Westminster sleaze is backing up from the sewers in a steady flow on cue for the sex-and-money Scorpio/Taurus Eclipses. One MP watching porn on the parliamentary benches was outed which followed hard on the heels of another MP being convicted of sexually assaulting a 15 year old boy. Then the home of Michelle Mone, a House of Lorder, was raided along with four properties connected to her and her husband in the Isle of Man. The National Crime Agency is investigating a company set up in May 2020 by a business associate of Mone’s that received more than £200mn in contracts awarded – without competitive tender and on a “high-priority” fast-track process – to supply PPE to the government during the crisis. And that’s all above and beyond Russian donors, Partygate, Boris’ lies, Greensill etc etc etc etc.
I’ve lumped them all together since none is worth a slot on their own.
Neil Parish, 26 May 1958, now suspended from the party and facing ridicule as the “porn MP” is being supported by his wife. A former MEP he’s been at Westminster since 2010. He’s a Sun Gemini with an extraordinarily robust chart with a pushily confident Jupiter Pluto in Leo opposition a beyond-stubborn Mars in Aquarius square Saturn in Scorpio which opposes his Mercury Sun; plus a highly-strung Uranus square Neptune and a Sagittarius Sun.
He says he may step down next year and in life is certainly in turmoil with tr Pluto in a devastated square to his Neptune now and in 2023 when it is joined by tr Pluto in an apple-cart-upsetting opposition to his Uranus. Tr Saturn is also wending its way round his Fixed planets and next year his Sun – for a discouraging couple of years. Plus his Solar Arc Pluto is square his Uranus now which is another topple-off-perch indicator.
Imran Ahmad Khan, 6 September 1973, has already resigned from his constituency, causing a bye election in June, following his conviction for underage sexual assault. He only became an MP in 2019, the first Tory to take a traditionally Labour seat, he claimed because of his pro-Brexit views.
He’s a Virgo with a challenging and crises-ridden chart with two Yods – Neptune sextile Jupiter inconjunct Saturn South Node, and Saturn sextile Mars in Taurus inconjunct Neptune. He’s also got a controlling and stubborn T Square of Saturn opposition North Node (Moon) square Pluto. He had a background in Russian and war studies, UN interventions in Somalia and Afghanistan, counter terrorism and advertising – which fits with an attracted-to-risk and tough-conditions chart.
Michelle Mone, 8 October 1971 4.55pm Glasgow, became known for her lingerie firm and elevation by David Cameron to a life peerage in the House of Lords in the face of a good deal of criticism in 2015. She denies all knowledge and/or connection to the PPE scandal despite having set up the fast-track links.
She has the bulldozer Mars in Aquarius in her 1st house trine a jam-packed 8th house with a Sun, Uranus, Mercury in Libra there as well as Venus at one end and Pluto at the other. She also has the George Osborne/Dominic Cummings’ over-hopeful, slippery Jupiter Neptune in Sagittarius opposition Saturn in Gemini – and a Moon Gemini.
An overwhelmingly Air chart – cool, detached, not given to sentiment. With a heavy 8th house for an interest in business finances and secrecy.
Tr Saturn is now moving into her lower profile First Quadrant for years ahead throwing up setbacks this year as the tr Saturn square tr Uranus collides with her Mars. She’ll get the financial benefit of Jupiter through her 2nd at the moment till mid 2023; but thereafter Saturn will start to bite with shortages running on for some years ahead. But the likelihood is she’ll slide out from under.
Not sure what this hill of rancid beans adds up to. Maybe on the UK chart the Eclipses tugging on the 8th house Mars and 2nd house Neptune. Wherefore art thou Hercules?
“Not sure what this hill of rancid beans adds up to. Maybe on the UK chart the Eclipses tugging on the 8th house Mars and 2nd house Neptune.”
Thanks Marjorie for that possibility! All MP’s have just had a pay rise, and will now earn a ‘basic’ £84,000 a year. The average wage in London is around £40,000pa, dropping to £27, 515 in the North East region (Statista.com). Many MPs have other, extra sources of income too. Really, I don’t think most of them have a clue about people’s real lives. And the subsidised booze really doesn’t help – average London price for a gin and tonic is between £7 – £10, House of Commons restaurant – £5.50. I’m not sure how the subsidies are calculated, or how much the taxpayer contributes exactly. But it does all seem quite Neptunian, one way or another.
The devil makes work for idle hands. Part of the problem is that unless MPs have a government or shadow cabinet post then many have quite a lot of spare time on their hands. Obviously they should be using those periods resolving issues for their constituents and representing their locality. Sadly quite a few regard the grind of dealing with these matters beneath them and prefer to fob the work off on their back office staff or local councillors etc. This inevitably leaves lots of opportunity for them to get up to various types of mischief. Perhaps it is time MPs were actually subject to some sort of performance marking that ranks them on their attendance, turnaround of MP cases, constituent satisfaction etc and that their pay was adjusted accordingly. After all that is how the rest of us are normally assessed in the workplace.
Many MPs are lonely of an evening. They have to leave their partners and families in their constituencies and find themselves at a loose end. Hence the heavy drinking in Commons bars – and the hanky-panky.
Politics by its nature attracts a number people who are are likely to be more interested in self advancement power, money and all the sundry associate vices rather than serving the people who elect them. In the past it was hoped that constituency associations would weed out poor candidates but this basic quality control has become harder to apply as the Westminster party machines increasingly control the selection process. People like to pitch this issue on party lines blaming the other team but exonerating their own side but from past experience it seems the longer a particular party is in power the more likely sleaze is to become an issue. The nature of Parliament with its long hours, subsidised bars, gossiping, petty vendettas etc does not help. Scandal is at its most deadly when a government is battling real economic and political problems as well. In a time of high inflation, economic uncertainty and wars in Europe people are not likely to have much tolerance for individual MPs personal failures. That said they also are not likely to look kindly on cheap political point scoring and holier than thou prouncements from the rest of the Westminster gang either.
Khan is a local boy – born and schooled in his constituency. Both his parents worked at the local hospital and were well known and well respected.
Despite that, I agree constituency parties should select their own candidates and not have them imposed by Westminster. One of the reasons for that imposition was the dearth of female MPs in ‘Red Wall’ areas. Mary Creagh, from Islington and the predecessor of Khan, was only selected following the introduction of an all female candidate list by the LP headquarters – much to the annoyance of the local LP ‘worthies’ (ie mining communities).
Electors were caught between ‘the devil and the deep blue sea’: a local Tory male or an Islington female. Mind you most also had a strong antipathy to Corbyn and his acolytes. The forthcoming by- election should be interesting
@Liz, I really have to thank you for your local insight on British politics! I can see similarities to what’s happening here in Finland, with traditional worker parties forgetting about their base. The pro-Brexit Labour constituents in North turning to a “suitable” local Tory strike me as a very similar phenomena we had here in Finland with Finns Party on many traditional industrial eras. Social Democrats, traditional hegemony party, seemed to forget about them in the early 2000’s, and especialy Kymi region in southeast with a very strong paper mill industry saw unions were taken over by then True Finns (they changed the name). But after one of them – actually a moderate and likeable guy – had a stint as Labour Minister with a rightwing government, there was a backlash at elections 2019, led mainly by local female health care professionals.
My particular annoyance with politics centres on the notion that individual personalities (particularly Party leaders) are more important than the Party. Not so – political parties have to adapt and adjust to changing times. If a leader proves to be incompetent, inefficient or ineffective then he/she should stand down.
Why some cling on to power beyond their sell by date is beyond me. Take Corbyn for example. The Parliamentary Labour Party passed a vote of no confidence in him by a majority of nearly 80% – but the man refused to do the decent thing and resign. Admittedly he did stand for re-election as leader (his name was automatically included in the ballot) but a vote by 300,000 or so Labour Party members (less than 1 % of the total UK electorate) ensured his return to office.
Did those members of the Labour Party think the electorate was naive? Did they really expect the traditional voters in the Labour Party (the base vote) to go along with the renegades who backed Corbyn against the wishes of elected Labour MPs? Were they so gullible as to believe Corbyn and his cronies had the right to rule however unpopular they might be in the country as a whole? If so the Tory landslide in 2019 proved them wrong.
Labour won’t regain power in this country unless and until the Party changes the rules regarding the election and removal of it’s leaders. Democracy demands no less.
NB I am reminded of Tony Benn, who repeatedly restated his belief that those in positions of economic, social and political power should always be asked five questions:
“What power have you got?”
“Where did you get it from?”
“In whose interests do you use it?”
“To whom are you accountable?”
“How do we get rid of you?”
Exactly.well said.
John Curtice on the BBC: “Labour hasn’t done quite as well as Jeremy Corbyn did.” The extent of centrist political analysis is to blame ‘long Corbyn’. No wonder people are completely turned off by politics. It sems neither the Conservatives or Labour seem to be fit for purpose. Personally I think Corbyn is better off out of the Parliamentary Labour Party which worked hard undermine his leadership at every step of the way. Remember Watson, Hodge, Umunna et al hogging the airwaves with their grievances after Corbyn did better than expected in the 2017 election when everyone had hoped he would be gone? The u turn on adopting a second EU referendum was spearheaded by Starmer (shadow Brexit sec) who cynically exploited Labour’s remain supporting membership for his own political ambitions. (The membership that he decided to purge since). The 2019 election has been dubbed the ‘Brexit election’. The main reason Labour lost the election is because of its refusal to uphold the EU ref. result. Corbyn’s media image was a significant issue too, unlike in the 2017 election.
Power corrupts . The trouble with a lot of these politicians is that they’re
completely convinced that they’re better than ordinary people and can do what they like
You seem to have missed out the Labour MPs. Angela Rayner: forced to retract her denial that she was at the beer & sandwiches ‘do’ in Durham during lockdown. Also having ‘leg-crossing’ behaviour questioned by four different MPs who overheard her joking about it. And Liam Byrne: suspended for bullying.
Without going into Labour vs Conservative debate, in all the cases mentioned in Marjorie’s post, these people have misused their powers as MP to cause distress/harm to others or have been caught by authorities for corruption.
How does Rayner joking about herself fall in any of these categories ? Who did she harm?
Camilla Long in Sunday Times:
“The Battle of Basic Instinct was no battle at all, just an excuse for endless showboating.”
“I don’t think Rayner really cares about the comparison to Basic Instinct, any more than Starmer does, any more than Johnson intends to unleash the “terrors of the earth” on the people who leaked it. This means the number of people being slightly dishonest about this whole farrago is, as is typical now, everyone.”
Yes Ken, I can imagine Angela Rayner laughing about ‘leg crossing behaviour’ accusations. I would have been laughing too- with contempt.
I suppose context is everything and that’s what we’ll never fully know. If the original joke was framed at their leader’s problems with the opposite sex, then I can imagine her (awkwardly) laughing along in that situation. All the stuff about the Oxford debating skills may be later embellishments to the hack in the bar, I can’t imagine that she’d laugh along with that.
As with many of these jokes, and you’ll know if you’ve ever been on the receiving end of them, they are designed to put you in your place. From personal experience, this is done more regularly with working class women, I’m afraid to say. There’s this tacit expectation that you should be more down-to-earth and able to take the banter, if you’re a working class woman – even if they are really just putting you back in your place.
The latest accusation against Angela Rayner is that she herself told the joke in the Commons Bar ie that she deliberately crossed and recrossed her legs like Sharon Stone in order to distract the Government front bench. The Tory MPs merely repeated the joke.
My advice would be to copy the attitude of Michelle Obama: “when they go low, we go high”.
NB The Michelle Obama advice must have some risqué overtones which elude me. When I used the phrase on the Guardian Opinion site, I was deleted on the grounds that the comment wasn’t in conformity with community standards!
I’ve read that too – “She has admitted as much when enjoying drinks with us on the [Commons] terrace.”, which makes it sound like she was responding to something. We will never know, but often with these things there is a teensy grain of truth that gets twisted and blown out of proportion. Either way, what a horrible story to pass on to the Mail; looks like it backfired *shrug*
I also thought about the Angela Rayner incident
Institutionally corrupt and outdated practices based on gentleman’s ‘ honour’ was never going to do well with a Johnson government.
56 MPs have currently been reported to the Parliamentary Standards for sexual harassment or assault. That’s an appalling high rate for any institution.
Time to get rid of the subsidised alcohol and over night bars( what’s wrong with coffee)
This problem isn’t new though . From MPs spitting on Winnie Ewing the first SNP MP in the 1950s there has always been a toxic culture and any ‘ misdemeanours’ used by whips to make sure MPs toe the party line rather than punished as they should have been.
Time to stop calling each other the Right Honourable Gentleman or Lady would be a start.
I can’t help wondering what is happening / been happening in the minds of the voters that they have continued to vote for this lot. I wonder about the level of denial and fantasy
A broad in the minds of the public? I wonder what astrology has to say
about that? ‘Great’ Britain is a complicated melange of talent and venality. An empire built on slavery indentured servitude and hierarchy topped by a monarchy.
Maybe the past wasn’t all that great?
All that said there’s the national health, The Kinks and Beatrix Potter to name but a few. It’s complicated analyzing the past, how it leads to the present. Our fears of loosing our identity – even if our identity is modeled on a folly constructed in a theme park to pander to our fantasies…and anxieties
I think it about the last few degrees in Capricorn which is exposing the rot and decay of conservatism much like how extreme the Republicans have become in the U.S.
Several U.S. states have banned abortion in anticipation of the abortion ruling by the Supreme Court which is expected by the end of the spring or early summer.
And then there is Republicans using government to police human resource policies of corporations.
I don’t know what to make of Khan – I’ve never met a more mild mannered man. [Private school background with Pakistani immigrant father who worked as a hospital consultant, midwife mother, one brother at the UN and another a lawyer at the Hague investigating war crimes.]
The primary reason he was voted in as MP was his Labour predecessor (Mary Creagh) actively working to stop Brexit when the constituency had overwhelmingly (68%) backed Brexit. Also the first choice Tory candidate had been required to stand down at the last minute when historic comments on Facebook surfaced.
From what I’ve read, Khan’s ‘high risk’ strategies were limited to grooming underage boys virtually under the noses of their parents. [He was apparently ordered to leave more that one home during/after a family party.] I guess he fooled them as much as he did his constituents. He would have made a good spy – except his proclivities would have left him wide open to blackmail.
The 1801 UK Astrological chart at the UK Sun 10 degrees Capricorn. With Mars 11 degrees in Taurus 1 degree from the partial eclipse tonight. This eclipse is triggering Neil Parish’s home and love life today. If not making the whole family very uncomfortable about this being out in the open for all family and friends to see. Mars and this evening eclipse could bring further sex/men/money revelations in the Sunday Press, with some breaking this evening.
It’s really odd how these things build up. These people always had terrible judgement, but there are times like this when it is really exposed. It seems that the more privileged a person becomes, the worst their judgement gets. Arrogant, over-hyped people, with no appreciation of how pure luck has elevated them thinking they can get away with anything.
Are you sure you mean “Wherefore art thou Hercules?” Wherefore means why (as in “Wherefore art thou Romeo?” = Why are you Romeo? Why couldn’t you be somebody else?). This is a common erro which irks me a tad.
Common usage. Get a life.
Haha!
“erro”….you must be irate now 😉
Curiously enough, we have similar scandals playing out here in the Netherlands at the moment. MPs accused of inappropriate behaviour and a PPE procurement scandal involving the obfuscation of millions in taxpayers’ money, now under investigation.
I just looked up the last Dutch Election. Which was during the grip of the Pandemic in 2021. We had a very new inexperienced Government in power in the UK throughout the Pandemic. Not taking anything away from the utter mayhem, yet I do believe inexperience and lack of knowledge, played into the hands of fraudsters. I suspect with Jolly Johnson at the helm. it was “just get on with it and leave me to take the glory”. Only it is now a very gory mess, with a lot of anger from the voters who will pick up the tab.
Also amidst the Republicans in the US. They’re the ones screaming loudly that all Democrats are pedophiles and “groomers,” yet they’re almost invariably the hypocrites with the closeted sex and vile pedophilia and porn scandals. Talk about transfer!
Talk about transfer!
In the U.S. we refer to it as ‘projection’.
Yes, “projection” was the word I was looking for, but “transfer” also applies. I’m American, English-educated, long-ago. I’ve spent years working in politics (including on issues of mutual concern with some decent Republicans) and am appalled at the scum that have risen to the top in Republican politics.
@Marjorie, astrologically, is there any hope for cleaning out the cesspools that nurture these scumbags in our various countries?
Thanks!