UKIP, the UK Independence Party, should be lyrical over the Brexit vote. Instead they appear to be melting down. A popular MEP has been ruled ineligible to stand for the election of leader after Nigel Farage stepped down by the NEC. As a result there have been resignations from the NEC, saying the party’s … Read more
This isn’t an astrological thought (yet) but I’ve always been fascinated by – a) how difficult it is to get people to change their minds; and b) how ideas flit out into the zeitgeist and remain set in concrete for decades, some of them later proving monumentally wrong. On Larry’s example of kids battered by … Read more
While it has always been true – in politics and life – that people tend to agree with views/facts that confirm what they already believe and discount those which run counter, it is a phenomenon (confirmation bias) which seems to be turning into the pathology of the 21st Century. There is some astrology at the … Read more
Michel Barnier, dubbed ‘scourge of the City of London’ has been named as the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, reporting directly to Jean-Claude Juncker – Juncker’s revenge. Barnier, a former French foreign minister, born 9 Jan 1951 4.40pm La Tronche, France, is a 7th house Sun Capricorn square Neptune; with a control-freak, inordinately … Read more
Lloyd’s insurance market, is likely to be an early loser from the UK’s Brexit vote as insurers prepare to shift some of their operations out of the country, if, as seems likely, the UK loses passporting rights of direct access to the EU. One insider described the vote as “seismic” for the insurance market and … Read more
Yanis Varoufakis, the flamboyant, playboy Marxist economist, former Greek finance minister, both loathes and supports the EU. On the run up to the referendum he campaigned for the UK to remain, warning that Brexit could plunge the continent into a 1930s-style depression. Earlier this year he launched Democracy in Europe 2025 with Noam … Read more
Bojo ‘The Clown’ in as UK diplomat to the globe does sound like a Monty Pythonesque joke. He has sprayed insults around as befits his Mars in Gemini on the focal point of a high-wire, overly excitable Mutable T Square to disruptive Uranus Pluto opposition Saturn. And he has Mercury Sun Venus also in scattered … Read more
There’s a ‘you-broke-it, you-own-it,’ feel to Theresa May’s new cabinet as she lands the pro-Brexiteers with the task of handling the complex and fraught negotiations with the EU and self-starting trade elsewhere. David Davis, Brexit; Liam Fox, international trade; Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary. The major great departments of state go to Remainers – Philip Hammond, … Read more
What a relief, the UK has a new PM – a hand on the helm, maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, but an experienced presence is better than a vacuum. Theresa May will be anointed sometime on Wednesday afternoon, which is the second relief, that she’s not taking up the reins around that … Read more
There’s pressure from Angela Merkel’s party for Martin Schulz, a German MEP and President of the European Parliament (EP) to stand down in January, but there’s a feeling he may refuse. He’s another hardliner, buddies with Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, and both pro-more integration. There was criticism from Germany that the … Read more