Is the force with Sunak?

On the day of the recent solar eclipse Rushi Sunak kissed the ring and was officially appointed the UK’s Prime Minister. He is the first ‘PM of Asian origin’ and the youngest PM the UK has had in two centuries, just edging out David Cameron and Tony Blair for the youngest PM spot. His premiership comes on the heels of the Truss disaster, which set a record for the shortest-serving PM in British history aamid her disastrous economic policies. The eclipse signalled the finishing-off of Truss and the start of what many pundits believe will be more of the same under Sunak. We will have a look at all that here.

We will start with the chart of the premiership of Sunak. The chart, within a margin of error, is below (bigger):

This chart has not been proven yet, but the nearest time I could find was the time indicated on the chart, judging from news reports. The 12:33 time shown on the photo is from a Tweet, shown in CEST, since I live in Italy.

The immediate standout is the square of Orcus to the administration Horizon axis from the 9^th house. The letter of the law will loom large over this administration. There is another side to Orcus, though, and it has to do with regulations and treading the straight and narrow. Orcus has a disciplinary function. Esoterically it represents the steady, graded clearing of the subconscious mind – the disciplined approach instead of the crash and burn approach one would find with Pluto, for instance. Orcus is a plutino, like Pluto and works with the collective subconscious. In a mundane figure it deals with regulations and the letter of the law. In the case of this administration the approach is to say, “Regulations be damned!” We’ll see.

In addition, Mars is out-of-bounds and in the admin 7^th house, pointing to strong criticisms and battles over policy. Sunak and Co. will try to win hearts and minds, shown by the square from Mars to an out-of-sign wide conjunction between Jupiter and Neptune, with Mars near the midpoint of the two. That combination points to failures in realizing plans or to unrealistic thinking, though – probably both in this case, which we will examine here. It is a combination that tends to speculation rather than facts.

On the other hand, Mars is trine the Sun/Moon (eclipse) conjunction with Venus and to Mercury in the admin figure, so there is energy there as well as attractive energy, a more pleasing facade on the administration, the ability to argue his case well, and so forth. But underlying the good of those trines is the Jupiter/Neptune just described, which denotes the capacity for self-sabotage.

Then we see the quincunx to Pluto. The latter shows the desire for power. When combined with the factors just described the Pluto connection points to a tendency to go too far too fast and to overplay one’s hand. Couple this with the quincunx between Mercury and Neptune and we see an administration that thinks very well of itself but which has some misguided notions about their purpose, their mandate (if there is one) and their way to go about things. Lastly, we see the quincunx of the Sun/Moon/Venus conjunction to Jupiter, showing overconfidence and the tendency to bombast, combined with the other factors just mentioned.

To round out the aspect analysis we see the Saturn/Uranus square at just about a degree of orb of separation. Saturn rules the 2^nd house of the figure (finances) and is in that house, though currently transiting through Aquarius. Aquarius is intercepted in the 2^nd house. The economy will be the single biggest challenge for this administration, but the way of the Conservatives (Saturn) is being challenged by the realities on the ground and progressive forces demanding change (Uranus), the latter we see growing in the labour movement.

Sunak has promised to ‘form a government ‘of all the talents’, rather than focusing on loyalties. That could work out to his disadvantage if there are not enough loyalists in key positions. We see this possibility in the following midpoint of the administration chart:

Sun/Moon=Neptune: “Inner discontentment, the tendency to torment oneself, the disposition to get upset quite easily. – Shared suffering, mistakes, misunderstandings, illusions or deceptions, the undermining of associations.”

This midpoint is reinforced by the quincunx between Mercury and Neptune. From what we have seen of the Tories thus far there is no real loyalty in the Party, except to their position and pay. Looking back on May, Johnson and Truss, as soon as the offal hit the turning blades the PM of the moment was unceremoniously dumped. May was weak on Brexit, Johnson was too scandal-ridden, Truss all but imploded the economy, and given the current socio-economic state of the UK, what can we really expect from Sunak? Will he do well or will he eventually become ‘poison Sunak’ (as in sumac) and give the UK a nasty and painful rash?

Sunak faces daunting problems, and there are many doubts he will be able to handle, much less face them. Let’s list a few, shall we? There was a Twitter thread that outlined them, along with possible solutions. Those were recently listed for us by Richard Murphy. It’s a long list, but we list only the essentials here:

• • “Brexit, which does not and never will work.
  • Division over Northern Ireland.
  • Scotland wishing to leave the Union, to which Tories have no answer.
  • Covid, which is crippling the NHS with more cases than ever.
  • No progress on climate change.

Then there is:

• • Inflation, which is not caused by wage demands, meaning what the government and Bank of England are seeking to do by raising interest rates is the wrong solution to the problem we face.
  • Strikes, because people need inflation matching pay rises to survive.

Top that with:

• • A cost of living crisis, which inflation policy is not addressing.
  • Officially encouraged interest rate rises that massively increase the scale of the cost of living crisis. Millions of British people face poverty and even financial destitution as a result.

It’s fair in that case to assume we will have:

• • An increase in homelessness as people cannot pay their rents or mortgages.
  • Overwhelmed food banks.
  • Hungry children, who might be homeless too.
  • The fact that vast numbers of small businesses are in deep trouble because of interest rate increases and because people who can’t pay their mortgages or rent have nothing left to spend on anything else.
  • Unemployment is going to increase as a result.
  • push up benefit claims.”

Perhaps we get the idea of what Sunak is up against. There is more. The entire thread is worth reading. The thread ends with this bit:

“But the Tories won’t let Sunak do these things [sensible policy]. They will instead demand the impossible from him. Markets might do the same. His inability to challenge the madness at the Bank of England will undermine him. His own lack of a mandate is fatal.

[And here comes the reality to his appointment as PM]: Sunak could not have been better set up to fail by anyone. And I suspect he will fail. But that is not because this country’s problems cannot be solved. They can be, but not by a Tory constrained by that party whilst he is in awe of markets and the Bank of England. Sunak’s task is impossible because of the constraints imposed on him and those he has chosen. And we will all pay an enormous price for that.”

Basically, Sunak was put in place to keep ‘the markets’ happy, meaning the wealthy class, and that means trashing regulations. It is difficult to see how he will manage to do that, given what was outlined in the Twitter thread. Demands within the Tory factions are unreasonable and irreconcilable. What the public would like to see are raising taxes on the energy companies (windfall tax) and the wealthy to fill the government coffers, pay public servants the inflation-matching pay rises they deserve and give funding to the public services like the NHS that they, too, deserve. The items in the latter sentence are all anathema to the Conservative Party members. Basically, we have the battle between the haves and have-nots, the public and the ‘upper crusters’.

Then, there is the Sunak cabinet, full of ERG members. One in particular stands out – Suella Braverman. Braverman was reconstituted into the cabinet as Home Secretary as payback for backing Sunak in his bid for PM. It is an appointment he may come to regret. Her dream is to see a plane full of ‘illegals’ being whisked off to Rwanda for a little down time, down there. She is also seen as a security threat due to improprieties with emails, with calls for an investigation into her breaches of protocols. There was shock she was even considered for a cabinet posting in Sunak’s cabinet.

As far as Sunak’s policies go, from a previous link, “He has said he wants to bring back fracking, ban onshore wind turbines, crack down hard on illegal immigration and open a new Brexit Delivery Department.” Does the BDD have any semblance to Amazon.com.uk in terms of deliveries, we might wonder? Brexit certainly hasn’t delivered as promised. And neither Masy, Johnson nor Truss managed to deliver Brexit – at least as promised – which is probably a big reason behind closed doors as to why they are no longer PM. We can probably assume Greta Thunberg is not too enamoured of ‘Dishi Rishi’, looking at his environmental policy.

But Jacob Rees-Mogg, the human paperclip, will be introducing a bill to begin the slash and burn of 1,400 of those troublesome EU regulations, like the ones related to food safety, for instance. If the bill becomes law it would be undemocratic, enacted without public consultation or knowledge:

“…the government [would have] the power to simply switch off laws on 31 December 2023 without consultation with the public or parliament unless they have been actively saved by a minister.”

There is more and the EU regulations cover a wide swath of issues, governing trade with the EU bloc. Simply dismissing those regulations would potentially have a large negative impact on trade with the EU, driving the UK further into troubles:

“The list of laws targeted by the government includes bans on animal testing for cosmetics, passenger compensation rights for those whose flights are delayed, equal pay for men and women, and pension rights for widows of same-sex marriages.

Environment, agriculture and food safety is governed by 570 laws that flowed from EU directives, rules and decisions, with more than 400 laws governing transport and more than 200 covering work and pensions.”

The items just outlined are what ‘delivering Brexit’ actually means. The EU is by far the largest trading partner with the UK. They are both on the same continent after all, and neighbors, albeit not on the best of terms at the moment. But the ERG component of the Tories and the cabinet are apparently hell-bent on making the relationship even worse.

Perhaps the composition of the Sunak cabinet along with the astrology show the real purpose of Sunak being handed the poisoned chalice – to put a kinder or more attractive – slick – face on a suicide pact for the UK, environmentally and economically. He has been called a ‘technocratic austerian’, meaning:

“…Sunak enthusiastically supported Brexit, the root cause of all of Britain’s current mess, going against then-leader David Cameron. But he’s also pragmatic enough to deal with that mess by using an orthodox austerity playbook that will at least keep the bond vigilantes at bay.

Between the lines: The people who voted Conservative in 2019 don’t like austerity, but Sunak has other ways of trying to keep them onside, including promising to do “whatever it takes” to take refugees seeking asylum in the UK and ship them to Rwanda. He has also threatened to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.”

The 2^nd paragraph of the quote points to one reason why Braverman was placed in his cabinet. One might wonder if she has some ‘leverage’ over Sunak. However, it more likely points to his neediness of support from the far-right factions in the Tories.

So, as to the Sunak ministry, then, it is populated by Brexiteers, spearheaded by the ERG. There are seven current ERG members in his cabinet, down from Truss’ nine appointees. But the seven are in key positions – Home Secretary, Environment, Foreign Secretary, Northern Ireland, Leveling-Up, Education and Transport.

Perhaps more disturbing are the young and relatively inexperienced coterie of advisors who have Sunak’s ear:

“His policy-shapers, also known as Special Advisers – or ‘Spads’ to those in the know – are the unsung, key decision-makers of Parliament. Younger than your average MP, their trajectory is a two-year training under an MP or Peer after university, then a few years at a think-tank or an NGO, and next a job as a policy adviser in Parliament. This is their rite of passage into the uppermost echelons of British politics. But actually, despite lesser fame, they have more power than many MPs, and crucially, more access to Rishi.”

The emphasized text should be quite disturbing. Does a few years at a think tank (like the ERG or Tufton Street, for instance) qualify one to be an advisor to the highest political post in the land? Or would one rather see someone having had years of experience ‘in the trenches’? What this sort of trajectory for advisors promotes is a line of technocrats and ideologues rather than seasoned statesmen, or ‘states-people’, if one wants to be PC. Youth is all well and good for fresh ideas, but running a state requires experience, and this is where we see the Tories falling short.

The UK’s SpAds now include the ‘Travolta of the treasury’, another with experience at British Tennis and England Rugby in public and corporate affairs, one who cut her teeth at the Institute for Economic Affairs think tank, a marketing guru, and one ‘who has never lived among ordinary people’, the latter being Sunak’s Policy Chief.

Then there is Sunak’s ability to speak truthfully and frankly – or not – with the British people. He did, after all, pledge to “have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level” inside Downing Street. The first blow to integrity was his appointment of Braverman to his cabinet. At his first PMQs he lied about Britain building a record number of homes last year. Boris would be proud. But then at a later PMQ there was this zinger:

“At last week’s PMQs, opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer left Sunak floundering when he accurately noted that under Braverman his government had “broken” the British asylum system. In response, a rattled Sunak changed the subject, claiming that only the Conservatives and not Labour could be trusted with national security.

The prime minister then resorted to smear and fabrication about Jeremy Corbyn’s 2019 Labour Party general election manifesto, saying: “Let us remember that national security agenda: abolishing our armed forces, scrapping the nuclear deterrent, withdrawing from Nato, voting against every single anti-terror law we tried, and befriending Hamas and Hezbollah. He [Starmer] may want to forget about it, but we will remind him of it every week, because it is the Conservative government who will keep this country safe.” Yet Labour’s 2019 manifesto proposed none of these things.”

So, instead of standing on his and his Party’s own record it is more worthwhile to smear a past opposition leader. Corbyn is always good value for Tories in that regard. It appears the old saying about politicians lying when their lips move still holds true. It is not all bad, though. At least Sunak has brought back the fracking ban, whereas just a few weeks ago he was all for it. And he has reversed the decision to move the British embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, saying it was easier said than done. Bibi will be disappointed. But Indians are proud their man made the grade to become head honcho.

Indian social media is already busy trying to figure out what Sunak’s name means and from what caste he hails. Apparently the latter is a closely guarded secret. ‘Rishi’ is a term for an enlightened and accomplished person. ‘Sunak’ (which the Indian social media pundits are trying to spin) means ‘small dog’. So, Sunak is apparently an enlightened and accomplished small dog. Jokes aside, we’ll see how Sunak goes going up against the Big Dogs of the British establishment. Indian pundits say ‘Sunak’ is a corruption of ‘Sounak’, the latter being a saint’s name in Hindu mythology. Perhaps karma is coming home to roost for the UK.

The UK does indeed have a caste system. It appears to be an unbridgeable divide. We see it at work with this government and the people who put him in office. But slick marketing will only go so far. Once the sheen wears off, which is happening quickly, Sunak and Co. will be up against not only the EU but an increasingly disgruntled public, and all the buck-passing (or Pound-passing, maybe) will reveal a government that has no interest in standing on principles, unless that principle happens to be making as much money as one can out of a worsening situation for the UK.

The UK has been called America’s lapdog, an opinion that goes back at least two decades. It was apparent with the Iraq war and Tony Blair and it is still apparent today with Ukraine. MI6 has been fingered in the incident with the Kerch Strait Bridge and the recent attack on Sevastopol. They were also complicit (with plausible deniability) with the Nord Stream sabotage, or at least had inside knowledge of it.

The Vote Leave campaign promised five things to the British public, which the Sunak premiership is pledged to fulfil, whether stated or not:

“It would save Britain £350 million a week that it could spend on its own priorities; reclaim control of the country’s borders, as well as its immigration system; and leave it free to strike trade deals independently of the EU, and to make its own laws.”

With Sunak’s cabinet being strongly influenced by the ERG, who were all intimately involved in Vote Leave, it would seem to be the case that a full Brexit is their end goal. It may come to be an own goal by the Tories. The ties with the US do not help the UK. Support for the Ukraine crisis only adds to problems with immigration, drains the UK economy even further by the questionable virtue of having to increase defense spending and antagonizing Russia only further cuts the UK off from needed resources. Antagonizing Europe through Brexit has not helped the UK in the least, either, at a time when unity and cooperation would work wonders to help the British public.

So yes, Sunak faces what look to be insuperable problems. And the people he has placed around him have been complicit in the main problems the UK faces – a disconnect from the public, wealth inequality, calls for austerity on the public instead of calling on the wealthy and corporations to chip in (don’t laugh), supply chain issues from Brexit (and those won’t go away by scrapping regulations) and legacy dreams of reclaiming Empire. That is one Empire that will not strike back. The Force does not appear to be with Sunak.

Sunak is in a pickle, one the Tories have created for themselves, one that Sunak is ill-prepared to solve given his policy advisors and cabinet members. And at the heart of that policy is the neoliberal, libertarian capitalism, replete with its secrecy locations, that Thatcher put in place and which only now the British public is seeing the results. It would take a real rishi to solve such problems. But that rishi does not seem to be forthcoming. Kali is instead bringing reality home to the UK, and in the process, a wider awakening. May liberation from their troubles soon come for the people of the UK.

Featured pic from El Independiente