Paula Vennells, former boss of the Post Office on the hook for the Horizon debacle was supposed to be the highlight of the inquiry but was somewhat overshadowed by the election announcement. She was in charge when innumerable sub postmaster/mistresses were wrongly on the basis of a malfunctioning computer system. Some went to prison, others died before apologies were wrung out of seemingly shameless managers.
She sniffed into a tissue throughout her questioning by barristers, blamed underlings, said she didn’t know and generally flailed around ducking all responsibility and self-awareness. And this from an Anglican priest no less.
Born 21 February 1959, she has an eye-catching and toe-curling chart with a Pisces Sun Mercury opposition Pluto square Mars opposition Jupiter. A Mutable Grand Cross involving Mars Pluto is a pile-up of control issues, changeability, indecision, poor concentration, desperation and opportunism from Mars Jupiter. And overall a tendency to be swept along by prevailing events. She also has an unyielding Saturn in Capricorn inconjunct Mars (maybe on the focal point of a yod involving a flamboyant, attention seeking Leo Moon) and trine Pluto, sextile Neptune. The yod with Saturn on the focal point sounds more than feasible since it always bring an element of karmic payback for failures of decency and responsibility.
She has already forfeited her CBE for bringing the Honours system into disrepute, lost her health service job (finally) and is facing a highly uncomfortable few years after tr Uranus moves into Gemini in 2025 as it rattles up all her Mutable planets for three years or so.
The barristers who represent the wronged subpostmasters had their opportunity to ‘grill’ PV on the 3rd day of her giving evidence. The media refer to these barristers as The Attack Dogs. The first one summed her up very succinctly when he began by saying “You may preach compassion, but you don’t practice compassion!” The only compassion she showed throughout was for herself!
It was interesting observing Vennells at the inquiry. I can see fond she is of using a kind of sermon to appear heroically contrite – for example, at the start of her evidence she said she was more than prepared to stand with one of the Sub Postmasters outside his former PO with a banner stating his innocence, and she stated this with a certain amount of self-congratulatory aplomb.
But then as the inquiry went on, it became clear just how little she regarded these innocent people, happy to sacrifice them, to shatter their lives and reputation for the greater good of the sacred system. Gradually, as the KC proceeded to expertly dissect her, the shadow side of Pisces became increasingly visible – shockingly, she saw herself as the victim, a poor, beleaguered damsel in distress, so desperate was she to deflect and cling to her ‘good girl’ facade she was more than willing to throw her many colleagues under the bus, and she did so willingly. Every now and then, a glimpse of her indignity and self-righteous rage was visible. Not to mention her selective amnesia and the fact that she began so many sentences with, ‘I would imagine….’, ‘I don’t recall….’
I’ve seen Leo Moons in the charts of ‘pillars of the church’ before. There can be a religious streak running through these moons who enjoy the ‘theatre’, status and ritual of the church, plus the Leo Moon is notorious for its daddy-pleasing tendencies. Perhaps pleasing daddy and pleasing God are rooted in the same dysfunction. Given that her Moon is likely to be part of her natal Yod on Saturn in Capricorn, this gives an added emphasis on her father issues. That Moon is complex, it is also in square to Neptune in Scorpio and conjunct Uranus. Apparently Vennells’ father was an industrial chemist and academic and her mother, a descendant of Sir James Watts, a Mayor of Manchester in the 19th century. Vennells herself has many high-up connections – she is a friend of Justin Welby for example and has political connections too. I doubt she will go to jail.
While reading commentary on the proceedings, I noticed how often people referred to PV as ‘a slippery fish’, given that she’s a Piscean.
Nice round-up VF.
Reading that about Daddy issues – and seeing the Leo moon square Neptune in Scorpio plus Saturn in Capricorn – I’m reminded of Ghislaine Maxwell who still accepts no responsibility for what came to pass. Very different situations but same denial.
Pluto in Aquarius is approaching a square to her Natal Moon in Leo. Maybe this awful women will be forced to come to terms, emotionally, with what she has done.
The woman is the poster child for corporate psychopathy. She is incapable of feeling genuine emotion.
She is selfish.