Northern Ireland has double trouble with the Brexit headache looming large and no functioning cabinet. It’s more than 600 days since the power-sharing government collapsed into stalemate and Theresa May has not stepped into to take charge through direct rule, because her hare-brained reliance on the DUP in Westminster would give rise of … Read more
I hate new dates for country charts. Often they are thrown into the mix by people who are either: a) obsessive compulsive and just like to fiddle and be different from the crowd; b) get focussed on minor shifts in the country’s history, in this instance a name change – after a divorce … Read more
The Labour leadership, Corbyn and McDonnell, are in a double-bind pulled between their longstanding dislike of the EU and their membership which favours a People’s Vote by nine to one with 90% wanting to remain according to David Lammy MP. Corbyn’s relationship chart with the EU has a bitterly hostile composite Mars opposition … Read more
The entry of the Sun into Libra (yesterday) was generally considered the most important of the four Cardinal ingresses in the year. How useful ingress charts are is a moot point, having been roundly dismissed by astrologers who studied them in depth across a range of events. But for what it’s worth, set … Read more
Cartoon: Andy Davey: @Cartoon4sale Labour MP Chuka Umunna has accused leader Jeremy Corbyn of driving centre-left MPs like himself out of the party and he urged him to “call off the dogs” – hardline factions who are intent on changing selection procedures to run out moderate MPs. He said instead the party should be fighting … Read more
Boris Johnson instead of gearing up for a Brexit fight and push for No 10 is now embroiled in a divorce. He announced today he had separated some months ago from his wife of 25 years, a barrister, with claims that he’d been cheating again. He was thrown out twice before over affairs, … Read more
Nicola Sturgeon isn’t having a good summer with troubling economic figures for Scotland showing it lagging behind the UK as a whole and making independence a less attractive prospect even with the Brexit guddle. Now she’s getting slated by her political rivals about what she knew and when of the sexual assault allegations … Read more
Greece has entered “a new chapter” Jean-Claude Juncker cheerily said as banners in Brussels were raised for the ending of the country’s 8 year bail-out programme. In Greece there is less jubilation with a fifth of the working-age population out of work, youth unemployment running at 43.6% – the worst in the EU; … Read more
The economic panic button has moved off Turkey onto Italy with Claudio Borghi, the chairman of Italy’s budget committee, sounding doom over the European Central Bank’s intention to cease to be the lender-of-last resort by the end of this year. He said, “The whole situation is unsustainable without an ECB guarantee, and the … Read more
La vieille hostilite between France and England always stood in contrast to the Auld Alliance between France and Scotland from the days of Bonnie Prince Charlie. There’s no indication of any softening of the historic enmity in the flurry of diplomacy from Westminster over the past week trying to shift Macron onto a more … Read more