John Bercow has announced he is standing down from his position as Speaker of the House of Commons (before he is pushed) after a decade which has seen him move from political right to being seen as a scourge of the Brexiteer Tories. Though the role is supposed to be impartial. He will preside over the most contentious two weeks in Westminster history in living memory from the Queen’s Speech on October 14th to Boris’s do-or-die-in-a-ditch October 31st EU exit date. He has been accused on having a bullying manner by MPs and by his own staff.
Born 19 January 1963 he is a late degree Sun Capricorn; with a pushily-confident Jupiter opposition Pluto square Venus in Sagittarius – he can turn on the charm and does like to party but he can also be power-hungry. He also has a bad-tempered and hard Mars in flamboyant Leo opposition Saturn square an elusive, slippery Neptune (Moon) in Scorpio.
His Speaker’s chart, 22 June 2009, indicated he would be a controlling Speaker and divisive with Sun (Moon) opposition Pluto square Uranus. Plus a drama and argument-filled Venus Mars in Taurus trine Saturn. It was never going to be a peaceful run with rolling crises from Uranus square Pluto and emotional intensity from Venus Mars in Taurus.
Bercow’s relationship with Boris is under a dark cloud from mid August to late October with tr Saturn square the composite Sun Jupiter, which also tugs on the composite Mars. So there won’t be a rapprochement before he goes with some talk of the usual transition of the outgoing Speaker to the House of Lords being blocked.
I read the Barry Goddard piece. Nothing there about Bercow at all. It’s a fait accompli article about the inevitability of Brexit and how Johnson will triumph for more than a few months. What’s fascinating is that there were no comments, none of the interaction you get on this site. Speaks volumes.
Well just to balance things out a little…
John Bercow was intitially a good Speaker in many ways but with Brexit he made no attempt to hide his partisanship. He has twisted accepted parliamentary convention in order to side with a Remainers in Parliament (see Professor David Starkey on this) and has openly showed his disdain for Brexiteers. From the notorious ‘Bollocks to Brexit’ sticker in the family car to telling a group of students that he was a Remain voter he has openly flouted the essential convention that the Speaker is neutral and therefore can command the respect and trust of the whole House. He has been accused of bullying his staff and several have left after having signed NDA’s – however Remainers in Parliament have blocked this being investigated as he is too valuable too them, Margaret Beckett, a senior Labour politician has openly admitted this.
Bercow has worked in tandem with Remainers to stop Brexit and in doing so has pitted Parliament against the people – hence tr. Pluto opposing the UK moon and conjunct the sun. You won’t hear it on the BBC but beyond the Westminster bubble there is genuine fury that the vote to leave – the biggest democratic vote ever in this country – is being traduced in such a way by a Remain parliament that refuses to carry out its promise to carry out Brexit.
Funny kind of ‘coup’ when the Opposition MP’s won’t allow the government a general election to settle matters for good and the Speaker whose decisions cannot be challenged (hence the need for decency and neutrality) drives a ‘horse and coaches through the constitution and helps to push through a ‘surrender’ bill to tie the government’s hands in negotiation with the EU.
For a more nuanced take on Brexit, Barry Goddard is always a good read – https://astrotabletalk.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-uk-sun-moon-mutable-boris-rides.html#links
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I watched the Westminster fiasco last night / this morning until 1:45am. When Bercow returned from the Lords (proroguing) to the Commons the norm would be for all politicians to follow behind him. Around half a dozen Tories appeared with the rest basically boycotting it / Bercow (no doubt orchestrated). It was utterly disgraceful and I felt quite sorry for Bercow as he waited (and kept turning around to see if they were coming) for them before he made his speech.
Something stinks about Westminster and I’m not just referring to their overflowing sewers and so on. The whole system needs to be dismantled and reassembled with something in line with the Scottish system, ironically enforced upon Scotland by Westminster. They should start with the Lords with over 800 unelected parasites lolling on benches and that includes Church of England Bishops (no Roman Catholics, Muslims, Church of Scotland etc). The only country in the world other than Iran to include clergy in their legislature. The second largest legislature in the world after China, but actually outdoes it per capita. Says it all.
Some say Bercow is a bully. Others say that he was one of the most hardworking and effective speakers in living memory. I’m not in a position to say if he is a bully or not but liked him as he was such a character; one that added a little sparkle to the archaic doldrums.
With the possibility of Boris blocking Bercow’s traditional progression to the Lord’s as per tradition / convention. No surprise there as Johnson and his cronies are making it it their business to tear up parliamentary convention/ tradition. As we have no written constitution in U.K, this willingness of the Conservative Party to plough on through whatever obstacle , convention or not, is in their way should be of grave concern to all.
I think he was a great speaker. I heard that boris is trying to stop a peerage/knighthood for bercow because he was so firm with him. I hope that doesn’t happen.