can only be born in the environments which gave birth to them. 

Our art can only be made in our home, and thus decimation of the ability to make such an art deprives so much more as humans than it would economically. 

The arts need to redress this situation, and we in the broader labour movement should hold onto that modest statement: we value our nation’s art, because it is ours. 

Ben Lunn is a member of the Musicians Union equalities committee and NLTUC chair.