The flagging Brexit press are caught out over the Proms

“Banned of Hope and Glory!” trumpeted the Daily Mail. “Remoaners’ evening ruined as EU flags confiscated at Last Night of the Proms” blared the Express. If you glanced at the right wing press last weekend, you’d have come away with the impression that what’s become a tradition at the Royal Albert Hall – the waving of the European flag – had been thwarted.

Yet those inside the venue or watching on TV will have seen a quite different story. The Last Night featured all its usual Pomp and Circumstance – the streamers, the honkers and yes, thousands of blue flags with gold stars being waved by concertgoers.

The bulk of these flags were organised by Thank EU for the Music, a pro-EU group of music lovers highlighting the plight of UK and EU touring musicians whose careers and livelihoods have been blighted by Brexit red tape.

The issue concerns the lack of freedom of movement and the extra paperwork facing touring musicians. This red tape – arranging carnets, work visas, cabotage permits, CITES certificates, and VAT registrations relating to the sale of merchandise – means that more than half of UK musicians have decided to no longer tour the EU, according to recent research by the Musicians’ Union and The Independent Society of Musicians.

The Brexit press branded Thank EU for the Music a “noxious grievance lobby”, claimed the European flag had been banned by the Albert Hall as a flag of “protest and hatred” and told readers that they were being confiscated by security on the day. But Charlie Rome, 40, a spokesperson for the group, dismissed this as “absurd.”

“Do you think we would have gone to all of this trouble and expense without first checking with the Royal Albert Hall whether the European flag is banned from the Last Night of the Proms?” he said. “Clearly, the flag is not a symbol of hatred.”

Thank EU for the Music is now urging Keir Starmer’s Labour government to fulfil a manifesto pledge and make things better for UK and EU touring musicians. In an interview with LBC in April 2024, Starmer said: “There are brilliantly talented individuals in bands, groups, drama, you name it, who are going to other countries to perform often for a few days, then coming back or going to another country. They are nothing really to do with immigration, yet are simply going to play in other countries, and those other countries want them there. So, we have to make that easier. It’s been very tough, particularly for musicians. So, anything we can do to ease that, the better.”

Since Labour has been in power, however, they have remained mute on the subject. It feels like the government is walking on eggshells, which allows the right wing media’s false claims to germinate as they did during the Brexit campaign, prolonging the impasse.

Meanwhile, our touring musicians and the creative industry in general continue to be strangled by red tape.