Never again. Lessons will be learnt. The cop-outs from monumental institutional failures follow a sickeningly repetitive pattern. Lies and cover-up costing the taxpayer billions in compensation and delays in payouts even after promises have been dragged out of a reluctant government. Tory and Labour, politicians and civil service – a culture of institutional arrogance, evasiveness and denial.
The Infected Blood Inquiry has found that doctors, health service managers, pharmaceutical companies, and politicians share responsibility for 30,000 blameless people being infected with HIV and hepatitis C across more than 20 years. 3,000 have died, with most of the others consigned to live diminished and blighted lives. The medics knew from the early 1980s that the blood and plasma being transfused into patients could be tainted with potentially fatal viruses, yet they kept using it for another decade. Most of the recipients suffered from haemophilia, but there were also new mothers, children with breathing difficulties and accident patients who needed transfusions. Haemophiliac children were used as ‘objects for research’ and given products derived from imported blood, some of which came from American prisoners and drug addicts.
Sir Brian Langstaff who led the inquiry was excoriating in his criticism, talking of the establishment’s reflexive ‘denial, disbelief, dismissiveness and delay’.
Coming in the middle of the Post Office Inquiry which has exposed blatant and outrageous malfeasance in pursuance of a cover up for a management/political/commercial screw up with innocent lives blighted and destroyed – and in the week when it became clear that NHS whistleblowers were harassed rather than listened to – maybe the time has come to say enough is enough. The cynics will point to Hillsborough, Grenfell, Iraq, Sir David Kelly Inquiry, the Child Abuse Inquiry, Windrush – in some cases a whitewash job and in others forthright in their criticism but did action follow??
Pinning an astro-signature on the Establishment is not easy but in mundane astrology Saturn rules government and law and order, the civil service resides in the 6th house, the ruling classes in the 10th and the legislature is the 11th. In the UK chart Saturn in Leo which can have a stubborn/arrogant streak sits in the 11th. A smokescreening Neptune rules the 6th; with Neptune in the financial 2nd opposition a secretive 8th house Mars and trine the 10th house Cancer Moon.
Transiting Uranus shaking up the UK’s Fixed planets in recent years is on its final stretch squaring the UK 11th house Saturn exactly now till late month; and repeating late December to mid March 2025. So arguably there may be a jolting shift onto new attitudes for the future. Plus the Solar Arc North Node is also within a degree of being square the 11th house Saturn – much pressure being applied.
The UK chart has a fair-minded Libra Ascendant so likes to look as if it always acts within the law and in pursuit of decency and justice. But that is the persona, the brand image it projects. Tr Pluto is trine the Uranus conjunct the Ascendant from the 12th so will be exerting pressure on the UK’s reputation.
Last but not least both tr Uranus moving through the 8th and the Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the 8th house Mars in 2025 may be blasting more buried scandals into plain light of day.
Skipping across historical charts:
UK Civil Service 23 November 1853
Westminster 27 April 1840
Simon de Montfort Parliament 20 January 1265 JC
What stands out from all three is the proliferation of Taurus planets. Taurus gives continuity and endurance, though at the heart of Taurus always lies a desire for power and an acquisitiveness which dislikes letting go – of resources or control.
Sir Brian Langstaff whose oral summary of his report left no doubt as to his condemnation of a system of deliberate obfuscation, intriguingly is also a Sun Mercury in Taurus square an unbudgeable Saturn Pluto in Leo with his Mars also in Leo exactly conjunct the UK’s 11th house Saturn. Maybe just maybe, his denunciation of the culprits embedded in a cosy culture which thought itself untouchable might manage to bring a new culture of transparency and responsibility in future.
See previous posts: Infected Blood – 50 years on victims still await justice. 27th July 2023
And UK politics – a broken model + 1999 Solar Eclipse chart
14th January 2024