All good things – and bad – must come to an end, so Boris’s long cherished dream of thumbing his nose at his Oxford Uni cronies from the portals of No 10 has to fade at some point. There is no indication of an imminent chute out the door with a lacklustre opposition showing no signs of gaining traction. But there are hints as Robert Shrimsley in the FT says today that we may have reached “Peak Johnson” and, while there is greater likelihood of a slow erosion of support than a cliff edge exit, there are straws in the wind. He doesn’t have a fanboy tribe of loyalists and MPs only tolerate him because he wins but as the electorate get aggravated about their special interests being ignored the threat can only grow. Even the Tory establishment Telegraph is beginning to platform criticisms in political opinion columns and letters.
Looking back on previous prime ministers when their star dimmed for astro-clues:-
Swathes of the UK prayed for Tony Blair’s exit after the 2003 Iraq/GW Bush debacle but it was 2007 before he finally gave in to gravity. At the point of his resignation on his relationship chart with the UK the tr Saturn opposition Neptune was sitting on top of the composite Uranus opposition Mercury. Tr Uranus was hovering over the conjunction to the composite Venus opposition Saturn; and tr Pluto was inconjunct the composite Pluto.
When Maggie Thatcher went in 1990 tr Uranus was conjunct the composite Venus, trine the composite Pluto and square the composite Neptune; with tr Pluto was approaching the conjunction to the composite Mercury.
Winston Churchill’s shock loss in 1945 after WW11 happened when tr Pluto was opposition the composite Neptune and tr Saturn was approaching the opposition to the composite Venus and square Pluto.
In the above, composite Venus, Mercury and Pluto appear to be shaken when a political separation occurs, though clearly all three would have had very different chemistry with the UK.
Boris’s relationship chart with the UK has a high-hopes-dashed, balloon-deflating tr Neptune square the composite Jupiter from this spring on and off till January 2023. But it may be the tr Uranus opposition the composite Neptune which causes more significant problems, picking up from June 2022 onwards for a year with tr Uranus trine the composite Moon mid 2022 on as well. Mid 2023 on tr Saturn is square the composite Pluto. And throughout there is the discouraging drag of tr Pluto trine the composite Mars/Saturn and then Saturn between now and 2024.
His relationship chart with the Conservative Party, 10 May 1912, is sagging badly from May 2022 onwards with tr Neptune square the Mars, more so from July 2022 on with tr Uranus trine the Neptune and worse with more obviously separating influences in 2023/24.
His personal chart isn’t too illuminating. The only indications on the career front from the Midheaven/Solar Arc Midheaven are – assuming the birth time is not rounded up – in four or five years with Solar Arc MC conjunct his Pluto; and his relocated Midheaven at 27 Virgo catching the undermining tr Neptune opposition in 2023. He’ll get a lucky break from tr Uranus conjunct his Jupiter in 2022 – though if he made a rapid departure he could probably pick up a healthy book advance or several. But tr Uranus is also in a highly-strung opposition to his Neptune at the same time.
What intrigues me is what is happening to his Moon at zero degrees Scorpio. His Solar Arc Saturn opposes it in 2022; and tr Pluto squares it in 2023/24. For most people the Moon is home, family, relationships, sometimes health issues but for politicians it can also be the interface with the public at large. The Sun/Moon midpoint can be an indicator of voter approval/disapproval. Tony Blair had tr Pluto square his Sun/Moon midpoint when he left; Churchill had tr Saturn square his. Maggie T was less obvious but had tr Saturn trine hers in 1990.
Johnson on this 2pm birthtime doesn’t get to an assault on his Sun/Moon midpoint until 2025 with tr Uranus square but that could trigger earlier if his birth time is marginally out.
The sum total of all this ramble is that it doesn’t look to be coming too soon – though all the indications are the slide from the peak will start to pick up speed from next year. My recollection with Blair is that there was much chewing over the charts in frustration before he slunk off in ignominy with his reputation having been in tatters for a good three years prior. His UK relationship chart had a never-let-go Mars Pluto trine Saturn and Boris’s has a similar composite Mars Saturn with Saturn opposition Pluto. Prising either loose was always going to be an excruciatingly long exercise.
Add On: Carrie Symonds, 17 March 1988, who has her own political ambitions might be a pointer. She has a Pisces Sun which catches the tr Neptune conjunction from May 2023 for a year after which will be lacklustre and undermining. But it runs side by side tr Pluto square her Jupiter with Solar Arc conjunct her Jupiter in 2023 as well so she will have some considerable successes. None of which is much help in plotting the Boris path ahead. His relationship with her is sagging badly over the next eighteen months with tr Neptune conjunct the composite Mars until early 2023.
Add On 2: The Conservative Party 10 May 1912 chart indicates considerable upheavals and disruptions running from late 2022 and peaking in 2023/24 with Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the Taurus Sun followed by by tr Uranus conjunct the Sun, Sun/Saturn midpoint and Saturn; with a power-eroding tr Neptune square the Pluto in 2023/2024 as well. So everything will go up in the air. It needn’t mean they’ll certainly lose the next election but that Tory Taurus Sun is sensitive. When Maggie Thatcher was ousted in 1990 tr Pluto was in opposition and John Major was installed as a replacement who won the next election and then lost the following one.
Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, 20 May 1967, would be heavily involved in any defenestration of the PM. His relationship with Boris is on s downward slide this year and next with tr Neptune conjunct the composite Saturn and square Jupiter; with perhaps a crunch point in 2023 when the Tory chart is up in the air as tr Uranus opposes their composite Neptune.
The delightfully eloquent Fintan O’Toole has a nail-on-the-head piece in the Guardian today about the Northern Ireland Protocol kerfuffle.
“The reason it keeps coming around again and again, like a ghoul on a ghost train, is that it requires Johnson and his government to do something that goes against the grain of the whole Brexit project: to acknowledge that choices have costs.”
“Boris Johnson is constitutionally incapable of accepting the relationship between cause and effect.”
“You can’t bake your “oven-ready” Brexit deal and then remove one of the main ingredients from the final dish. The EU has far better things to be doing than making a return trip to the hellish tedium of Brexternity. But for Frost and Johnson, impossible is nothing. Performative belligerence is not bounded by the limits of what can be achieved. Its main function, indeed, is the denial of reality.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/23/northern-ireland-protocol-boris-johnson-oven-ready-deal-sausage
In 2012 Putin told the Russian Embassy to set up a group of MPs called “Conservative Friends of Russia”. The Russian Ambassador held a launch party in the Russian embassy attended by Carrie Symonds then a Tory party press officer. Breaking up the EU and UK all benefit you know who. The FT article on the 6/7/21 entitled the donor, the Russian deals and conservative money is another brick in a growing portfolio of articles which all point one way. I mean it’s not like his got a Russian name after all.
Marjorie I was just wondering if the fact that the Moon is Johnson’s career planet (his MC is in Cancer) carries any significance with the full moon squaring his moon tomorrow and Pluto squaring it in two years time?
Marjorie, it wasn’t really much of a surprise that Churchill was ousted in 1945. The people of Coventry didn’t take it very well that there was no warning when he knew full well they were going to be bombed by the Luftwaffe.
He forced British troops to surrender to the Japanese, when they would have preferred to fight. And when he was Irish Secretary during his Liberal years let’s just say his record was abysmal. Too much blood shed!
Yes he was a great leader when GB needed it. But he made some poor choices that cost him support in peace time.
On the 1945 defeat – [His wife]Clementine’s suggestion that election defeat might be “a blessing in disguise”, Churchill retorted: “At the moment it seems very effectively disguised.”
Not sure which is worse, living in a country where enough people either couldn’t see or didn’t care that the man they were supporting was a liar and a charlatan or actually having to endure the embarrassment of seeing the way in which his government is destroying the reputation of the UK. Cringeworthy
It is the Conservative Party keeping him there. They could trigger a no confidence tomorrow if they wanted to. The problem is that Johnson was given the go ahead to get rid of the most intelligent Conservative MPs. His cull of the experienced older MPs, before the 2019 Election has made the Conservatives “kippers” in disguise. A 100 new MPs were elected into the Tories last Election. Johnson’s Gemini four planets is indicative of an “air head”. Mercury Mars in Gemini’s is full of mental zest, hence his air brain ideas. He Sun/Venus and Mars in Gemini is a dominant force Yet he is all over the place. His mind is ablaze with his power, yet he is really the puppet. What frightening is that their must be a huge motive in keeping him. The powerful 1922 Committee is keeping him, even though the country is losing all credibility around the world. Now that is odd, for a Conservative Party, who normally trades on being the diplomatic party of Parliament. It is the whole of Conservative Party which appears rotten to the core this time. As a middle leaning voter, I am shocked at how quickly the Conservatives embraced the Referendum result and set about destroying this country. I would like to know whose money is really pulling the Conservatives Party strings. As it is not in this country’s interest.
My memory of Johnson’s chart was not very good yesterday! Perhaps the Conservative Party could put a mole in the guise of a very good looking women in Downing Street, that will stir up his Sun/Venus, Scorpio Moon, along with his Pluto/Uranus. With a Venus/ Sun in Gemini he will always line up a spare women. The New Moon tomorrow squares is own Moon and Trines his Mars. Perhaps he is still going to address the people tomorrow with a mini-speech? I suspect he cannot resist telling us something at the end of term.
Full Moon in Aquarius, not New Moon. A sudden surprise to the Nation? – wishful thinking – Resignation?
Thank you Marjorie!
Funny how so many of us are looking for signs of his leaving and I for one believe that Johnson has lost his appetite for the work involved. Clearing up the mess he’s made with Brexit and the mishandling of the pandemic is not his idea of a good time. However, Mrs Johnson needs the kudos and contacts that can only come about by extending her stay as long as possible. Carrie is young and ambitious but surely is not as equipped for a status-less life as Marina Wheeler is, she being an accomplished barrister? Isn’t Carrie a PR person (maybe conservationist) and her ‘brand’ is still only in its infancy? And yes, I do wonder about baby number 2? Carrie is smart enough to guess that her marriage will collapse under the weight of being ordinary people. She will make him stick like glue for as long as it takes for her to leverage a future for herself, with or without the serial adulterer.
This made me laugh. Hollowly. I spent sleepless hours during the night desperately scouring astro sites for indications of Boris’s imminent departure. Nothing doing. Only a prediction that he would complete a full term. I had hoped he’d have left by now for pastures financial. After all, he needs the cash. Mrs May has earned £1,9 million on the international lecture circuit, despite Covid and being as dull as ditchwater. She earned £38,000+ just for a Q&A Zoom lecture! He could hoover it up, though why anyone wants to listen to him or any of them is a mystery.
Sadly, it seems he is more motivated by power, but what he wants it for is hard to discern. Apart from being a great big show-off.
I’ve always seen him as a temporary stop gap in this prolonged transitional phase, so it’s beyond disappointing that not only is he still here, but he may even be around for years to come.
Hahaha! That exactly will be Boris’ expert subject matter, ‘How to stay even when you keep fvcking up and how to make that work for you’; and he has to connections to make it viable. Unfortunately. In the same vein, Isn’t Trump still loved regardless?
‘ditchwater.’ Love it!! Who knew it was just dull? I just thought it was on cesspit level.
Right now “dull as ditchwater” sounds very refreshing!
It could be interesting to see what emerges during the transit of Mars in Scorpio in November and December. Mars will square Saturn at 7 degrees – one degree off the 1066 Mars in Aquarius. Mars then opposes Uranus at 12 degrees – one degree past the UK 1801 Mars at 11 Taurus. Carries natal Venus/Pluto opposition is 12 Taurus and Scorpio.
Part of me thinks that Carrie will want BJ to carry on, while he is restless and keen to do something else. But you can’t box a Gemini in without paying a price at some point.
when the time is right the Tories will oust Boris as only they can do so in this term of government up until the next election (whether that’s before or in 2024 is moot). Don’t be surprised if the Tory rebels led by 1922 committee push him out if he’s gone toxic before then…
Thanks Marjorie – much to ponder! The next election is officially May, 2024 but there are mutterings about changing that. I suspect Johnson will put pressure on for an earlier election, and then step down. Otherwise, he could leave soon (ish), making way for a new leader ahead of 2024. He wants/needs to make more money apparently. I thought the timing of the temporary self-isolation now was quite symbolic too.
Tr Uranus at 14 Taurus is putting pressure on his natal Neptune/Jupiter opposition – finances could be involved there? A shake-up of his inflated dreams? Saturn waits in the wings as well.
I’m also wondering about triggers to that 19 Gemini eclipse in June, which was on Johnson’s Mercury. Mars in Virgo will square that point at the end of August, the Sun squares it in September. And I’ve only just realised that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto will all be retrograde in September. A season for some kind of massive review of where we are now?
Boris Johnson certainly used to have the support of the party members, but has always divided MPs I think. It is pretty clear by now that he is totally untrustworthy, careless, and chaotic. There must be many plots and schemes to oust him going on behind the scenes.
The legislation for ending the Fixed-term Parliaments Act is currently in front of the Commons and it is going through its journey to becoming law.
The (impartial-for American readers; they have representatives of all main parties and are headed by an impartial judge) Boundary Commissions are expected to finalise their boundary reviews and publish the new boundaries in mid-2023. As that will give an advantage to the Conservatives (because it will eliminate the Labour advantage in using constituency boundaries based on 20 year old data from the early 2000s), it is likely that Boris will last at least till then.
And given the disunity in the opposition, I fully expect another Conservative government for the next five years after that.
It would be interesting if there is a Scottish independence referendum before then. That may cause the English to vote for the Tories in even larger numbers (better the devil you know, etc).
Marjorie, can you see if Rishi Sunak, Sajid Javed or Sadiq Khan would be the most likely to become our forst Asian Prime Minister?
“first Asian Prime Minister?”^
The late, unlamented Enoch Powell once said: “All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy
juncture, end in failure because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs.”
Boris is no exception to this perennial rule.
Hi Marjorie,
I only have one issue with what you have written above. I have never considered Churchill’s 1945 loss a “shock loss.” Admittedly with the benefit of hindsight from today’s standpoint, Churchill has long been viewed as the right person at the right time when the nation was at war. However, as a peacetime politician he was completely out of his depth and I think his defeat was inevitable.
Churchill’s wife Clementine did try to persuade her husband to stand down in the ‘45 election to no avail. It was clear that post-war, Churchill’s hour had passed and that the country was in dire need of rebuilding, new housing and support for the returning forces. Churchill would never have implemented social reform and the welfare state. Many of the British working class who had fought for the country deeply resented the fact that he wanted to deny them these benefits.
I wonder if there is a repeat of this WW2 end story regarding nurses, junior doctors, teachers, and the millions on Zero hour contracts. These are the people that have been doing the heavy lifting, while the lives of others have been whimsically oblivious to the point of the fairy story of environmentally catastrophic trips to outer space (the press was MIA on that one). The optics of who does the work and who gets to play and how the spoils are distributed are stark.
Mind you, politically speaking, there is no clear agenda from either party atm – pale imitations of what politics could be.