Gordon Brown, former Chancellor and PM, has stuck his head above the parapet indicating he’ll play a part in any debates about Scottish independence, following his 2014 interventions arguing to uphold the union.
He’s been low profile since giving up his Westminster seat in 2015 and though touted for a few high profile economic jobs has stayed off the publicity radar, although lending his support to child poverty and other campaigns. His time as Chancellor 1997 to 2007 under Tony Blair oversaw major reform of Britain’s monetary and fiscal policies, the longest period of sustained economic growth in UK history, and mounting debt. As PM, he introduced rescue packages in 2008 and 2009 to help keep the banks afloat during the global financial crisis, dramatically increasing result the national debt. His premiership was regarded as a failure with his temperament unsuited to high office. An ex-Treasury civil servant described him as ruthless and Stalinist in approach.
Born 20 February 1951 8.40 am Glasgow, Scotland, he has a see-saw and oddly disjointed chart. His 12th house Pisces Sun shares this hidden self-protective chart area with Jupiter, North Node, Venus and Mars also in Pisces in the 12th. His Venus Mars oppose Saturn in Libra with Saturn square Uranus on his IC – so he will be autocratic, not practising what he preaches with Saturn Uranus; and prone to setbacks and a short fuse from Mars Saturn. His Saturn in the 6th also indicates some health issues and he does have eyesight problems. All of that might have added up to a retiring, backroom or creative personality. But he’s also got an attention-demanding Moon Pluto in Leo in his 5th house opposition Mercury in Aquarius. This will give him a tendency to be ego-centred, and also contemptuous, stubborn and bullying.
He’s a highly complex man who discovered much like Boris that gaining his long dreamt of crown didn’t suit him after all.
Odd that both he and Boris fervently wished for the top spot for years (decades) and then when they got it the ceiling fell on their heads. Brown got the 2008 crash and Boris got the pandemic. And both have afflicted Mars in aspect to Saturn and Uranus – in Boris’s case his Mars also ties into Pluto.
Brown is up and down (like most people) in the immediate future with undermining Neptune transits to his Mars Venus this year and next. But his Solar Arc Jupiter picking up the tr Pluto trine will keep him buoyant and his Solar Arc MC is conjunct his Jupiter late 2022/early 2023 which looks like a successful phase. That coincides with tr Jupiter moving across his Ascendant in 2023 for a revival of confidence. So who knows he might manage to be on the winning side of keeping the union together.
An old, circa 2007, and rather cruel joke from celebrated Glaswegian comedian, Frankie Boyle:
‘Apparently, George Bush did not know who Gordon Brown was, he thought he was Tony Blair after having put on weight and suffering a mild stroke”.
(Sorry).
Thanks Marjorie for this.
It is a strange chart -perhaps one has such a chart to be a political leader. It is slightly more balanced than Boris’ though with little in the earth signs and mostly the slower moving planets in the cardinal signs. The concentration of Piscean planets Brown is at odds with Boris and our other recent Gemini/ Sagittarius leaders. Brown was famed for his robust language in dealing with rivals and subordinates and also craving for applause which is shown by the Leo conjunct Pluto opposite mercury. A different type of politician which might help us.
I don’t know what the astrology says about it, but Gordon Brown seems to me – a general observer of people, events and phenomena – one of those odd people who have the uncanny, seemingly fated, ability to destroy everything they touch, in other words what the gambling fraternity would call a ‘jinx’.
Just read somewhere that Gordon Brown was born 36 hours or so before an eclipse, apparently the last eclipse on the Saros cycle.
What this means, I do not know. A wild guess of mine is that involves his key role in the death of the New Labour bandwagon, or even being the last Labour PM of all time…..
“So who knows he might manage to be on the winning side of keeping the union together.”
As an external observer actually finding his proposition for a more Federal Britain reasonable, I have to say his heavy 12th house Piscean chart alludes a “swansong” leader, not an innovator. I find this is often the role of Pisces Sun politicians, Michael Gorbachev whose chart I looked at in relation to events in Russia just today and Mitt Romney, who seems to be the last bastion of an old GOP in The US (I think GOP is destined to spilt, US Pluto return is likely a turning point for party system). This idea is also interesting in light of the era he was PM at. What came to an end circa 2008-2009 in Britain?
Solaia – I was also looking at Mikhail Gorbachev’s chart today! I was interested to see that he’s got a Pisces Sun and Leo Moon like Gordon Brown, and if the time is right, has Saturn at the IC square Uranus on the descendant, a reverse of Gorbachev’s Saturn and Uranus positions.
I also think the Federal Britain sounds sensible, and can see GB’s passion for Scotland’s wellbeing when he speaks. He seemed to lack that passion and energy when he was PM, and I have even sometimes almost forgotten he was PM! Suspect his “dream” of being PM was just that, a very Piscean ideal or fantasy. And perhaps a lack of real self awareness in some way, he seems to be a very private individual – but as Marjorie says, the 5th house Leo Moon would need an audience and some attention. Mars inconjunct Neptune and Pluto might make for some difficult or unwise actions too.
You ask what came to an end circa 2008-9 in Britain – not sure, the financial crash looms over everything in my memory. Boris Johnson became London Mayor that spring (!), and Obama was elected President – that certainly felt very uplifting here in the UK too, the autumn of that year had been very focused on the crash and it’s fallout. Some financial changes in regulations etc might have been made, but probably not enough was done and the London “laundromat” continued to spin.
“Some financial changes in regulations etc might have been made, but probably not enough was done and the London “laundromat” continued to spin.”
I was thinking about real estate market here, too, but in a different way. In The US, I think that ended an ideal of home ownership as means of financial and social “climb” for working and middle class. Homes in wrong areas became a burden rather than an asset. Now, Millenials get blamed for ruining real estate market, but I just wonder how much of this is trauma induced. They were stepping into adulthood.
I know London property prices started seriously turn lower income people away around this time – I remember that despite the crunch, there was a bubble caused by Olympic Games, and I think BoJo’s Council tapped on that, by driving people out of Council Housing to more remote locations. But still, I don’t know if the culture changed as much as in The US.
I’d say it didn’t change the culture as much as in the US, but the UK property market was already quite different. I think there were far more rental properties in the US, and that people moved cities more often for their work than they tend to do here – easier to do if you’re renting. I think that was also true in many parts of Europe, but don’t know if this still applies.
Foreign investment in the UK property market, mostly London, is very significant. In the first half of 2013 (Deloitte source) 82% of property transactions in the City of London were international investment. Most of those investments are registered offshore. And no inheritance tax applied to foreign investment in property until, I think, 2017. There have been some heated debates about this, politically. But basically, it was what’s called an “attractive” and quite safe investment for foreigners for decades. The Labour government/Gordon Brown did very little about curbing any of this either. It is most certainly a way to launder money…..
From my own travels and friends in Europe, and in India, I know that this kind of investment is happening in many countries. There seem to be properties everywhere that only see their owners briefly each year, or not at all. Ultimately, it does not benefit most people but simply pushes up prices everywhere. Possibly, Uranus in Taurus will shake this up. Uranus was in Taurus when rent controls were introduced in 1939, and abolished in 1968 with Uranus in Virgo. We shall see.