The UK National Health Service was a foreground election issue for both major parties, more in voters’ minds even than Brexit. Wild and extravagant promises were made about funding though it remains to be seen whether much will change for an overloaded system creaking badly.

It was founded 5 July 1948 giving a caring Cancer Sun square a healing though not always practical Neptune; a tough and enduring Saturn Pluto in Leo; and an adventurous and overly hopeful and scattered Mutable T Square of Jupiter opposition (Moon) Venus, Uranus Mercury in Gemini square Mars in Virgo.

The chaotic and tumultuous tr Pluto square tr Uranus has been battering on the NHS Sun and Neptune in recent years; and tr Neptune will start undermining the T Square from 2021 – first by squaring Jupiter and opposing Mars in 2021/22 which will bring disappointments about failures/lack of money and of direction. Tr Uranus will also square the NHS Pluto in 2021/22 so there may be an attempt at a revamp and rethink. But tr Neptune will continue on almost to mid decade squaring the Moon, Venus, Uranus and Mercury – so it’ll be a swampy path ahead.

The problem with a free state health service as most countries are discovering is that they are economically unsustainable – plain too expensive to run. Even France which had a glittering reputation in this regard can only run theirs with stupendously high taxation and individuals in France don’t even get 100% free. Everyone has to take out a top-up private insurance to cover the difference. The UK has become over-entitled about the NHS doing everything for everyone with trivial emergencies overloading the system so patients in real need don’t get sufficient attention; and people are unwilling to pay for anything.

Independence for Scotland was regarded as a racing certainty if Boris and pro-Brexiteers won the election. The SNP took 47 out of 59 Scottish seats which seemed to seal the deal but sober economic assessment hints the prospects are not good, never mind Boris digging in his heels about another referendum. Over 60pc of Scottish exports go to the rest of the UK with just 18pc to the EU; Scotland’s public expenditure per head is significantly higher than the whole of the UK giving it a budget deficit of 7pc of GDP compared to 1.1pc for the UK.

From an economic point of view the situation has deteriorated since the last referendum in 2014. The costs would be prohibitive with at least a decade of financial trauma, welfare cuts, and systemic austerity on a staggering scale to follow any breakaway.

Which isn’t to say Nicola Sturgeon will throw in the towel. Her Cancer Sun square Jupiter is catching the tr Pluto hard aspects to both 2021 to 2023 which will see her revved up and raring to go.

She’s a mighty antagonist for Boris with her Pluto in Virgo squaring his Sun Venus; and her determined Saturn in Taurus conjunct his Jupiter and opposition his Neptune – she’ll tussle endlessly with him and rain on his parade.

The Scotland 16 March 842 AD JC chart worked well on Scotland’s entry into the 1707 merger with England (see post November 3 2019). It indicates confusion and indecision with tr Neptune square the Solar Arc Pluto and Sun in 2020 and more as Solar Arc Neptune is conjunct the Sun in 2021. And nothing much of note thereafter, certainly nothing as significant as the 1707 marriage between the two countries.

The 1 May 1707 Scotland Act which started the new partnership does have tr Uranus conjunct the Taurus Sun and square Pluto and Jupiter in 2020/21 so there may be movement towards an adjustment in the terms of agreement but nothing as major as a separation. Tr Uranus has been round every 84 years and nothing split on those occasions.

The relationship chart between Scotland 842 and the UK is also showing signs of turbulence and a shift between 2020 and 2022. But again nothing likely to lead to a complete split away.

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Even top-class talent occasionally make a turkey. Cats, a musical fantasy film based on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage show, with a glittering ensemble cast of James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson with Steven Spielberg executive producing has hit excoriatingly bad reviews. “A purr-fectly dreadful hairball of woe”; “a jaw-dropping feline folly”;” poorly conceived and executed”; “a tail better left untold”; “improbable and entirely indescribable”; “destined to go down in glorious infamy”; “a cross between Glee and hell”; “a sinister, all-time disaster from which no one emerges unscathed (zero stars out of five)”; “a rare and star-spangled calamity.” Rotten Tomatoes gives it one out of five stars and 17% approval. Ouch.

Director Tom Hooper has had some successes in the past with The King’s Speech, Les Miserables, The Danish Girl but this is clearly going to go down as a blot on his record.

Principal Photography kicked off on 12 December 2018 with a Sagittarius Sun square Neptune Mars in Pisces – so lots of showbiz dazzle but Neptune has a nasty habit of fizzling out – and given Neptune also squares Jupiter it didn’t get off on the best of footings – high hopes lead to disappointment. Bad reviews don’t necessarily go with bad box office but with tr Neptune closing the conjunction with Mars over the next few weeks which usually indicates failure and Neptune continuing to square the Sun in 2020 it looks a touch flat.

Tom Hooper, 5 October 1972, London, is an innovative Sun, Uranus Mercury in Libra with a super-determined Mars Pluto also in Libra. Tr Neptune is trailing across two of his midpoints till late January dampening his morale; with an uncertain tr Neptune square his Saturn in Gemini from late April 2020 on into 2021 as well. Not his shining hour.

Boris’s deal now appears to be – sign up to leave the EU at the end of January 2020 and crash out, deal or no deal, on 31 December 2020.

2021 always did look when the real financial shock would come with tr Uranus conjunct the UK 8^th house Mars picking up from May 2021 onwards. The eight year phase of tr Uranus through the UK 8^th house of business and international finances started mid 2019 and runs till 2027 which tends to be an erratic time, not all a disaster but unstable and unpredictable. What will make it all the more disruptive is tr Uranus moving from the disaster-prone and highly insecure conjunction to the UK Mars in 2021, onto the square to the financial Venus in the speculative 5^th and opposing the financial 2^nd house Neptune in 2022 and early 2023; and finally square the 11^th house Saturn in 2023/24 which will affect the country’s legislature and future plans.

So a very rocky period indeed on the economic front. Tr Uranus will rattle that wide Fixed Grand Cross on the UK chart which will bring jolting and not always welcome surprises as it tries to force through changes on against resistance. And it could start with a major accident or disaster of sorts as well since that UK Mars tends to throw up horrors.

Heavily Fixed charts don’t cope well with too much change. The same is true of the EU chart which starts is facing massive financial jolts from July 2020 onwards as tr Uranus is conjunct its 8^th house Taurus Moon and squares Uranus, moving on to buffet its Venus in 2022 – but its period of instability will be shorter, finishing around 2024.

In 2021 as well – tr Pluto will conjunct the UK Mercury/Pluto midpoint for intense and hostile debate; and tr Pluto will square the Uranus/Neptune for a sense of calamities and catastrophes; and tr Neptune will square the Mars/Jupiter midpoint bringing feelings of inferiority, failed relationships, plans with no hope of working out.

There will be setbacks through 2020 as well, which I’ll cover in more detail in the general year ahead round up – but not as far reaching as in 2021.

I’m never sure Solar Returns work too well for countries. But for what it’s worth: January 2020 for a year could be OK cash-wise and certainly will be a spendthrift year with Jupiter in the 2^nd; though muddled and discontented at an internal domestic level with Moon Neptune in the 4^th. The year 2021 may be when the Boris government’s failings coming home to roost with Mercury Pluto Saturn Jupiter in the 12^th opposition a 6^th house Moon. 2022 looks directionless and tight for money with Neptune in the 10^th and Saturn in the 8^th.

The relationship charts between the UK and Boris look to be sagging in confidence through 2020 with tr Neptune opposition the composite Mercury and Uranus; and more undermining of trust and hope in 2021/22 with tr Neptune square the composite Jupiter. 2022 will be a fractious year with the tr Saturn square tr Uranus starting to hit on the composite Neptune and then Mars a year later. Mars Neptune in a relationship chart usually indicates a relationship imbalance with only one side winning. If Boris gets what he wants its’ not good for the UK; and vice versa.

The UK relationship chart with Boris’s Svengali Dominic Cummings (25 November 1971) is on even more of a Neptunian downhill slide with tr Neptune squaring the composite Pluto, Mercury and Sun over the next three years. It’s a Plutonic connection so one side wants all the power and control. Usually this kind of relationship has the capacity to transform both sides, for good or for ill.

His Pluto is conjunct the UK’s Uranus; and his Uranus is square the UK’s 10^th house (ruling classes) Moon – so he will want to disrupt the normal order of things. His Saturn in Gemini opposition Sun Neptune squares onto the UK Pluto – his ideals about what is best for society will run into resistance from status-quo upholders.

In many ways what is even more interesting is Cummings’ relationship chart with Boris which is very loaded – with a controlling composite Sun Pluto conjunction; and more so a ‘fated’ Yod of Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Mars. Such relationships tend to lead to crucial turning points in each of the individuals lives as well as in their environment. But the underlying dynamics of this particular chart are very stressed with an aggravated composite Saturn Mars; a power struggling Sun Pluto which works well for a while but usually ends badly; and an unstable Pluto Uranus Venus. That has the capacity to blow up very nastily at some point.

Cummings has Boris exactly where he wants him – but I’m still perplexed by both their charts, neither of which show any jubilation at such a resounding win.

The stupendously expensive Grand Tour, a hasty rehousing of Top Gear in Amazon after Jeremy Clarkson was ousted from the BBC for bad behaviour, is getting lacklustre reviews in its fourth season. Though more have been commissioned ahead.

The intrepid trio of Clarkson (11 April 1960), Richard Hammond (19 December 1969) and James May (16 January 1963) are a good mix for a speed-freak, macho, petrolhead show with Clarkson’s Aries Sun chiming with Hammond’s Sagittarius Sun and May’s Mars in fiery Leo.

Clarkson may drive the show but it’s the relationship between Hammond and May that really points to the extraordinary success of the long running venture. Their relationship chart has a lucky composite Sun Jupiter; with an Earth Grand Trine of Mercury trine Mars trine Uranus Pluto, formed into two or maybe three Kites with Uranus Pluto opposition Saturn, Mars in a showbizzy opposition to Neptune and perhaps Mercury opposition Moon.

All of them have prominent confident Jupiters – Clarkson with his in Capricorn trine Pluto; Hammond in Scorpio trine Mars; and May in Pisces opposition his Pluto Uranus and square Venus.

But the tensions run at a high octane level as well, not surprising given Clarkson’s Mars in Pisces opposition Pluto leading to his legendary temper. That clashes with Hammond’s Mars in Pisces; and Hammond’s Uranus Pluto in Virgo opposition Jupiter. So there will be sniping and snapping and flare-ups.

Clarkson has been labouring through two years of tr Pluto square his Sun and hitting on his Saturn before that – which all finishes this month – and that would bring about a radical change in his life and outlook.

James May has tr Pluto conjunct his Capricorn Sun to look forward to in 2021/22 which looks like an all-round bumpy phase for him with tr Uranus square his Saturn as well.

There’s a fair sprinkling of Neptune ahead for all three with the likelihood of the Grand Tour stuttering to a halt at some point. But none of them will be short of a bob or two, so the only concern will be how to fill the idle hours.

The troubled marriage of Colin Firth and his eco-designer Italian wife Livia has finally come to an end after 22 years. It’s hardly surprising given the lurid tales that emerged last year as she mystifyingly sued a secret lover over stalking claims – thereby dragging the sad marital tale into the headlines.

From a previous post March 9 2018.

Never believe red carpet smiles and cuddles. It now transpires that Colin Firth and his Italian wife Livia were separated during several togetherness-outings onto the paparazzi-walk last year. All of which has emerged since she reported an Italian journalist whom she was having an affair with during their spousal time apart for stalking her after she broke up with him and returned to Firth.

Colin Firth, born 10 September 1960; Livia Giuggioli, 4 September 1969.

This makes them both Sun Virgos. He with Pluto, North Node and Mercury also in Virgo; she with Pluto. Her Venus is in Leo and his in Libra which isn’t a bad combo at all. His Moon is in steady Taurus while hers is in restless Gemini.

It is an odd match. She describes herself as a ‘ball-breaker’ and she certainly has a challenging chart with Mars in Sagittarius probably opposition her Moon and square Pluto, so controlling and ultra-determined. Her Pluto is conjunct Colin’s Mercury with her Mars in square – so she’ll tend to dominate discussions. His Mars opposes Jupiter squaring onto his Mercury, which will make him enthusiastic, optimistic, quite nervy with a focal point Mercury. Her Saturn in Taurus opposes his Neptune for uncertainties and suspicion and her Saturn may conjunct his Moon, certainly is trine his Pluto. Her Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus is conjunct his Venus – so a superficially glamorous connection though a widely travelled schedule will suit, giving her space. His Neptune is square her Venus – so she’ll have problems pinning him down.

Their relationship chart would make you wonder how they’ve stayed together this long. There is a composite Venus, Uranus, Sun, Pluto, Mars opposition Saturn possibly square Moon – so a constant roller-coaster; chained-together by Saturn Pluto; possessive from Sun Pluto; but disruptive with differing agendas from Saturn Uranus. There is an idealistic, head-in-the-clouds Jupiter Neptune. It has had tr Neptune in an undermining opposition to the composite Venus Uranus and conjunct Saturn recently and tr Neptune is now moving to oppose Sun Pluto through this year and next. So the future looks highly uncertain.

The once-feted Aung San Sui Kyi sank deeper into ignominy and dealt her already tarnished reputation another blow in the Hague this week. She argued that charges of genocide for the treatment of the Rohingya people should not be laid against Myanamar. The atrocities were carried out by the same military who held her under house arrest for 15 years, which turned her into an international icon for democracy and won her a Nobel peace Prize along the way.

Born 19 June 1945 in Rangoon, she’s a late Sun Gemini with Uranus also in Gemini and both in an expansive square to Jupiter in Virgo. And she has a tough-minded, hard-edged and obstinate Venus Mars in Taurus square Pluto. It’s not a sentimental chart.

This July’s Solar Eclipse was conjunct her Saturn which should have brought a sharp reality check.

In general she’s in a period of some turmoil with an insecure tr Uranus conjunct her Mars continuing from this year into early 2020, tr Uranus in a disruptive square to her Pluto from mid 2020 and conjunct her Uranus in 2021 – so it’ll be a rocky path. With a ‘car-crash’ Secondary Progressed Mars conjunct her Sun in about two years’ time.

She’s the daughter of the founder of Myanamar and her Jupiter falls in the country’s 10^th so she’ll feel it is her destiny to lead, but she’s Stockholm Syndrome-ed herself into a corner with the generals from whom she couldn’t escape even out of house arrest, and has ruined her good name in the process.

Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican congressman, rabid pro-Trumper, purveyor of ‘deep state’ conspiracy theories and a bit of a drama queen is in his element tilting at windmills over the impeachment process.

Born 7 May 1982 in Hollywood, FL, with a senator father, he’s a stubborn Sun Taurus with an intense Scorpio Moon and Jupiter. His chart has three oppositions so he’s a fairly see-saw personality. His Mercury in Gemini is in an outspoken opposition to Uranus; his probably Full Moon will have him unsure what he wants at any given time; and his Mars in Libra opposition Venus in Aries squaring onto Neptune in late Sagittarius will be emotionally excitable and insensitive as well as evasive. Plus he has an unyielding Saturn Pluto in Libra. It’s a high-energy chart but without much cohesion.

He’s in for an uphill struggle from late January 2020 with tr Pluto and Saturn opposition his Sun/Mars midpoint, which repeats on and off till late year – final aspect late November and December 2020. That’s trapped and frustrating. Though he’ll have some lucky breaks July to September 2020 with tr Uranus square his Sun/Jupiter midpoint. 2021 looks a definite downer with depressing Solar Arcs and loss-making Pluto transits to a career midpoint.

It’s an odd relationship with Trump since Gaetz’s Neptune sits on Trump’s Full Moon. But even more so the relationship chart has a composite Saturn, Uranus square Sun; and a composite Uranus, Mars, Pluto – and that’s very fractious, power-struggling and unstable a connection. 2020 will see a shift in the dynamic between them with tr Saturn dampening enthusiasm as it squares the composite Jupiter from February onwards, repeating in the run up to the 2020 election. And tr Neptune undermines their joint influence as it opposes the composite Neptune from late January 2020 for a few weeks.

Boris Johnson was sworn in by the Queen just after 11 am this morning. That puts an ultra-determined, opinionated and vengeful Mars in Scorpio in the 9^th (foreign neighbours) in a publicity-attracting trine to Neptune which is also in turn square the Sagittarius Sun. It’s not quite as Neptunian a swamp as Theresa May’s Government chart but he will still find it difficult to be decisive and push through for closure on key issues.

The restrictive Saturn Pluto conjunction sandwiching Venus is in the 12^th and it sits on the focal point of the Mars trine Neptune – which is messy and tough-going. Saturn in the 12^th is not normally overly practical; conjunct Pluto and sextile Mars it could be resourceful in crises but it will tend to attract them, so there’ll be running hitches, glitches and setbacks.

There’s a lucky Jupiter trine Uranus and Jupiter opposition a 5^th house Cancer Moon which suggests there will be fortunate opportunities turning up and popularity with the general sentiment in the country.

It’s not a disastrous chart and his government will be voluble with both Sun and Mercury in Sagittarius and that 9^th house Mars. But when it comes to real constructive progress in the material world, the 12^th house Saturn Pluto will prove a drag.