Ready, steady – and the mis-steps and dirty tricks begin. First off, Theresa May’s letter, on any sensible reading, suggested the UK’s co-operation on security was dependent on getting a good Brexit deal. Outrage across the EU and she’s had to backtrack. Now the EU have dropped a bombshell in the small print of their response, using the future of Gibraltar as a bargaining chip. Spain now has a veto on any deal – and definitely wants Gibraltar back 300 years after signing it over in the Treaty of Utrecht. The 30,000 residents (all true-blue bulldog Brits) voted overwhelmingly in favour of remaining in the EU by 96 per cent. The clause has taken British officials by surprise and is a major diplomatic defeat. Recent “unlawful incursions” of Spanish state vessels into British Gibraltarian waters have led to MPs saying that Spain’s behaviour as a Nato ally is becoming “increasingly unreliable”.
The ‘friendship treaty’ at Utrecht which set up British rule over Gibraltar was signed on July 13 1713 (Gregorian calendar if going by Utrecht time). That chart has certainly suffered a major shock as of now with Solar Arc Uranus square the Mars exactly at the moment; and not improving over coming years with the Solar Arc Uranus/Pluto midpoint square Mars by 2020 and by Solar Arc Pluto by 2023. All of which looks trapped and enfuriated. Tr Pluto will oppose the patriotic Cancer Sun in 2018/2019 for a hugely pressured time, moving on to bitter arguments with tr Pluto opposition Mercury in 2019/2020. Tr Neptune is conjunct the Jupiter in Pisces, exact now, and repeating till late 2017 which will undermine confidence; with an exceptionally highly strung Solar Arc Neptune opposition Uranus late 2018/2019.
The relationship chart with the UK looks aggravated and insecure from late this April, on and off till early 2018 with tr Uranus square the composite Mars; in a state of upheaval in 2018/19 with tr Pluto trine the composite Uranus; and frosty to the point of separation in 2018/19 with tr Saturn square the composite Mercury, then Sun and Venus.
Relations between Gibraltar and Spain 1975 chart, always hostile at best with an aggravated composite Mars Saturn in a suspicious, non-supportive opposition Neptune square Moon, and a fight-for-control composite Sun Pluto – is under very discouraging Saturn transits this year into 2018; and thoroughly jangled in 2018/19. And it won’t get easier as tr Uranus moves in the early 2020s to hard aspects the composite Venus, Saturn, Mars, Moon and Neptune.