Leftwing Jeremy Corbyn has been re-elected as Labour leader (UK Opposition), with 61.8% of the vote, a larger margin than last year, in a poll forced on him after more than 170 MPs supported a motion of no confidence in him. Though it’s not clear what comes next since only about 20% of … Read more
JonBenet Ramsey, the miniature beauty queen murdered 20 years ago is back in the news with TV and chat show reconstructions of her death and theories about whodunnit. Her brother Burke is suing over suggestions he hit her with a flashlight, aged nine, and his parents staged a cover up. The family initially … Read more
Angela Merkel swallowing her party’s second electoral defeat within two weeks and apologising for her migrant policy, seems to be hinting she’ll stand again in the German Federal elections next autumn. She’s certainly been a blessing for Germany with her Jupiter Mercury conjunct the Germany 1871 MC and her Sun Uranus in the Germany … Read more
South America’s longest running war is coming to an end with Colombia’s FARC left-wing guerrillas about to hang up their guns – or at least so the theory goes, since some dissidents have refused to demilitarize. FARC’s founding is generally put at 27 May 1964 which gives the revolutionary Uranus Pluto in Virgo opposition … Read more
Diane James, the new UKIP leader, 20 Nov 1959, is certainly an intense, tough, no-compromiser with a Sun Mars in Scorpio square Uranus, though perhaps a touch overly impulsive and forceful. She’s evidently a good media performer which makes sense of a confident Jupiter Mercury in Sagittarius sextile Venus in charming Libra. But there’s … Read more
The chief exorcist for Rome, Father Gabriel Amorth, has died. He claimed to have conducted tens of thousands of exorcisms, was against yoga because it encouraged Eastern religions; and against Harry Potter, since it gave children an interest in black magic and wizardry. He said people possessed by the devil vomited pieces of iron, glass … Read more
The unwieldy juggernaut that is the EU has now fished out another arch-federalist to be a Brexit chief negotiator. The appointment of Guy Verhofstadt, ex Belgian PM, is sending shudders down UK spines, being shoehorned in for the European Parliament, to add to the woes of having Michel Barnier, the hardline French chief negotiator … Read more
The squabbling Brexiteers in the Cabinet are about the only sign of movement in the great unknown of the decoupling from the EU that lies ahead. PM Theresa May, from all accounts, will micro-manage the process but there’s no hint of the hows and whens. And apart from the odd fly-swat seems content to allow … Read more
Carl Jung, 26 July 1875 7.26pm Kesswil, Switzerland, the analytical psychotherapist, was immensely influential not just on the development of psychology (along with Freud), but also on anthropology, archaeology, literature, and religious studies. He focused on individuation, the process of integrating the opposites, the conscious and unconscious, and left behind important concepts like archetypes, … Read more
Renee Zellweger is getting good reviews for Bridget Jones’s Baby, third in the franchise, co-written by Emma Thompson and also starring Colin Firth and Patrick Dempsey (late of Gray’s Anatomy). Born 25 April 1969 2.41pm Baytown, Texas, she’s ideally cast as the chaotic, emotionally dysfunctional Bridget. She has a secretive and determined Taurus Sun … Read more