Terrible news for music in the UK

[ahinton]

Given that the vast majority of musicians are self-employed and don't earn over the ridiculous £35,000 i'm not hopeful.
The £35,000 limit will (and it's proposed to apply it retrospectively) affect many salaried orchestral players as well.
I guess as the mantra of "multiculturalism isn't working" seems popular we can't see ensembles where there are people who obviously come from overseas playing in harmony can we?

Not sure what the MU take on this is?

Good points, not least MU's stance here, with which I'm unfamiliar; perhaps a member of it and of this forum should ask them...

[Beef Oven!]

Quite; the problems remains, however, that if there's no obviously credible opposition it becomes a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Depends how you mean credible. Corbyn seems to me to be an entirely credible alterntative, but not in the eyes of the media which controls the way that too many people think.

[P. G. Tipps]

Depends how you mean credible. Corbyn seems to me entirely credible, but not in the eyes of the media which controls most of how people think.

No, the UK media only thinks it can control the way people think ...

Thankfully, however, most people are not quite as stupid as the UK media.

[Beef Oven!]

No, the UK media only thinks it can control the way people think ...

Thankfully, however, most people are not quite as stupid as the UK media.

Maybe, but it doesn't always feel like that.

[Richard Barrett]

I hate this unreasonable, self-serving, selfish, arrogant, inconsiderate, corrupt, uncaring government.

Everything they do turns to excrement. And there's no worthwhile opposition. What a depressing mess.

This country is done for.

I would say that for the first time in ages there IS a "worthwhile opposition", that is to say one which isn't presenting a different flavour of prevailing government policies. It should however be separated from the image created of it in the corporate media, as Beef Oven points out.

It seems to me that the most likely reason for the policy under discussion is that the implications simply haven't been thought through, but this is all of a piece with the ignorance and contempt shown towards music - as opposed to pathetic attempts to make themselves look cool by having their spin doctors feed them a few names of what should be on their iPods - by the political elite almost without exception for some years. Remember that one of Cameron's Desert Island Discs was by Benny Hill.

Presumably there will be loopholes and/or some kind of fudge to get around the £35000 rule. And it's small potatoes compared to the way for example disabled people (UK citizens!) are being treated.

[teamsaint]

It will be, and is probably dsigned to be a shambles.

Incidentally,footballers , for example, have to meet much higher standards than earning £35k.
They have to have played 75% of competitive international fixtures for 2 years, and ( and this is completely random and unjust) that country has to be in the top 70 in the world.


I didn't know that Mitsuko Uchida was under the £35k threshold !!

[french frank]

There's no point in people getting uppity about political threads being closed down. Most of you know the rules.
I find you unfair and intimidating.