Brexit is about to negotiate another hurdle with new border controls on goods coming in from Europe which is likely to cause delays and additional costs, with more following in April. Trade deals with the rest of the world which were allegedly the raison d’etre for the split with the EU are not going well. Negotiations between the UK and Canada have been halted after disagreements on beef and cheese tariffs. Deals with Japan, Australia, New Zealand, USA and India have either not happened or have brought negligible results.
A change in voter regulations will allow ex-pats to vote in the next election, bringing another 2.3 million voters onto the roll. They are likely to be jaundiced by visa restrictions and other complications which may tilt them away from the Tories.
The Guardian and Independent are tub thumping about all the negatives while the Telegraph is robustly defending their cause celebre. “A fair assessment should acknowledge that although Brexit has not proved to be the economic nirvana that some naive over-optimists imagined, neither has it brought the disaster that some other economists envisaged.” Small mercies.
No one thinks the UK will even blink in the direction of reapplying since apart from anything else it would probably be rejected. But an easing of barriers, tariffs and travel restrictions might sweeten the pill.
The Brexit Referendum vote on 24 June 2016, is due for a major disruption round about now with the Solar Arc Pluto about the close the square to Uranus to exact within weeks. Which may coincide with the new border controls. There will be a few jolts and jangles this May and the New Year to March 2025. The majority of voters now think it was a mistake which may be a factor in the next election – with the aggravated ex-pats adding their weight to the vote.
There’s not much of cheer in the EU/UK relationship chart though the EU are sinking under the weight of their own problems. Where there might be a chance of a reversal in policies could be starting in 2025 into 2026 with tr Uranus conjunct the composite Pluto with more in the years following.
France would be a stumbling block to any easing of barriers since the UK/France relationship chart has always been implacably hostile with a composite Mars Pluto square Sun – and there is nothing that looks amiable in that direction for another two years. With Germany there is less animosity but any changes would wait for 2025 at least where there does seem to be a possibility of a different outlook.
Much will depend on internal EU fortunes which are sagging at the moment -and indeed the global situation which could have a bearing.
I’m wondering whether it is worth considering the long-term effects of the last Uranus/Neptune conjunction, exact in Capricorn in 1993, when a new Uranus/Neptune cycle began – and the Maastricht Treaty was ratified in November. For Maastricht, Uranus and Neptune are 18 Capricorn. Inventive and disruptive dreams of material security maybe? They oppose the UK 1801 Moon (the people), and are close to the Brexit Pluto. April’s Aries eclipse at 19 degrees squares the UK Moon, and the Maastricht Uranus/Pluto conjunction, and may be a relevant timer for further adjustments or upheavals too.
Meanwhile, there’s the Saturn/Pluto cycle at work as well. Maastricht’s rather scary Mercury and Mars conjunct Pluto in Scorpio, which squares Saturn in Aquarius, creates a Fixed t-square with UK Saturn’s legislation in Leo in the 11th house of groups. The brooding Brexit Mars in Scorpio also aligns with this. Uranus is bowling along in Taurus, ready to disrupt the Treaty, create challenges for the UK – and generally shake up assumptions about the Treaty itself across all the nations involved. As we know, a new Saturn/Pluto cycle began in January 2020 in Capricorn, ushering in the Covid pandemic and an era of unravelling that continues to resonate across society.
The previous Uranus/Neptune conjunction in 1821 began the cycle that saw the hopeful Treaty of Rome signed in the 1950’s, on a t-square of Uranus in early Leo, Neptune in early Scorpio and the Moon at 2 Aquarius. Pluto is moving to challenge that now.
Eventually, something fresh will emerge.
It’s also interesting to think about the medieval Hanseatic League.Well, you know what I mean!
“Die Hanse (the Hansa – the Hanseatic League) was a northern European co-operative and alliance of between 70 and 200 towns and cities such as Lübeck, Hamburg, Malmö, Bruges, Danzig, Cologne, Rostock and Bremen, able to form contracts and liable as joint debtors for the offences of individual members. The Hansa had a lasting influence on our notions of commerce, economic association, the importance of free trade and the role of the nation state” gresham.ac.uk
The first formal mention of the League in England, where they established a base, dates from 1283. In 1284 there’s a Saturn/Pluto conjunction in Capricorn, 27 degrees. Venice coined the gold ducat that year, which remained the European trade coin for centuries. At its height, the Hanseatic League traded from London to Scandinavia, Iceland and the Shetlands to the Mediterranean. Our current Saturn/Pluto journey also seeded in dynamic, financially-minded Capricorn, so we’ll see what it might bring this time around.
Many people seem to have a particular mentality, a kind of collective psychological profile of a nation, which is often something very gelatinous, amorphous, and difficult to prove. Also now undergoing massive change, with the influx of new people from different backgrounds coming from all sorts of places.
So Britain has always been seen, I’m kind of gathering, as snotty, snobbish, proud, when people are choosing the collective and brotherhood, Britain is always deciding to stand on its own and not wanting to know anything about that.
That’s a whole different psychology to, say, the French.
And I think that is something some Europeans find, or might find, particularly grating. This UK habit of always being the exception and wanting some special treatment or something.
I wonder if also in some similar way the Europeans see Americans as too common, to put it that way, whereas Americans seem the Europeans as snobbish and haughty.
Americans, on the other hand, I gathered through the years, irritate other countries around the world by being completely clueless about them or anything else that is not America – though, on the other hand, when speaking to them the Americans will often have the Oh, really? That is so interesting attitude and seem genuinely interested, which at times can also be seen as looking from above down below – and really having no idea about how other people live nor any interest in that sort of thing altogether. There’s just America, and everyone else after that, kind of.
So in the UK case, that will be a thing that will be difficult to overcome and probably never will be.
Which is one of the reasons I think rejoining will be difficult. It requires a 180° volte-face, a giant leap of change in nation psychology.
Not so much about deal, or no deal, with the EU but the fact that we have missed out on 10% of investment and growth because of Brexit. The US and Ireland are now the English speaking countries getting investment from High tech companies wanting access to the EU market. The US economy has expanded by 10% with these industries since Brexit.
There is the case of Switzerland which does not belong to the EU and yet it has had to accept Schengen and of course imports a lot of food from France and Italy. Quite a good example of having to bow to its larger neighbour.
Jonathan I can assure you remainers will never give up trying to get this disastrous deal renegotiated. Any more than brexiteers stopped complaining for 40 years. Why should we be different? The whole campaign was based on complete lies and now it has turned out it was not about stopping EU immigration but stopping it to open the doors to India ( 2 million people) and Nigeria ( half a million) and trade deals for cheap inferior goods, and standards most people feel truly cheated. For example standards for nurses being lowered to recruit from India and the Philippines as part of our new Brexit freedoms What would be interesting to know, is if there is astrological insight into a much closer relationship with the EU one way or another? The liberals I am sure will push to rejoin the single market if they hold the balance of power. Right now remainers are pinning their hopes on any non Tory government at least partly reversing this process but no one is going to rock the boat whilst the tabloids are out there trying to engender a vote for the Tories. After the election all will change. I also think you will find the Liberals are doing very well in remainer, educated, middle class seats like Amersham
One thing that has puzzled me is that the LibDem party could and should ‘own’ rejoining the EU as its USP.
If rejoining was truly popular with the British electorate, then, surely, the LibDems should coast to big political gains, if not actual power, on the basis of this main plank of policy, and this alone.
Yet, as it happens, there never was a LibDem resurgence at the polls, and currently they trail fourth in British opinion polls, behind the Reform party.
Re the Lib Dems: Tribal voting put pay to that ever happening. However, Jo Swinson hasn’t helped the cause either. She was a little too eager and promised more than she could deliver. Sad really.
What is the future for the euro?
As far as the UK is concerned, the EU died at Hartlepool*
* Recent by election in which a formerly rock solid Labour seat went Tory after Starmer made rejoining noises.
Gave the Labour Party the shock of its life.
That Hartlepool by election declaration horoscope would be a good one to analyse in terms of the UK ever rejoining the EU.
This took place on May 7th 2021 when the tories were between 8 and 15 points ahead in the polls nationally.
Never mind that.
It was one of Labour’s safest seats.
Sorry Jonathan but you know things were completely different then. Boris Johnson was riding high in the polls for one and we had only been fully out of the EU for less than 18 months.
Jonathan, Why have you got such a bee in your bonnet about it all? I was a firm remainer though I did not get a vote living in France at that point. But even I recognise there is zero chance of rejoining for several reasons – principally the French won’t have us and would make it ultra-difficult and secondly it would arouse the Little Englander fervour which was such a bore and a distraction running into and out of Brexit.
Surely, this is the time for the ‘acceptance’ stage of grief to kick in.
Denial has long since flowed past, although anger might linger.
Marjorie,
Can you elucidate of any dealings behind the scenes. Does the astrology show that? This is the frightening moment in the U.K. where the high food standards and environmental standards of the EU and up till now GB too can be undermined by cheap sub standard imports with GM and banned pesticides as other countries fill the EU food supply chain. No doubt part of the payback for dodgy trade deals. Is that hinted at?
The idea that U.K. cannot rejoin because of the single currency is just a barrier brexiteers throw up. Does anyone think the EU would not make a derogation or return to the previous deal if they could have the U.K. back in the team? Macron said there is always a way back when Brexit happened.
Is there at least hope in the astrology of return to the single market.? I know so many brexiteers that now regret their vote, not least as legal immigration has trembled since leaving, the last thing they were told
It is such a nightmare sometimes to live outside the EU. For example, hear this about a case of buying something from a EU country and sending it to a non-EU country.
The goods themselves were not that expensive. But then the price of delivery, done by DHL, FedEx, and similar shipping firms, did not include the price of additional duties and tax, and amounted to around the price of the goods.
Then when the goods arrived at a local DHL warehouse, DHL told you that you will pay:
1. customs duties calculated for the total price of goods + shipping
2. taxes on top of and for the entire price that included customs calculated on top of goods + shipping
3. filling around 3, 4, 5… documents for the customs
4. paying the DHL handling fee (!; what exactly did they handle is one questions, since all forms were filled by the person), which amounted to around half the price of shipping.
It is a full-on nightmare. Further enlarged by the fact that no parcel forwarder in Spain seems to be sending goods via ordinary post office, but only via fast and expensive shippers. And the fact that to use them you need to upload a photo of your passport, which seems like such a privacy nightmare.
It is difficult when some people live in countries which are not a market: especially if they are not so because they are small and poor(er) and there might be an import lobby.
It can be depressing.
My online small business where 90% of my orders came from Europe/uS/Canada dried up post Brexit. Custom charges went up for me and for the receiver just made me have to think again, especially if I had a sale. They just stopped ordering.
I’m so sorry, Jennifer! I really, really am and hope that things will get better for you and get better soon. Don’t lose hope. Maybe better times are around this corner.
“But an easing of barriers, tariffs and travel restrictions might sweeten the pill”
Yes indeed! Thanks Marjorie – and I can’t help wondering how the astrology might have manifested without the Brexit vote too.
Regarding barriers, tariffs and travel restrictions I thought of Mercury’s role in this as god of merchants, thieves, and travellers. UK Mercury 17 Sagittarius in the 3rd House will be highlighted in August by the Jupiter in Gemini square Saturn in Pisces. It’s an interesting moment for the law and what seems fair, as that square will be joined by Venus in details Virgo, Mars in Gemini – all focused on UK’s lively and restless Mercury. Potentially chaotic, yet flexible? Or is Mercury stuck for the time being in a Mutable Cross? I can imagine all the queues at Dover, and so on.
The Brexit vote also has a Jupiter 16 Virgo, square Saturn 11 Sagittarius, with Nodes 15 Virgo/Pisces. Interesting to see that the Treaty of Rome, 25 March 1957, also has Jupiter in Virgo (25) and Saturn in Sagittarius (14). That idealistic and hopeful post WW2 agreement has another kind of t-square – Moon opposition Leo Uranus, square Neptune in Scorpio. Pluto’s transit to that now approaches, while Neptune joins its Venus at 29 Pisces for some melting moments. Could be worth exploring the role of fixed star Scheat at 29 Pisces too – rising above on the wings of Pegasus, or falling to earth?
“Not an economic nirvana for the naive, yet also not a disaster.” Such a stirring campaign slogan for any politician!
My impression as an expat living in the EU is that no one here is very much interested in the UK anymore. It has the same significance as Iceland (also a former member which is ‘creeping back’ as it becomes increasingly aligned). I wish I could say something about the astrology but it all looks too complicated to be able to draw any conclusions.
Rejoining the EU would necessitate joining then single currency.
This will, inevitably, cause the biggest cuts in public spending ever, with the NHS, amongst other things being decimated. Also, a massive and long lasting economic slump due to deflating the economy is certain.
We all know that UK politicians are damned fools, but one wonders if that even they are *that* damned foolish.
But, on reflection …….
There would be no requirement to join the euro. There are enough member states that are still nowhere near taking that step.
All new members of the EU are now required to joint the ERM as part of a convergence process ultimately leading to Euro membership which is essentially the same thing as the national currency is meant to pegged to the Euro. The only country with an opt out is Denmark. One has only to go back to Black Wednesday on 16 September 1992 to see what would happen in those circumstances (Pluto tracking over the U.K. 2nd House Neptune shattering financial illusions).
Marjorie,
You have mentioned that it is unlikely that the UK will rejoin the EU in the medium-term, for both domestic reasons and due to France.
But can the UK rejoin the Single Market via EFTA and the EEA?
EFTA was founded on 12 January 1960 in Stockholm and indeed the UK was one of its founding members, before it quit to join the then EEC.
The Agreement creating the European Economic Area (EEA) was signed in Porto on 2 May 1992.
The EFTA members of the EEA (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) follow almost all the laws of the EU, with some limited derogations (such as not participating in the common fishery and agriculture programmes), even though they are not members.
They are called “fax democracies” in that they have to implement EU laws received by fax from Brussels, but in return, they enjoy all the benefits of the Single market (free movement of capital, people, etc).
And crucially membership of EFTA can’t be vetoed by France or any other EU member-state.
Just a quick correction Marjorie. Ex-pats have thus far been able to vote in UK elections provided they hadn’t been out of the country for *more* than 15 years. What is *new* is that this 15 year cut-off point has been abolished and now ALL ex-pats can vote regardless of length of time abroad.
Interesting that they are including ex-pats now…I wonder what’s the logic there? I notice it (https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN05923/SN05923.pdf) says: The Elections Act 2022 scrapped the 15-year limit and from 16 January 2024 eligible British citizens will be able to register regardless of how long they have been away from the UK….does this mean that my husband’s uncle who was a £10 pom in the 60s can now vote again! I see the franchise doesn’t allow them to vote in scotland, wales or NI.
As for the EU since Brexit 2016 I would have thought they would have also changed, but then I remember it was said that the EU has a very fixed chart. Pluto heading for the Descendant of the Brexit chart? Planets in transit says: power struggles expect opponent to use every sneaky device ! Pluto opposition the Jupiter in the 1801 chart…..Mr Hand says avoid getting into trouble with the law.
“I see the franchise doesn’t allow them to vote in scotland, wales or NI.”
That is not correct. Overseas voters can vote in all countries of the UK, and indeed, they are required to register where they were either last registered as voters or last resident in the UK.
The difference is in the way that they register to vote. For England, Wales and Scotland (Great Britain), it can be done online, while for NI, they must apply on a paper form.
“Pluto opposition the Jupiter in the 1801 chart…..Mr Hand says avoid getting into trouble with the law.”
Oh, don’t say that. Tr Pluto is exactly opposition my Jupiter right now and for most of this year.