George Soros, billionaire, philanthropist and a pro-active campaigner for democracy arouses strong reactions. Some applaud his fight against apartheid, his support for the LGBT community, for opponents of communist regimes, for persecuted minorities like the Roma and for freedom of expression and human rights. Others, especially right-wingers, nationalists and populists call him … Read more
The drum roll for Theresa May’s departure is growing louder as the Tory Party grows ever more exasperated and desperate about her lack-lustre performance. A new leader need not mean another general election, but there’s no obvious unifying or even half-decent candidate. Given that the party has been in meltdown conflict over … Read more
The upcoming Lunar Eclipse (Full Moon) on January 31st at 11 degrees Leo/Aquarius has Venus tied in but none of the outer planets, bar mild aspects to Neptune (inconjunct and semi-sextile) so looks reasonably amiable. I’m informed that the Moon is exactly conjunct the minor planet Ceres, though I can’t verify that. … Read more
Apart from some blips, the UK is maintaining a remarkably upbeat mood despite all the Project Fear prophecies of doom. A couple of zippy, confident Pluto transits to two separate Jupiter midpoints from February to mid-July, returning over the New Year and throughout 2019, should make for good news. Plus a ‘lucky break’ upsurge … Read more
A bunch of right-wing, anti-abortion, anti-same-sex-marriage/LGBT rights, creationist Ulster Protestants (aka Ian Paisley) have scuppered Theresa May’s chances of moving onto the next crucial Brexit stage of trade talks. After the disastrous election last June May was forced to lash herself unthinkably to the Northern Ireland DUP for their 10 MPs to survive … Read more
Damian Green, the UK Cabinet minister and stalwart inside supporter of Theresa May, is embroiled in a complicated wrangle over allegations of inappropriate behaviour and having porn on his office computer (not illegal) – all of which he strenuously denies. His allies claim he’s being stitched up because of an old feud with … Read more
The Brexit bullet having been fired is due to hit its target on 29 March 2019 at 11pm London time, which may (or may not) see a divorce decree absolute, given the amount of foot-shuffling going on. But it’s what Theresa May is rigidly clinging onto, at least for today. It would make sense … Read more
The Tweedledum and tweedledee of UK politics, Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, appear to be over their knife-in-the-back mid-2016 spat when Gove wrecked Boris’s chances of running for the Tory leadership, only to run himself and lose. They are back together and have evidently sent Theresa May a secret letter dictating how … Read more
A third UK Cabinet embarrassment is erupting fury this week as it emerges that Priti Patel, the international development secretary, broke the ministerial code of conduct by having a dozen unofficial meetings with Israeli government officials, including PM Netanyahu, while she was on holiday in Israel. Then it turns out she was … Read more
Bumbling Boris, the UK Foreign Secretary, could well have condemned an Iranian-British woman, Nazanin Zhagari-Ratcliffe, to a longer prison sentence by not reading his brief with care. In parliament in a belated attempt to put pressure on the Iranian government he said she had been teaching journalists in Teheran when in fact she … Read more