‘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.
The Road Haulage Association say there is a shortage of 100,000 drivers, including 25,000 EU truckers who returned home after Brexit. There are also logistical chokepoints between borders. This often results in spoilt goods and Tesco estimates 48 tonnes of food is being wasted each week.
In addition there are labour shortages across the UK’s farm-to-fork food and drink supply chain as thousands of seasonal EU workers have not arrived in the UK this year, as Brexit bureaucracy begins to bite. Vacancies, such as fruit-pickers, factory workers and hospitality staff are not being filled by local candidates.
A sharp fall in exports to the EU of around £2 billion is also a concern with sales of beef and cheese hit hardest, not compensated by an increase in sales to non-EU countries.
There’s not much to add to previous posts on the UK economy ahead (see below) except to puzzle why there is so little backlash against Boris Johnson. His approval ratings are certainly falling but there’s nothing to suggest he’ll be toppled any time soon despite leading a shambolic government, with clearly incompetent ministers and no effective plan ahead.
Like Trump, one can only surmise he has been dropped in by the fate daemons to prod the UK down the path it was destined to go – an end-of-era wrecking ball.
His Cancer Midheaven is conjunct the UK Midheaven which does suggest a degree of correlation in ambitions or direction; with his overly enthusiastic, delusional, self-justifying Neptune opposition Jupiter hooking in to the UK’s 2nd house Neptune and other Fixed planets – allowing him to sell a dream that is turning into a delusion.
Though what flags up in the Boris/UK relationship chart is a composite Mars opposition Neptune which indicates divergent aims. One wins, the other loses. He does not have the UK’s interests at heart. There will be a gradual sense of disappointment in the country with his leadership with tr Neptune square the composite Jupiter through till early 2023. But no real sign of a sudden separation.
This is reflected on the Term chart with the Solar Arc Saturn now on the same degree as the Venus, though not exact for six months, which in politics usually represents unpopularity; with Solar Arc Saturn conjunct the 12th house Pluto in nine months, which will produce a deadlock. This is around the time that tr Uranus will start to create high insecurity as it opposes the Term Mars in Scorpio and on Boris’s personal chart collides with his Jupiter opposition Neptune.
Be careful what you vote for – Brexit was never going to open the gates to Camelot in the foreseeable future.
Add On September 6 2021
The Conservative Party chart, 10 May 1912, which worked OK during Theresa May’s meltdown is showing the Spring 2023 as a crisis point. There will be sinking moments and disappointments before then; as well as major calamities flagging up right now till mid October and again mid January to mid February 2022. 2022 looks nerve stretched and seriously jangled with the Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the Sun. But 2023 is the significant juncture when it could be derailed when tr Uranus is conjunct the Taurus Sun, followed by tr Uranus conjunct the Saturn at the same time as tr Neptune in an undermining square to Pluto’s power point.
Boris’s relationship with the Tory Party is sagging badly from May 2022 onwards with tr Neptune square the composite Mars; and then into a disruptive phase from May 2023 with tr Uranus in hard aspect to the composite Mercury opposition Uranus.
So if that is the next election – the Tories are not happy.
Apologies for not mentioning Labour but I don’t find either of their charts helpful 1900 or 1906. They don’t even show Tony Blair’s 1997 resounding victory which makes me think they are not illuminating.
PREVIOUS POSTS:
UK ECONOMY JULY 24 2021
The latest UK economic figures are uncomfortable in fiscal terms but do back up the astrology, which in a perverse way is reassuring. Statistics up at stratospheric levels tend not to mean much but the gross debt is £2.2 trillion as of December 2020, equivalent to 104.5 per cent of GDP and 13.7 per cent above the average across EU states. UK indebtedness as a proportion of GDP is two-and a half times higher than at the height of the 2008 crash and UK government debt is now at a rate not seen since the early 1960s. The UK’s national debt has grown far faster than its European neighbours, with the 2008 crisis hitting the UK harder than elsewhere.
In 2020 ‘the UK recorded the fourth-largest rise in government borrowing among 35 large economies last year, after experiencing one of the worst recessions in the group and suffering among the highest coronavirus infection rates.’
Taxpayers will be liable for the cost of the government’s pandemic measures circa £372bn in May, with billions likely on bad loans, as well as eye-watering amounts thrown at PPE, substantial amounts of which are useless, not arrived or not unpacked.
What was always a concern was tr Uranus moving into the UK’s financial 8th house from 2019 onwards till circa 2027 which is normally erratic and unpredictable in terms of economic and trade stability. What makes it more complicated for the UK is the 8th house Mars in Taurus opposition Neptune in the personal financial 2nd house square Venus in Aquarius in the speculative 5th opposition Saturn in the 11th. So all the financial houses are due for a Uranus shake-up, jolting and jangling from this year for the next four or five.
Tr Uranus is conjunct the Mars this year into early 2022; and then moves to square the Venus and opposes the Neptune in 2022 into 2023. There also a road-blocked Solar Arc Pluto square the UK Sun late 2022/early 2023; with a disruptive Solar Arc Saturn opposition Uranus in 2023; and more financial disruptions of a major order in 2024/25 with Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the UK 8th house Mars.
2023 with tr Uranus square the Saturn could also see radical changes to the legislature in Parliament as well as sudden changes of future direction.
The Bank of England chart, 27 July 1694 JC, points to 2023 to 2026 as the fraught, high-risk and nerve-stretching years. A gloss may be thrown over harsh realities initially in 2023 with Solar Arc Jupiter conjunct the financial Venus. But what follows won’t be disguisable. Tr Pluto is in a trapped, frustrating, scary square to the BofE Mars in 2023/2024 (the first Pluto hard aspect since 2008), along with a discouraging, deprived, dead-halt Solar Arc Pluto opposition Saturn also in 2023. Then the Saturn Neptune conjunction in Aries of 2025/26 opposes the Mars which won’t be fun either; having been square the Saturn the year before.
What will help reboot morale on the UK chart is tr Pluto square the Jupiter and trine Uranus in 2024/2025. At that point green shoots will appear.
Post : UK FINANCES 1976 PARALLELS MAY 14 2020
Cataclysmic descriptions about the economic damage caused by the virus lockdown are difficult to gauge since no one knows whether it’ll be a V-shaped dip with quick recovery or an L-shaped slog. The more dramatic couch it in terms of a historic first in direness. Though parallels are being drawn with the 1976 humiliation for the UK when it was forced to go cap in hand to the IMF for a loan. PM James Callaghan said: “We used to think you could spend your way out of a recession and increase employment by cutting taxes and boosting government spending. I tell you in all candour, that option no longer exists.” What followed was a reduction in government spending, tax increases and rises in interest rates. The economy did recover and it was paid back within three years but it ultimately paved the way for Margaret Thatcher’s 1979 victory.
The IMF Bailout came in December 1976 when tr Uranus was in early Scorpio and squaring Saturn in Leo, in the months running in and after. Tr Uranus in hard aspect to tr Saturn is traditionally associated with economic recessions and another such turns up in 2021 with tr Uranus half a cycle on in Taurus square Saturn in Aquarius.
On the UK chart around the time of the bailout tr Uranus was poised to oppose the 8th house financial Mars by January 1977 with tr Saturn in square. This time round tr Uranus will conjunct that UK Mars with tr Saturn in square in 2021 – so very similar. The Solar Arcs were marginally more damaging in 1976/77 with Solar Arc Saturn conjunct the financial Venus with tr Saturn in opposition to the UK Venus; and tr Uranus square the Solar Arc Venus.
But it’ll still be a very rocky ride ahead economically for the UK with the tr Uranus square tr Saturn hitting on the financial planets badly in 2021 with more disappointment by 2023 with the Solar Arc Sun square the 2nd house Venus; and more shocks in 2025 when the Solar Arc Uranus is conjunct the Mars. Tr Uranus doesn’t clear the 8th house of international trade till 2027 so it’ll be a bumpy ride ahead.
The Bank of England chart, 27 July 1694 JC, with its natal Sun Jupiter in Leo and Solar Arc Uranus in Taurus will catch the tr Saturn square tr Uranus next year for high-stress challenges. With 2023/2024/25 keying up as high-anxiety phases as well.
An IMF bailout hardly seems likely since they haven’t the money to prop up the world, but similar cutbacks and shocks look unavoidable.
I would have preferred it, that paying for social care to have come out of VAT. At least they could gave rejigged the figures so that VAT may have never needed to go up or by a smaller amount. All Chancellors of the Exchequer show extreme lack of the imagination when it comes to tax increases. They always target NI Contributions and pensions. At least with VAT you can choose what to not buy. Having it taken out of your control is never a good thing.
I did not say proportional representation makes no sense, just the one that we as voters were asked to decide on.
But, the main argument against it as far as I could see was that it is a very good way of ensuring that nothing ever changes, and everything remains the same. Which unfortunately having observed how certain other countries operate, seems about right. It may work for Scotland, but not necessarily for others.
When the Liberal Democrats were pushing for proportional representation, the one I previously mentioned, was the type that David Cameron suggested, knowing full well that it would be point blank rejected. And it was. Because as you LisaV so rightly say that it makes no sense.
read my post again, you have misinterpreted what I said. And look up PR. there are many types of PR, and that consultation by Cameron was deeply manipulative to achieve a ‘no’ result. I am fully supportive of PR being introduced in the UK.
While there is a problem with first past the post, if you have ever looked into proportional representation, thd vast majority don’t even get a look in. It is as though second third or fourth choice is more important than your main selection. I do not see that as democracy. But then it doesn’t seem remotely important to today’s woke electorate.
Linda, the term ‘woke’ is offensive, right wing propaganda used by the gutter press to discredit anyone who objects to populism. Also your thoughts on PR don’t make sense… the point is entirely to give a better representation of more parties that are voted for. I witnessed it when I lived in Scotland and it worked.
Tx Marjorie very interesting and poisonous for the UK. Boris even looks like a bull in a china shop, any thoughts on Neptune conjunction with Zubenelgenubi in his birth chart ?
Expect that those self-employed will have most to complain about with regard to National Insurance Contributions, as they have to fund the whole thing, while employees on PAYE get half of theirs paid for by their employer.
Same situation in the US. Those working self-employed must make all soc security contribtions while those working salary pay only 1/2 the amt.
Thanks Marjorie. Just reading this, and all the interesting comments here is a lot to digest with my coffee! I agree this current UK government is probably some sort of “instrument of fate”, and that a much bigger pattern is unfolding here and across the EU. Well, across the world too – but I’ll stick with the UK and Europe for now….
Regarding the UK and Boris – I did notice that the 1066 England chart has Uranus at 28 Sagittarius, with Boris’ Sun/Venus conjunction right opposite. His Saturn in Pisces (a slippery government?) opposes the 1066 Uranus at 6 Virgo, Jupiter at 7 Virgo, and widely opposes it’s Pluto at 11 Virgo. A fair amount of disruption there I think.
Boris Johnson carefully cultivated a kind of personality cult for years, prior to becoming London Mayor, and then on his path to becoming PM. The smoke and mirrors of his Gemini charm, plus Jupiter/Neptune opposition, seduced the media, many of the Tories’ grass roots supporters, and numerous others who had never voted for the Conservatives before. But the magic spell is wearing off. What keeps him there is puzzling, but I suspect a large dose of “better the devil you know” is part of the answer. Or –
‘always keep-a hold of nurse – for fear of finding something worse! ‘ (Hilaire Belloc)
Angela Merkel is about to step down, too – a hugely significant moment for the EU. And even though the UK is no longer part of the EU, the ripples from this will surely affect us all.
Apologies – Boris Uranus and Pluto in Virgo are conjunct the 1066 Jupiter in Virgo!
I agree with this. I don’t see Boris being toppled or ousted in the near future, either by the Opposition or his own party. It seems all competent politicians/MPs in both main parties have been moved to the Lords or shunted out by the respective Corbyn and Johnson putsches! (At this point it appears no-one, including Sir Kier himself, knows what the current Opposition is about!). If Boris stops being PM in the immediate future it will be because he steps down in favour of pastures new or greener grass. May be it’s better to look for his potential astrological escape routes rather than portents of ill omen for the time being!
As far as Boris Jonson goes it is clear he is a man who has trouble running his personal finances let alone the country. How long he survives as PM is most likely going to be down to his own party rather than the opposition.
With regard to current events they carry echo the 1970s. While the media like to catastrophise events it is perhaps worth noting that much maligned decade was when the happiness index in Britain actually peaked. Good times are rarely as great as claimed and bad times can act as a valuable reality check.
As Zita stated I think the current outcome was destined no matter who was in power. Things such as the Covid pandemic would have blown up the U.K. national finances no matter what the result of the Referendum on Brexit in 2016.
Personally I think the seeds of Britain’s current problems were laid in the 1990s as Dan Atkinson and Larry Elliot pointed out in their book Fantasy Island.
“We live in a country fantasising about its ability to run up debts seemingly without end, to enjoy high-paid employment for which it is not qualified, to project military power that it does not possess and in general to assume, in defiance of the evidence, a superior economic and political position in relation to most of the rest of the world. Then there is the apparent conviction that limitless growth can co-exist with environmental protection, that the over-borrowed and abundantly staffed state machine is actually being courageously pruned even while its payroll rises and, finally, that the just-around-the-corner radiant future is one in which will work in the ‘creative economy’.”
The book was written about the Blair years but in reality applies to every government from John Major through Cameron to Johnson who regardless of party label are all essentially wedded to the “Blairist” agenda. What is happening now is that under Johnson the most insubstantial of a run of delusional political leaders the fantasy is finally dissolving. Unfortunately watching the recent debate in the House of Commons on Afghanistan and other issues it seems that the message from the heavens is still not getting through.
Thanks Hugh. What I really don’t understand – on top of everything else – is the weird right-wing outrage at the thought of raising taxes to pay for some of the over spend. I can see the lower income brackets need protected though that isn’t the Tories beef. Where do they think the money is going to come from?
Absolutely Marjorie. The Covid Pandemic gives the Johnson government the perfect excuse to break is manifesto pledge. Nor do I understand why anyonenis even considering a National Insurance Increase that would divide the country in generational lines when an increase in Income Tax would mean earned and unearned income of both employees and wealthier pensioners would be assessed. Prior to the Thatcher era no British government of either party would have thought twice about raising income and capital gains tax in these circumstances. Of course, the idea that there have been no government tax increases in the intervening period is a myth as every other levy such as National Insurance, VAT has been increased in its place.
Thanks, Hugh. We’re enduring a long process without knowing where we’re going. It’s hard.
In my saner moments it seems unreasonable to blame our governments and politicians because they’re just people who don’t understand what’s going on either, let alone how to deal with it.
The phrase ‘you get the government you deserve’ keeps running through my head. Do we really deserve this mayhem and claptrap?
But then my faith in humanity and the universe reasserts itself. There has never been a golden age. There will never be a golden tomorrow. Yet we survive.
And some things do get better. Someone, something does turn up to change the balance. It happens when you least expect it, usually from an unexpected direction. Until then, “Courage”!
It is frightening. Like Marjorie states Johnson does not have our interest at heart. He is arrogant and just shrugs. The UK Pluto on his Natal Saturn may just teach him a lesson, or he may destroy us. Either way, I feel he is here to teach our Politics a lesson. He is bankrupting the country, we are trillions in debt. Boris’s Natal Moon is squaring the U.K. Jupiter, money may just kill his Premiership. The people need to start to protest. I absolutely loathe Boris Johnson.
Empty Shelves will be a big problem for all countries.Not only UK.Christmasgifts,start planning now…
Awfully sorry the translation of this article in Swedish didn’t work.Sure you can translate it if you wish.Gives a picture of one part of the problem.
As we know UK will have other problems.
Take care,all.
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/utrikes/fraktkaos-kan-innebara-varubrist
The HGV drivers shortage which is afflicting us also seems to be affecting Germany, Ireland and France and were flagged up by haulage unions in 2018. In the short term wages for UK drivers are rising exponentially (good for the drivers) but there is a lack of infrastructure apparently driving the lack of recruitment in the UK (ie not enough public toilets etc) so not just Brexit.
Economically given Covid I would say it’s a race to the bottom for all Western economies which is truly worrying.
Boris aside, a UK reading on the Conservative party would probably be illuminating as the party will dump him when his polling craters.
Perhaps a key phrase in your post, Marjorie, is that the fates are prodding the UK down the path it’s destined to go. Choices have been made and we’re on an escalator we can’t get off. There’s no guarantee that if other directions had been chosen, it would have been better. Structural problems of ageing populations, technological change, institutional obsolescence and irrelevance are global, affecting everyone.
Covid hasn’t helped. Overwhelmingly, we’re all just weary, fed up and can’t see where we’re going. We’re not able to pin point anybody or anything better. It just seems pointless to try. We’ve never been here before. Its depressing, destabilising and directionless.
Many feel deeply aggrieved that their preferred choice was ignored. Others deeply distressed at hard fought for changes being dismantled. Yet more feel disillusioned and disempowered, so disengage, a rational response to political classes and systems that are impervious to their needs. Presumably one day this too will change, but in the meantime, we just have to plod on.
Having endured several grindingly depressing and catastrophic years of Uranus and Pluto transitting my natal Mars Saturn, with Saturn bowling along to add to the joy, I now just keep my head down. I’m sure many others are doing the same. It’s not noble, but it helps keep a lid on it. Those fragile through circumstance rather than character, may find that frustration and despair overtake them, which could be worse.
The current mood seems to me appropriate for our circumstances. We’re all just keeping our heads down, waiting, waiting, until we can see a way through.
Where Johnson and his government specifically come into play is the profound lack of confidence in our governments, especially this one, to turn a problem into a solution or a gain. Which is why we were amazed they got the vaccination thing right.
Hi Zita – that’s a really good description – thank you!
Johnson gets an easy ride from the media, considering what a catastrophic job he’s doing. Imagine a Labour govt performing as badly. That in turn helps to explain why the wider public grumble but go along with him, as he and his criminally inept cabinet slide from one disaster to the next. No important politician across the world take him seriously, and we can only give thanks his equally grotesque soulmate Trump was not elected across the pond. That was destined to be a huge love in and carve up of Britain’s assets which makes the corrupt contracts recently awarded to “chums” look like a tea party. His jupiter opp neptune is very close and says a lot. My ex business partner had it and he was as sociopathic and dishonest as they come..
This was stated on the Times and Sunday Times in their comments section last week. Especially on their leading articles. Commenters were demanding he is taken to task. The Times voted over 90% to Remain when the Brexit Referendum was being run.
A very interesting but depressing read! I am still convinced that the majority of the UK public do not fully appreciate the mess that we are in and sadly I can only see it getting worse.
It’s like the UK is sleepwalking into this trouble. Johnson and his pisspoor government are entirely complicit, yes, but all those who voted for the Tories and who voted for Brexit are also responsible.
I’m noticing that the SA Neptune in Pisces 17 degrees from the Term 2 chart, square with the UK’s Mercury in Sagg has become more exact… dissolution of dreams, meet ambitious bluster. Noted also that Johnson’s natal Neptune is trine to this but also conjunct the UK’s Neptune – he is a facilitator, but the UK is a willing victim of that glamour.
The real tragedy is that the majority of the population who didn’t vote Tory are also being dragged into this shambles against our will.
Quote “The real tragedy is that the majority of the population who didn’t vote Tory are also being dragged into this shambles against our will.”
Just like 1974 and 1997 when the majority who didn’t vote Labour were dragged into the shambles of nationalisation in the 1970’s and Blair/Brown’s excessive spending/expansion of the public sector between 1997 and 2010.
The fact is that NO political party has obtained 50% of the vote since the end of WWII; however large majorities have been obtained because of the ‘first past the post’ electoral system. It could be that the road we are being led down is that to a proportional voting system instead of the present one, which is now as outdated as that which existed prior to 1832 was at that time.
It is because of the present system I have not voted in any General Election for the last 40 odd years, when I realised just how undemocratic our electoral system is, and how it allows both the Labour and Conservative parties to dominate when elected.
Hmm. I agree with you about PR and I think that would be a preferable system for us to get us out of the ‘first past the post’ and two party system. However, do remember when trying to complain about the Labour Party, that although no party is perfect they have been by far the most benign and least damaging force of the two. Labour have never wasted billions of taxpayers’ money on PPE contracts for their mates, abnegated leadership in a pandemic so that thousands of people have died unnecessarily, privatised the NHS wholesale, rigged the electoral system in their favour, and pulled the UK out of a huge beneficial economic partnership to the ongoing detriment of its economy, its people and its wellbeing. The Tories show no signs of slowing down in their race to the bottom and their willingness to lie to the voters on a daily basis. They are abusing their position of power and doing it blatantly.
Unfortunately I think that ‘opting out’ of voting is no good either; it is almost being complicit with whatever happens, being passive and blowing with the wind. I wish more people would actually use their vote and think about it intelligently in terms of the impact it will have on themselves and their community. If more people did that, we might not be in this mess.
The labour party, in the last few years, in spite of all the shambolic acts of the Conservative government, have not been able to hold them to account. I wonder what would have happened if they were in power.
Yes. But that is no reason to vote Tory and support even more damage. If the Tories have their way there will be no democracy or effective opposition left at all.