Bill Harvey: Another brick

Some readers may not know this but our publisher, MAG, is responsible for quite a range of publications including some excellent music titles. It was while reading Songlines magazine last year that I first heard of problems for UK festivals, particularly Womad, in getting top musicians from around the world to play in the UK because of difficulties with access visas and permits.

I was reminded of this last week upon hearing that some leading academics have had to cancel keynote appearances at scientific conferences for similar reasons. Indeed, several foreign scholars were denied entry to a global symposium on health systems research in Liverpool earlier this month. The World Health Organisation has expressed alarm at the restriction of movements in and out of the UK for scientists.