Performers Forced to Cancel Trips Due to Visa Controls. The UK Government’s hostile environment is having a ‘truly devastating’ impact on the ability to attract international guests to Edinburgh’s festivals, according to an SNP MSP who will lead a debate at Holyrood today (Thursday). Since the Tory government introduced hard-line visa controls, visa applications for performers have been hit by refusals, errors and delays, with some acclaimed international writers, actors and musicians forced to cancel trips to festivals across the capital. Festival organisers have previously described the visa process for performers who want to appear at Edinburgh arts festivals as “humiliating” and “
SNP MSP Gordon Macdonald has called on voters in Edinburgh to back the SNP as the “only party in Scotland who can stop Brexit” ahead of Thursday’s European election. The SNP’s manifesto was launched today (Friday) setting out the party’s key pledges in the election. The 5,000-word document sets out the SNP’s four political priorities: To keep working with others across the UK to stop Brexit. Back a People’s Vote that will give the option to Remain. Offer people a choice of a future for Scotland as an independent, European nation. Support revoking Article 50 if a no-deal Brexit is the only alternative. And the document identifies six key policy pledges for SNP MEPs: CLIMATE – Support an EU-wi
Scots could be £800 worse off if Brexit deal goes ahead. Edinburgh, Fife and Tayside would be worse hit than any other part of the UK by Labour’s proposed Brexit deal, stunning new analysis has found. A new report has warned that all regions will end up poorer if the UK leaves the EU with a Tory-Labour Brexit deal – with the east of Scotland facing a £1 billion hit to GDP. Labour today confirmed they remain committed to Brexit, with the party wishing to leave the single market but remain in a customs union. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research analysis has found such a deal would mean an £80bn hit to the economy after 10 years, economists have said. The analysis
Ahead of a visit by Scotland Office minister Ian Duncan to Heriot-Watt university tomorrow, the SNP has posed a number of key Brexit questions that remain unanswered – despite the Tory commitment to drag Scotland out of the EU against its will. Key questions over university research funding, trade, free movement, and industry still remain unanswered by the UK government, despite almost three years having passed since the Brexit referendum. The UK government’s own analysis shows that growth in Scotland could be hit to the tune of £12.7 billion per year, or 9% GDP, with 80,000 jobs being put at risk. These devastating effects will be acutely felt in the higher education sector – with Scottish
SNP has urged people in Edinburgh to register to vote by 7 May for the upcoming European Parliament elections, warning it’s the only way to ensure Scotland’s voice is heard in Europe. Research published today revealed that 600,000 Scots who are eligible to vote in this month’s elections have not registered yet. Unlike the Brexit referendum, EU citizens living in the UK can vote in European parliamentary elections. To be able to vote in the European Parliament elections, people must be registered to vote by midnight on 7 May. The elections will take place on 23 May. SNP MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Gordon Macdonald, said, “People in Scotland overwhelmingly voted to remain in the Euro
