The day of the long knives reshuffle has turned out to be distinctly vanilla flavoured with a muted reception even from the right-wing media. The two key appointments of Michael Gove to Housing and Liz Truss to the Foreign Office are deemed to be Boris strategies for seeing off rivals. Truss had the highest approval … Read more
‘Live in the midst of difficulties as if they did not exist’ is a laudable I Ching goal for a keep-calm-and-carry-on tranquillity but hardly helpful as government strategy in the face of mounting problems. Empty supermarket shelves, the result of a mixed Brexit and pingdemic effect, are alarming shoppers and likely to worsen towards Christmas. … Read more
The Brexit Deal was signed at 2.44pm and announced at 3pm in London, with sighs of relief all round. The devil will be in the detail but even Nigel Farage says the long haul out of the EU is over. It will still have to be ratified by both parliaments but the reckoning is … Read more
Boris’s adviser on ministerial standards has resigned after he found the Home Secretary Priti Patel guilty of breaking the code in a bullying inquiry and had his finding overturned by the prime minister. Ministers are normally expected to resign if they break the code. Says it all really. No shame, no moral authority, no … Read more
A rollicking political diary described as “a merciless memoir“ has been slicing through the pervading gloom as a former minister’s wife took payback for being ignored by the Cameron clique. Sasha Swire, heretofore unknown to all but few, is now a household word for indiscretion and betrayal. One reviewer said her “diaries are treacherous, socially … Read more
Whither Brexit? I’m not sure why I’m embarking on this post since nothing is remotely clear from the astrology. Despite the current mood of paralysis there is no doubt the UK has left the EU and is, thus, not liable for the EU Covid bailout fund or contributions to the EU budget. … Read more
Boris Johnson is back at work only two weeks after leaving hospital having been in intensive care to announce the lockdown must continue to prevent a second wave. Other virus sufferers say the recovery takes weeks, perhaps even months, so it’s almost certainly too soon for him to be back to fighting fitness. Saturn … Read more
Priti Patel, the UK Home Secretary, is knee-deep in rumours of spats with her senior civil servants with the Times reporting multiple Home Office sources accusing her of bullying, belittling officials and presiding over an “atmosphere of fear”. There has also been a leak (hotly denied) that MI5 has been keeping intelligence away from her. … Read more
Boris Johnson was sworn in by the Queen just after 11 am this morning. That puts an ultra-determined, opinionated and vengeful Mars in Scorpio in the 9th (foreign neighbours) in a publicity-attracting trine to Neptune which is also in turn square the Sagittarius Sun. It’s not quite as Neptunian a swamp as Theresa May’s … Read more
“The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.” Lewis Carroll The latest bright Boris idea is to proceed with all haste towards an election on December 12th – IF Westminster agrees and IF the EU pronounces a delay on Brexit. It’s a risky choice for both Tory and Labour, since the known unknowns include … Read more