Speeches by Smith.

“Presumably, Naomi, you deal with the European equivalent to the Musicians’ Union; can you get it to come to the table and talk about the mutual benefits of sorting this problem out?”

“How much cost does it add on to a tour? I suppose it is different for an orchestra and for a band, but at what point does it become unviable just because of cabotage?”

“1961.”

“Have you tried and they have not wanted to?”

“That plays into the idea that some artists are now just not touring the EU because of these problems.”

“I have some questions I want to move on to, but that is really interesting. You mentioned Live Nation and Spotify, which are very different parts of the industry. Who could co-ordinate that? Could you get the three big record companies to try to pull everybody together to give advice and support to artists?”

“I was actually going to ask about the dreaded carnets, which is my topic. I will start with you, Hanna, because you talked about how carnets and CITES are maybe the biggest problems for orchestras. We are just trying to get a picture of how these problems affect tour budgets and scheduling. How does it work for a big o…”

“Kate and Naomi, you both mentioned the issue of border checks and delays. Could you give us an indication of how big that problem is?”

“How often do those delays and issues happen?”

“Kate, you mentioned that you now source merchandise in Europe for your tours, is that right? Is that something that a lot of musicians are doing? We just want to get an indication of the problems that the merch rules cause for musicians.”

“Are you confident the Government are engaging properly on this and trying to make the changes that you are proposing?”

“I was just going to come on to cabotage. I do not know if there is anything more you want to say about the problems it causes; you have already touched on that, but you talked about temporary solutions. Are there workarounds that can be put in place to make that happen?”

“Presumably, Naomi, you deal with the European equivalent to the Musicians’ Union; can you get it to come to the table and talk about the mutual benefits of sorting this problem out?”

“How much cost does it add on to a tour? I suppose it is different for an orchestra and for a band, but at what point does it become unviable just because of cabotage?”

“1961.”

“11. What recent progress he has made on the delivery of the infected blood compensation scheme.”

“I have a number of constituents affected by the infected blood scandal. Justice for them and for the other victims is long overdue, so I am pleased that the Government are making progress on this issue. May I ask how many interim £100,000 payments have been made to date to the estates of people who have sadly passed aw…”

“T7. It will be impossible to get the necessary aid into Gaza until the Rafah crossing is fully open. Will the Minister update us on progress in trying to persuade the Netanyahu Government to do the right thing and open the Rafah crossing?”

“I suspected the answer was going to be no.”

“I just want to dig into that a little bit. It works in Scotland, clearly, but on a UK level, we are entering even more than ever into an era of devolution. You have talked about the mayoral authorities, which are all very ambitious for their regions and will be competitive against each other. I am from Manchester and A…”