Thread by @StevePeers

In the "who proposed what re musicians' visas" argument, the Downing Street quote here is very vague
independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

However this claim from the culture minister is untrue. The EU proposal to clarify the meaning of "paid activities" related to a limited number of people for a short term, not to free movement of workers generally.

Here's the proposed text, which as you can see only refers to certain groups of people. It refers back to the proposed text on short term travel, not to longer term migration.

https://twitter.com/jimbrunsden/status/1349653561181937666?s=19

Here's the UK proposal re exemption for visas for musicians. You'll notice it's er, blank. But this is the original proposal; the text was likely filled in later on in the talks.

https://twitter.com/mckinneytweets/status/1349758401383968769?s=20

So to recap:

UK (probably) proposed binding text exempting musicians from visas, in the services part of the Brexit deal. EU didn't like it.

EU proposed non-binding text (probably) exempting musicians from visas, linked to the *visas* part of its proposal. UK didn't like it.

UK could, as a second-best outcome from its perspective, have agreed to the EU visas proposal with its non-binding declaration, which only concerned short-term visas.

A good compromise would be for both sides to agree on a declaration re musicians and short-term visas anyway.