Liz Truss, Foreign Secretary, has been named as Frost’s replacement as UK’s Brexit negotiator, on top of her other duties. This either consolidates her power-base or hands her the poisoned chalice of a no-win wrangle ahead along with such a punishing workload that she’ll be less of a threat to Boris’s leadership. A former … Read more
The UK is blundering into 2022 hoping for the best but not quite grasping that life-as-we-knew-it won’t return for a while – and not all of it will be the pandemic. With such a fixed chart the country is designed for endurance and continuing along the same track. Uranus, bringer of thunderbolts and lightning, planet … Read more
The surprise departure of David Frost, the UK Brexit negotiator won’t cause any tears in the EU given his truculent rhetoric and bullying tactics. Though it will add to Boris Johnson’s woes as his ship lists badly with one calamity after another. A right-winger, Frost has gone he said because he was concerned about covid … Read more
Geoffrey Cox MP is giving fat-cat politicians a bad name, appearing only twice in Westminster to vote in 13 months and reportedly using his Commons office for his £1m-a-year legal sideline which takes him off to the sunny tax haven of the British Virgin Islands. He evidently offered the Islands legal advice recently in a … Read more
What an unholy mess. A Tory MP acted as a paid advocate for private interests while serving as an MP, was censured, whereupon Boris Johnson decides to retrospectively upend the decision, fire the official finger-pointer and shift the goalposts for the future. The opposition finally woke up, shrieking blue murder and even Tory backbenchers hung … Read more
Rishi Sunak, the UK Chancellor, despite all media rumours that he and Boris did not see eye to eye has indulged in a lavish budget. It has alarmed ‘small government’ Tories and stirred up criticism for those affected by tax rises, with gloomy prognostications about financial pain to come with inflation, rising mortgage rates and … Read more
Poland’s prime minister – a cross between Boris Johnson and Donald Trump – has been using inflammatory language about ‘guns to head’ and starting a third World War as the EU put its foot down about internal Polish moves to threaten the independence of the judiciary. The stand-off has already delayed approval of Poland’s €36bn … Read more
The fraught Aries Full Moon today is the preceding one to the Lunar Eclipse on 19th November. The Moon opposes Sun Mars and squares Pluto, so no surprises there is a challenging, frustrated, stuck mood this week. Occasionally Lunar Eclipse events trigger on the Full Moon before or after – and given that … Read more
The war of words over the unresolved Northern Ireland trade screw up post-Brexit is escalating with David Frost, negotiator on the UK side, threatening the nuclear option of suspending the protocol about the land border between north and south if the EU doesn’t budge by the end of the month – which would breach international … Read more
A surge in energy prices and shortage of gas is causing anxiety to spike along with bills across Europe. The UK appears to be harder hit than most with a perfect storm of energy companies going bankrupt as well as petrol stations closing and supermarkets going bare-shelved because of a shortage of lorry drivers. There … Read more