Westminstenders: Red Squirrels are British. Groundhogs are not.

[RedToothBrush]

Well the good news is we haven't got a GE yet, and it looks unlike one will be called this week. Purely because we haven't got a crisis point looming this week.

May has officially confirmed plan A is plan B. But says she will try and get more on the backstop whilst working with the DUP. Barnier and Ireland have said 'no'

We now prepare for the Meaningful Vote II.

And a week of speculation about amendments.

Here's a quick summary of likely ones:
Guardian Article on possible amendments

I think the Labour one will struggle to gain Tory support. The big thing about it is leans the party line firmly towards a customs union.

The Grieve one is handicapped by talk of a minority of 300 taking control of Parliament. Otherwise it might have support.

The two most interesting are:

The Benn 'Indicative Vote' as its reflective of the Brexit Select Committee recommendations.

The Cooper-Boles Block No Deal amendment which is cross party and seeks to place a final date on May passing her deal by 26th Feb, after which Parliament will take control. This I believe is being supported by Labour as a whole.

Bercow of course gets to say which amendments are debated and voted on but Benn and Cooper-Boles have broad support so are unlikely to be ignored by him. The two together seem to compliment each other.

The rest of this week is likely to be lobbying on this but otherwise fairly calm. Though someone is bound to throw a few curveball in there with leaks.

The only other thing to watch out for is talk of up to 40 ministers quitting if they are not allowed a free vote on some sort of indicative vote motion. This seems to be being lead by Amber Rudd. But I don't expect this to come to a head until the weekend at the earliest.

In other words, we have a couple of days of calm before the storm. Expect it to ramp up again at the weekend in craziness.

Oh it's all about democracy and sovereignty don't you know.

FOTTFSOFATFOSM

Recruiters we well ahead on this - I was advised ages ago to make dual nationality prominent on my cv (I note that despite saying it would be "nice" LinkedIn don't have this feature).

There was a comment on here over a year ago that a no-deal Brexit would inadvertently make UK citizens unable to work in the EU. I think it was quickly dismissed as "project fear".

Food and drinks industry say May is ignoring them about a no deal catastrophe and they're totally unprepared amp.businessinsider.com/brexit-uk-food-companies-increasingly-scared-about-no-deal-theresa-may-2019-1?__twitter_impression=true

You really do have to wonder what May is thinking? Has she really lost it?

Just reminded DH to look into getting a work visa for EU, thanks people.
He can work in the US with his work visa here and also in other countries he has work/travel visas for. It is so depressing that the EU has to be added to the list. I think we were both not facing into that.

That BI link is so scary, but it's baffling why these quotes aren't screaming mass media headlines everywhere *
*
The chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, Ian Wright:*
*
warned that the industry was completely unprepared for a no-deal exit.
....
"We [food and drink companies] are at the pointed end of this.
We are not going to be even remotely ready,
We keep telling them [the government] that it is potentially catastrophic, but it is difficult to know just how much they're listening."
...
"I believe the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit is now over 60%
< me too* * >
...
it is now too late to prepare many areas of the UK food and drink business for that potential scenario,

For example, certain labels that food and drink companies put on their products will become illegal on March 29 if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
However, it could take months for new labels to be produced.

One senior industry figure

one in five UK food and drink companies with 20% or more their exports sold to the EU would collapse within weeks of the UK opting for a no-deal.
....
""We are potentially f@@@
It is not a case that time is running out. For many of these things, time is up,"
.....
The Food and Drink Federation now estimates

within the first six to eight weeks of a no-deal Brexit, food prices could rise by up to 10%
and certain foods will run out, the most likely being fresh fruit and vegetables.

Indeed! TM suffers the biggest Commons defeat in modern history and it's as though nothing has changed.

mother I don't think living & working in the EU would be a problem at all, especially if your DH works for a company with an office in the E27.
However, commuting would be a problem.

Can you get a temp job yourself, maybe tutoring English ?
Working definitely helps one fit in

Maybe settle for visits home every 2-3 months, until hopefully soon there is a more longterm agreement ?
Even with No Deal, the UK govt would be crawling back by the end of the year, to sign up to everything in the W and more
So the hiatus should only be 1-2 years at worst

It's incredibly disturbing how James Patrick's info he had months ago is becoming truer by the day.

Thanks bigchoc for reassurance really did get my knickers in a twist there for a bit!

The hospitality industry is suffering too. Who would book for the UK now?

Having looked into the working situation more DH shouldn't need a visa because he is only attending meetings, it is people who do contract work and want to be paid in an EU country that are going to have issues.
Multi-nationals have their upsides.

I wonder what EU tourist bookings are like for Easter onwards. Last year Cornwall had a huge number of EU tourists. It'll hit the industry hard if people aren't booking because they don't know what's going to happen. Although I wouldn't book if I were them. I should think it's safer to book to the EU as a brit rather than vice versa.

Joining mother and everyone else on the "Pissed off with Brexit" corner

I would love link, too please. DH is busy organising a meeting in the EU for April and I had to point out to him that he might need a work visa. He was not best pleased.

Yes Mother. Pretty much.

Just checking with DH on this (as he has been given some advice on this, which I'm not entirely following but I think I have the jist of, so I hope I've got this right).

What he has been given seems to differ slightly from the above.

The Schengen visa is the most common visa for Europe. It enables its holder to enter, freely travel within, and leave the Schengen zone from any of the Schengen member countries. There are no border controls within the Schengen Zone.

However if you are planning to study, work, or live in one of the Schengen countries for more than 90 days, then you must apply for a national visa of that European country and not a Schengen Visa.

I pushed DH a little on this asking what his status would be if he was doing business visit rather than working and he seems to he might be ok, BUT he might not be eligible for a visa waiver (I think there are some restrictions on when and who can apply for a visa waiver - in which case he would need a country visa still but not a blue eu visa but I'm not 100% sure on this. He's currently away so its difficult for me to completely clarify with him).

The blue Eu visa would be more like the equivalent of a us green card and for anyone planning to live / work permenantly in an EU country and you would need that plus an individual country visa not a Schengen one as the person in the thread above seems to suggest.

He also thinks the problem applies primarily to contractors who are living and working in the EU. He says to get a blue Eu visa you need a degree, a job offer and a £50k per year job (the last bit I've not seen stated elsewhere but he was adament about it). Which he points out is more than most developers in Holland get paid. Which might mean some of his friends who are working out in the EU currently might lose their job in the event of no deal as they don't match that criteria.

Some countries are I believe signing up to allow British cits to stay regardless of no deal but its certainly not true of all EU countries, and its not entirely clear how that applies to your work status - it seems to merely cover residency.

Certainly the situation is a mess and no deal could literally put some British Expats out of work over night and effectively stranded in the EU in a worse case scenario.

It appears that this is an area that is being worked on - I would assume because this geninely is a case where the EU does need those workers and its in their interest to make a mini deal outside the parameters of a withdrawal agreement (but potentially we need those workers more and this could be a good way to force some repatriation of highly skilled labour).

I don't know. The whole situation is disgusting.

It also does mean that anyone thinking of jetting off to the EU for a few months to escape any chaos without a visa here might have an issue doing so.

I would have thought there will be at least some further clarification on this over the coming weeks but yes on D1ND there really could be a lot of problems at passport control if more isn't done and we do indeed no deal.

I hope that is of some use.

Anyone seen this?!

twitter.com/DrJMGF/status/1088008454474735616?s=19

www.schengenvisainfo.com/

What is a Schengen Visa?

A Schengen visa is a short-stay visa that allows a person to travel to any members of the Schengen Area, per stays up to 90 days for tourism or business purposes.

The Schengen visa is the most common visa for Europe. It enables its holder to enter, freely travel within, and leave the Schengen zone from any of the Schengen member countries. There are no border controls within the Schengen Zone.

However, if you are planning to study, work, or live in one of the Schengen countries for more than 90 days, then you must apply for a national visa of that European country and not a Schengen Visa.

DH and I have been thinking of a move to the EU at short notice in case of No Deal, but the visa issues make it much harder.

We are in a fortunate position where he would almost certainly have no problem getting a blue card but the situation with no deal still makes us very wary that it would be a solution and could just end up turning into a nightmare.

Isn’t it the case that Brexit would make it easier for the EU to sort out a free trade deal with India?
Plenty of well educated graduates in India able and willing to take those jobs...