Boris’s adviser on ministerial standards has resigned after he found the Home Secretary Priti Patel guilty of breaking the code in a bullying inquiry and had his finding overturned by the prime minister. Ministers are normally expected to resign if they break the code.
Says it all really. No shame, no moral authority, no decency.
Patel was born 29 March 1972, of second-generation immigrant Ugandan-Indians, and is a longstanding Eurosceptic. Under Theresa May she was Secretary of State for International Development though was forced to resign after a political scandal involving unauthorised meetings with the Government of Israel. Patel has been criticised by political opponents for defending the tobacco and alcohol industries.
She is a Sun and Mercury in pro-active Aries opposition both a controlling Pluto (Moon) and a rebellious Uranus in Libra square Jupiter in Capricorn so she will be ambitious for money and success, as well as status; is overly excitable and wayward. She will be pushily confident with her Sun opposition Pluto square Jupiter, never mind short-tempered from Mars Saturn in a slippery opposition to Neptune.
Simon Jenkins wrote in the Guardian: “Patel’s greatest fans would not laud her subtlety and sensitivity. A lack of experience and chequered ministerial career restored her to high office only because Boris Johnson wanted a right-wing loyalist who would carry his anti-Europeanism to extremes. Patel has set about this with a bludgeon.”
Her relationship chart with Boris is controlling and marginally chaotic, not quite as bad as his with Dominic Cummings but hardly sympatico. He does attract himself to dysfunctional relationships. She did not get on with Dom Cummings and her supposed ‘sisterhood’ pact with Carrie Symonds may be shaken over coming weeks and is sagging badly through 2021. Patel and Gove are also not in lockstep now or moving ahead.
Her own chart indicates a career loss from late January through February 2021 which sometimes accompanies a firing but may be a mishap of a different variety.
The other Cabinet member whose continued presence is a shameful astonishment is Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, whose planning decisions have raised eyebrows and then some. Born 9 January 1982 (same day as KateM Duchess of Cambridge) a Capricorn square Mars, Saturn and Pluto in Libra, his chart has nothing to indicate anything impeding his progress in the near future. His relationship chart with Boris is an entrepreneurial dream with a composite Fire Grand Trine tied into a Kite with a Sun opposition Pluto – so adventurous, confident, and difficult to unpick.
While I’m not supporter of an unelected fiancee making political decisions, Carrie, despite her chaotic and volatile triple conjunction in Capricorn plus Mars, does appear to have marginally more sense than Boris. She loathes Jenrick, and vice versa – with a composite Sun Mercury square Mars Saturn in their relationship chart. Mind you she’s not over fond of Rishi Sunak either – perhaps because she sees him as a risk to Boris’s position.
What a pigs breakfast.
Maybe the Boris government chart with a slippery Neptune trine Mars in vindictive Scorpio sextile a hidden Saturn Pluto Venus in the 12th. Pluto in the 8th and/or 12th in administration charts usually indicates dirty dealing behind the scenes. Saturn in the 1th certainly indicates lack of practicality.
Se previous post: Priti Patel: 24 February 2020
Robert Jenrick 25 June 2020
@hugh It’s totally untrue that Ms.Patel didn’t get the information she was asking for and Philip Rutnam who resigned in a very public way in March has come out to say how he was not asked to provide any evidence for this enquiry. There is no excuse to being so horrible to a subordinate that leads them to attempt suicide. And it was bad enough for this ex employee to get a £25k payout as compensation.
Johnson and his cabal are all a bunch of bullies themselves which is why there are no sackings, they all behave the same way. The UK is no longer a democracy but a chumocracy and the fish rots from the head. CONservatives, the clue is in the name, morals and ethics don’t feature in Tory dictionary.
This isn’t so much about bullying, more the whiff of scandal that follows her around. That central Jupiter Pluto hard aspect of hers will give her an arrogant streak that assumes rules don’t apply to her.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/priti-patel-gas-contract-corruption-nigeria-process-industrial-development-b1759441.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/priti-patel-israel-timeline-family-holiday-theresa-may-secret-meetings-cabinet-boris-johnson-sacked-a8043866.html
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/03/priti-patel-held-undisclosed-meetings-israel
Hard to tell as Labour have been out of power for a decade. If a fraction of the depiction of the Labour government in the U.K. comedy the Thick Of It is true then bullying culture was endemic under New Labour. The treatment of some Jewish Labour members recently suggests that it has certainly not gone entirely.
Priti Patel may well be as intimidating as depicted but the report into events also points out that she perhaps did not receive the support, information and advice from her senior civil servants that she had the right to expect. That situation would doubtless haven a factor. Her Aries Sun would mean she is likely to be impatient and short fused and her Aries Mercury means she would not hold back in communicating any anger. In my personal experience Aries people normally tend to express their feelings in a pretty direct and uncomplicated way. That aggression can be interpreted as bullying but it is not the same calculated destruction of individual victims which happens when real harassment is involved. The report found no evidence of the latter.
With regard to the Tory Party as Trevor Phillips has pointed out the statistics show they have had two women Prime Ministers and Johnson’s cabinet contains two people of Indian descent to two of the UKs great offices of state. My guess is that the first non white Prime Minister of the U.K. is almost certainly going to be a Conservative.
Hmm, forgive me if I’m missing the point, but this seems a tad like whataboutery to me.
The minute you become aggressive and intimidate those with less power than you, you lose the argument no matter how valid you think it is. There is never any excuse and it achieves nothing. Lesson from my Taurean mother right there (with mercury in Aries!)
I am not a huge fan of Priti Patel but it is perhaps worth noting that the Labour Party seems to have suffered a collective bout of amnesia about their own history of bullying Civil Servants when in government. In that instance it was the Prime Minister Gordon Brown who was involved.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/feb/21/gordon-brown-fresh-bullying-allegations
Thanks Hugh. I’d been wondering about other examples, there must be a few? I’m not a fan of Priti Patel either, but do think she will have had to be a very determined and tough woman in her chosen career. It’s said she’s been “shouting and swearing” at her staff, and the Aries Sun/Mercury alone suggest an impulsive, fiery temperament. I’ve heard similar stories about D. Cummings’ behaviour towards his staff. People do seem to be more shocked when a woman is assertive or aggressive. After all, there’s no male equivalent of the term “battleaxe” is there?
@Jane, I really don’t think this is gender question. Shouting and screaming in particular has become completely inaccetable at corporate environment over the past 10 years or so. In Finland, what was known as “Management by Perkele” has pretty much been buried after what happened to Nokia mobilephone business. After they went from market leader to bust in 5 years, causing a National trauma, many former insiders came forward this had a lot to do with CEO and later Chairman of The Board Jorma Ollila’s temper tantrums. Atmosphere of fear and disbelief kept even top excecutives from sharing their insight. Nokia missed the train first with flip phones, because Ollila didn’t believe in them, then with smartphones, because he didn’t understand weaknesses in Symbian operational system making it difficult to work on for application developers.
@Hugh Fowler, maybe something has been done to weed workplace harassment and discrimination from Labour organization in 10 years that have passed? They did, eventually, address antisemitism that was becoming rampant under Corbyn. I also recently read a “Guardian” story – and note how it’s “The Guardian”, generally speaking a left leaning publication to break these stories – on some Labour Muslim members calling put Islamophobia among party ranks. I somehow feel that Kier Starmer’s party leadership is going to hear these voices.
I know it may sometimes seem like The World has just moved backwards in the last 10 years. Understanding of well-being at work organizations has, however, increased. I worked in an extremely toxic environment for 6 years in the early 2010’s. I saw how understanding on how harassment complaints should be dealt with evolved during that time first hand. This was later confirmed by workplace well being and conflict resolution courses I ended up took as a part of my BBA, as some sort of therapy I suppose. I recognized methods represented as “latest” in the field having been used by my ex-employer.
While it seems that harassment issues haven’t been sufficiently addressed in politics and civil service in general – we’ve had issues at our Ministries as well, with Minister of Foreign Affairs being notariously terrible working environment -, the awareness should be different. British Tories just seem to be stuck in some kind of a time warp, where any true advancent hasn’t been achieved since Thatcher’s hayday circa 1986, when many of the people involved here were not even born, or were at pre-school. It’s understandable they are not going to play by old rules.
With Dom gone hopefully the culture of bullying alongside the culture of graft and corruption re: PPE, track and trace, etc will become more exposed. Greater exposure could lead to a change of PM.