Is the Conservative Party about to tear itself apart? Rishi Sunak held hostage by the far-right has no real authority over his Cabinet, caving in to pressure over the disastrous Suella Braverman, facing witch-hunt/ stitch-up yowls over the continuing Covid-party investigation of Boris Johnson. The electorate is distancing itself from the Brexit vote and is alarmed at the government’s inability to get a grip of soaring immigration figures, the economy or indeed other malfunctions of various of public utilities.
Braverman, 3 April 1980, was the Home Secretary firstly under Liz Truss, then Sunak and formerly chair of the European Research Group. In 2018 she resigned in protest against May’s draft Brexit withdrawal agreement. She resigned as Truss’s home secretary following criticism for breaching the Ministerial Code by sending a sensitive official document to a political ally using her personal email address. Six days later, she was reinstated as home secretary by Rishi Sunak and is facing a firestorm over her remarks about immigrants and trying to avoid public scrutiny of a speeding fine.
She was born nearly six weeks before Rishi Sunak. Her Aries Sun is in a controlling opposition to Pluto; and she has a flamboyant and bombastic Mars in Leo conjunct North Node on the focal point of a Fixed T Square to Uranus opposition Venus in Taurus – beyond-stubborn and emotionally volatile. Her Mercury in Pisces opposes Saturn in Virgo square Neptune – scattered, nervy, slippery.
She appears to be at odds with the chancellor Jeremy Hunt. A source is quoted as saying. “There is no love lost there at all. Jeremy is very clear that he is not going to sacrifice economic growth to help her appeal to the Tory right.”
The party is facing a plethora of ‘apparently irreconcilable political imperatives’ on a number of issues and it is difficult to see where the solution lies.
The Conservative Party chart, whether 12 November 1867 or 9 May 1912 – has Sun and Saturn conjunct in Scorpio and Taurus respectively and both in the line of fire of tr Uranus hard aspects exactly now, building up pressure through the middle of this year and running through into 2024. So a time of high tension, eruptions and a tug of war between the future (Uranus) and the past (Saturn) – the stalemate won’t be resolved quickly.
The turnaround on the 1912 chart comes in 2025/26 with tr Pluto conjunct the Uranus for a dramatic shift. Rishi Sun has his Taurus Sun around a similar degree as the Party so will be having the same roller coaster ride through this year and next. He is not a quitter but he may come close as he slithers, slide and sinks through a series of swamps and quick sands this year into 2024.
So much going on with these charts! Looking at the time when Ted Heath resigned, 4th March, 1974 shows a Grand Trine in Air with Jupiter 27 Aquarius, Saturn 27 Gemini, Uranus 27 Libra in place that February. This was during the era of power restrictions and three day week. The Tory Party 1912 chart has Pluto 27 Gemini, so was being intensively activated at that time. Ted Heath himself had Mercury 28 Gemini. And the UK’s Black Moon Lilith is 26 Gemini. Rishi Sunak’s Venus, 29 Gemini. Tr Neptune in Pisces is blurring all that Gemini with endless confusing messages, fragments of policies, scandals, financial chaos and so on. As Neptune moves through the late Pisces degrees, will we notice its discombobulating effects more clearly?
I’m not sure what Black Moon Lilith would mean for a nation or political party. But a sensitive point to consider I think.
From a non astrological perspective, the only thing that keeps the Conservative party alive – and as the dominant, defining force in British politics – is the UK’s ‘first past the post’ system of constituency based parliamentary representation, in which political power is effectively hoarded by a duopoly of parties – absolute sovereign political power usually being guaranteed with around 30 – 40% of the aggregate national vote.
Needless to say, this system ossifies political power, virtually compulsorily channelling it into the duopoly. That’s why and that’s why only, this system will never change. The duopoly know full well that under a system more representative of voters political sympathies they will be finished.
Saying all that, a great deal of disappointment is evident amongst Conservative voters in the UK who want a real right wing party. The Reform UK party is the *real* conservative force in British politics and might, it more likely might not, rival the Conservative party.
Ironically Labour haven’t the leadership to pull their warring factions together either so their meltdown may be rather more rapid than a decade long toothache. Political parties are so pre AI.
I can’t think of any political party that is good and they are all consumed with contempt for the electorate.
That’s what happens when you give power to idiotic narcissistic humans from any party
The 1912 Chart has that Mars conjunct Neptune in Cancer square Mercury in Aries which can indicate problems with scandals and divisions. Mars Mercury in hard aspects can be associated with arguments for arguments sake .The 1848 Tamworth Manifesto chart also has Mars Conjunct Moon in Cancer which suggests passions can run out of control. Ironically, the Tory party for all its conservative credentials and long periods in government often functions in a quasi anarchistic way with its members and MPs often proving much harder to corral into a disciplined group than its Labour opponents
The Tories have had 5 leaders in 7 years which says it all really. The party has an addiction to political infighting which must be reflected in their charts somewhere. Such splits are not a new phenomena as it happened over the Corn Laws in the 19th century and Tariff Reform in the early 29th century which saw the party divide and then lose to the Liberal landslide in the 1906 elections. The Party always remerges sooner or later so it would be premature to right it off completely.
I note that a Labour spokesman was comparing Sunak to Ted Heath in the media this morning. The current environment does feel very like the 1970s particularly with the government now talking about price controls. Of course, there is a corollary warning from history for Labour from history as they ousted Ted Heath in 1974 before struggling with exactly the same issues as his administration and losing to Thatcher in 1979 after the Tories moved to the right in opposition. I expect that will happen again if the Conservative gets turfed out at the next General Election as looks likely. The problem for Labour is that Starmer and Reeves policy agenda is not really that different from Sunak’s so they are going to probably find themselves in the same position as Wilson and Callaghan. Lots to look at here.
I agree; labour and Tory are the same and nothing ever changes.
Depressingly so. Parliament needs to change. If we are keep going to be pulled between these two parties, the country has had it. As Labour is financially backed by the Unions and the Tories appear to jump from one get rich scheme to another. Neither is good for the country.
The current, Blairite iteration of the Labour Party is, if anything, even more pro capitalist than the Tories.
Many trade unions have abandoned the Labour party. Others will follow.
That really is errant nonsense. There is plenty of information around from which clear differences can be made.
‘Ted Heath’ seems to be the ultimate and catch-all insult thrown by the Tory right at any left leaning conservative.
That tumultuous period from 1970 to 74 in which Heath ruled seems to be the key period which explains the post Attlee British political settlement. The astrology of the Heath administration should be illuminating.
Ted Heath’s government chart – 19 June 1970 – had a Full Moon as did Theresa May’s 2017 government chart, except hers was square Neptune whereas Heath’s was square Pluto. But both charts suggest a sharp division.
There was an opinion piece recently about timing being all in politics. The argument ran that it is too soon for the top parties to admit Brexit hasn’t worked – the electorate know they got it wrong but don’t want their faces rubbed in it. Similarly Heath pushed too hard when the time was not right. MaggieT swept in a decade later and railroaded changes through.
Popularly derided as an incompetent loser, and as a hate figure by the Tory right, the Heath premiership seems to encapsulate later 20th century and early 21st century UK politics – the struggle between labour and capital, rampant inflation, fiscal crises, unemployment, recession, immigration, the EU,ngeneral malaise etc. All these themes asserted themselves then and haven’t left now. Ted Heath – the eccentric David Icke makes much of his name being an anagram of ‘The Death’ – was really a victim of forces far beyond his control, the 1973 Arab/Israeli war and the quadrupling of petroleum prices by the OPEC cartel, as means of punishing the west. This rooted rampant inflation in the UK – and much industrial destruction. This coupled with a miner’s strike and endless strikes over pay claims. The parallels with today ate painfully obvious – the Ukraine war, commodity price stoked inflation etc.
Another irony is that Heath was a Thatcherite before Thatcher, but was forced to U-Turn by events.
As I said before, Ted Heath seems to be the figure around which recent UK political history revolves.
Dear Marjorie, please correct me if I’m wrong but Theresa May came into Downing Street on July 13th 2016.
Her slogan was no more Austerity. Hah.
Took over in 2016. General election 2017.
I forgot that.
The infighting in the Tory Party does seem to have got a lot worse than in the past. In the period 1965-2001 the party had just 4 leaders Heath, Thatcher, Major and Hague. Since the Millennium it has got through another 7. Apart from Cameron most have barely lasted a couple of years. I can see from the 1912 party chart that it might be prone to conflict but it would be interesting that know what it is in the past couple of decades has caused this to get out of control. The EU was an obvious friction point but I sense something else is fundamentally going on.
Maggie Thatcher’s forced resignation in 1990 came with tr Pluto opposition the Tory Party 1912 Taurus Sun – which is a classic civil war type of influence. The Maastricht Treaty in 1994 still had tr Pluto in Scorpio exerting pressure on the Tory Sun Saturn.
After that there was a Uranus Return just before Blair got in.
The Tory Sun has taken a fairly continuous pounding over the past nearly three decades with tr Uranus in Aquarius in square in 2001. There there was a debilitating run of tr Neptune square just before the financial crash at the same time as a Pluto half Return.
Through the 2010/20 decade tr Uranus in Aries and then tr Pluto in Capricorn walloped at the Tory Mars Neptune – and here we are with tr Saturn in Aquarius square tr Uranus in Taurus assaulting the Tory Sun again.
You could argue that Maggie’s exit caused or coincided with a tectonic shift opening up an unbridgeable fault line.
The Tory Party like the UK has an Aries North Node – a natural leader/loner. Cooperation in a team exercise like the EU?? Plus all that Fixed energy – change only comes slowly if at all and probably only after immense pressure.
Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservative Party on the 11th February 1975. The chart for that event has Uranus retrograde at 2 Scorpio forming a T square to the 1912 Tory Uranus retrograde at 3 Aquarius and Venus at 4 Taurus. It would signify rebelliousness, tension and conflict in a relationship. Interestingly Chiron was at 20 Aries on that date conjunct the Conservatives 1912 North Node at 20 Aries and the Mercury at 23 Aries squaring the Mars/Neptune conjunction at 19-21 Cancer. This possibly indicates a fated event starting conflicts and opening wounds that can never be healed. Neptune was conjunct the 1912 Tory Jupiter in Sagittarius. Thatcher inspired a sagging Tory Party in mid 1970s with a new vision for itself but needless to say when Neptune is involved new ideas can often dissolve into delusion particularly if those involved pursue wealth and power rather than the higher spiritual path that Neptune demands. It has often been said that the 19th century economic liberalism that Mrs Thatcher preached was at odds with the historical paternalistic Tory values of King, Country and the Church of England. The modern Conservative Party have never really resolved that contradiction
One other point I have noted is that the Conservative Party 1912 progressed Mercury stationed and went retrograde in 2001 at 6 Virgo. The Tories progressed Uranus was retrograde at 0 Aquarius when this occurred. The progressed Mercury is currently retrograde at 24 Leo. It will station direct again at 23 Leo in December 2025. The last time the Tory 1912 progressed Mercury was at 23 Leo was in the latter half of 1982 just after the Falklands conflict. It is therefore not surprising that many of the issues from the 1980s and 1990s are cropping up again for the Conservative Party.
As a quick addendum I note that the 1912 retrograde Progressed Mercury left its domicile in Virgo and tracked back into Leo in December 2014 just about the time David Cameron was preparing to put his pledge of an EU Referendum into the Conservative 2015 election manifesto. All the subsequent turmoil in the Tory Party and the 5 changes of leader have all occurred since that event.
There was mention a couple of weeks ago of the Conservative Democratic Organisation holding their own conference in Bournemouth. Unfortunately there is no confirmed inception date for CDO beyond October 2022. Basically a bunch of Johnson allies pretending that they’re unhappy with Rishi having been elected by the MPs rather than the party members. Who knows what their truth is. Ultimately the Cons are a party unified by a hate of everything that isn’t them and working to destroy rather than to build anything good.
I’m reminded of what John Cleese / Robyn Skinner wrote in one of their psychology books (probably Life and how to survive it) about how political parties are always splitting because they always project stuff. I may have to find a copy for a reread.