The World does not Owe You a Living

The political divide in the midst of 2016 has never been so visibly pronounced for some time. In the US the Presidential race is dominated by extreme right wing candidates (both establishment and maverick) and not so right wing establishment vs what the Americans see as the extremes of centre left. In the UK there is a pending referendum on whether to remain or leave the European Union. The Conservative government has placed punitive measures in public spending that has resulted in severe cuts to services and the pockets of ordinary people. Zero hours contracts become more common adding further insecurity to the ability to make ends meet. As a direct consequence the Labour party found themselves with a new leader whose ideology is more left wing than most since the 1970s.

Austerity measures further increase the discontent of those who cannot afford to make ends meet while stock market figures soar to new heights. The essential assets of countries, like gas, electricity and water are sold to pay off debts created by policies of central banks (This is an entirely different story) leaving them not only without the means to create profit from their consumers but doomed to a perpetual cycle that can never return to self sufficiency. House prices have risen so high that hopes of owning one are far less than ever before. For many in the Millennial generation, it feels like the goal posts have been moved so much that any dreams of being able to afford anything beyond just keeping a rented roof over their head is now an unrealistic pursuit.

Before I continue, I hold my hands up and declare that my political leanings are of the centre left but not of the bought and paid for established political party cronies to corporate business. I have worked all my life (how hard is a matter of perspective) barring a couple of times where I was grateful that the UK government had a welfare system that enabled me to concentrate on looking for work instead of struggling to keep a roof over my head.

I have not once sat back in the belief that the world owes me a living. In fact I have never met a person who does think that way. It is a phrase that has been around for at least 100 years. Mark Twain is reported to have said, “Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing; it was here first.”

Conversely, the UK welfare system is replete with words like ‘benefit’ and ‘entitlement’. The whole welfare system has shuddered at the notion of millions of people who have not paid into the UK tax system suddenly becoming entitled to take money out of it, courtesy of the European Union, to the degree that hasty legislation prevents people from taking money out of the system until they have paid taxes into it - in short, to get a job. After all, the work does not owe them a living.

But it is not the world in this instance; it is the UK that does not owe people who do not live in the UK a living. And in many ways it is not even the UK. It is the system set up by successive governments that does not owe people outside of the UK a living. So what of the people inside the UK? Does the system owe them a living?

Part of my life was spent working in the benefit system. So I think I have both the qualification and the expertise to speak about them. Every form of welfare benefit has certain conditions of ‘entitlement’. If you satisfy the conditions then you can claim a certain amount of money. The whole idea about claiming money when not working originated in 1911 by a group of professional people who decided to make weekly contributions to a pot in order to insure themselves against harder times. Later on, when the idea caught on, the UK government developed a much wider insurance system that included everyone; they called it the National Insurance payment. Everyone paid into it from their wages while they worked, never knowing if one day they might need support. After all, the world did not owe them a living - at least the UK government did not.

So the phrase using the words ‘The World’ is a catch all phrase and highly inaccurate. The world was around long before the system that used money, long before the system that encouraged the illusion of ownership and long before those who imposed these systems all but killed off those who had no need of either money or ownership.

To ‘owe’ implies that first a contribution has to be made. You can only possibly get out of life equal to the effort you put into it. This statement is untrue of course.

‘Life is not fair’ is certainly true. The amount of effort has to be weighed up according to the amount of ability. Some people struggle to grasp budgeting for their weekly needs while others with the same amount of money and circumstances hardly have to think about it. ‘Living’, if one were to assign the word as meaning the financial requirements to live is incredibly unequal.

I don’t propose to labour on the obvious differences between skilled and unskilled work and the incredible variance of remuneration. Suffice it to say that ‘a living’ depends on a person’s skills and abilities. But there are some people for whom work is not an option and it is often a measure of a society how those who can work are prepared to look after those who cannot.

But the term ‘The world does not owe you a living’ does not apply to the infirm, the incapable or the sick. It really only applies to those who can work but either choose not to but still want to receive some form of welfare. But how much of this belief is true and how much is just a contrived perspective?

Imagine a ten thousand piece jig-saw puzzle made of cardboard. You empty the box on the table and proceed to put the puzzle together. When it is completed you discover there are tiny pieces of dust that the puzzle did not need. What do you do with them? You wipe them away to reveal the perfect puzzle all by itself.

Some people who do not fit into the system are those specs of cardboard. Does the world owe them a living, or does the system need to include them in some way?

In my years of working in a job centre, I noticed how often the job vacancies and the skills of the unemployed person did not match. The employer did not want the office worker to be a chamber maid and the office worker agreed. But there were no office work jobs in the area. There were far too many office workers and not enough chamber maids; a situation that is called a skills mismatch. The office worker could earn twice as much as a chamber maid for the same effort. So if the office worker did not have the skills to be a chambermaid and the employer did not want to train them (and indeed believed them to be overqualified or liable to jump ship as soon as a clerical job arose), is the system entitled to support them or does the world still not owe them a living?

The phrase is catchy but inaccurate. More accurately, when people say ‘the world does not owe you a living’ what they mean is, ‘A system that exists by societal agreement, where everyone is automatically included does not entitle you to benefit from it without having contributed to it or participated in complying with it.’

Mark Twain is right. ’The world’, does not participate in this agreement, whereas ‘owing a living’ is only valid if the person who wants something out of the system for nothing agrees with the system.

So for people who subscribe to the system and participate fully in it, irrespective of their success within that system, the notion of the world not owing you a living is incumbent on their belief that the system in which they participate is the only system; and that it is fair and achievable by everyone.

But life is not fair.

War is one of the fastest ways to create inequality. The innocent flee a war zone and join the millions of other refugees trying to escape a conflict they had nothing to do with. They have nothing but the clothes on their back.

The world does not owe them a living.

The soldiers fighting in those countries who become injured and suffer mental health issue, if they are lucky to survive, history shows they end up on the streets or tucked out of the public eye. Governments spend fortunes on honouring the war dead but not the war living.

The world does not owe them a living.

People oppressed by their governments or neighbouring countries, are forced to live in conditions of penury and abject poverty; the examples of this spread from the nazi holocaust to the Palestinians, Native’s of invaded countries to slavery in all its forms.

The world does not owe them a living.

War is stupid but is invariably created by the very system that just loves people to believe that the world does not owe them a living.

George Carlin was pretty close to the truth of it. The owners of this system don’t want educated people capable of critical thinking. Certainly they don’t want people to question why we live in a system where it is essential to manufacture things that don’t last long, so people have to keep spending money. They don’t want people to question why Corporations attempt to monopolise seed while attempting to kill off nature’s reproduction. They don’t want people to question why corporations attempt to deny water as a right, selling it to us in bottles while other corporations poison the rest with toxic chemicals. In the meantime these same corporations take out more money than they put in and exist only to serve their primary purpose, which is to make a profit. There are no environmental considerations or concerns about what is left behind. They take without giving back.

The world does not owe them a living either, and yet they do more harm than the total sum of people who do not work for whatever reason.

Naturally there are other perspectives to the statement that the world does not owe you a living; an example given here questions the motives of the ‘occupy’ movement

http://spectator.org/36784_world-doesnt-owe-you-living/. Yet I can only think of this kind of perspective as someone who thinks they are in what George Calin describes as the ‘Big Club’, even if it is by acceptance or association.

In fact the only time you hear someone say, the world does not owe you a living, is when they think that they are pulling their weight and contributing to society and someone else is not. They don’t like it when someone does not want to play in the game but in the next breath claim that it is a free country.

So what if a person does not like your system but does not want to take from it? Is that ok? Apparently not. Several people have rejected the capitalist system to the point where they have found a way to live off grid. But instead of being applauded for becoming self sufficient they get arrested.

But let’s stick for the moment to those who do take from the system but could work. It is impossible to make a blanket statement about them because their circumstances are bound to be as different as there are people, which is inconvenient for a system that wants the opposite to be true. This is not new and in the UK I traced the problem back for 500 years (see footnotes). In every time period there was a problem with the poor and those who did not work. In every time period the rich had to pay but the poor were always ill treated, sometimes branded and even hanged; in fact any way the rich people could to brush the jigsaw puzzle dust off their system.

Clearly the problem has not gone away for those who see it as a problem. Yet the history of poverty provides evidence that offering some form of welfare is inevitable. Today we have a pretty good description of what we would regard as basic human rights, which includes food, water, shelter etc. It therefore begs the question as to why people would be penalised for being homeless or self sufficient.

In the end it is not about whether the world owes someone a living; it is about whether individuals are part of the jigsaw or the unwanted dust.

In conclusion, when someone says ‘The world does not owe you a living’, it is a subjective statement. At best it is based on a short sighted ideology designed to deny tax money paid by someone who has paid into the fund (It is their money. ‘I don’t owe anyone a free lunch’), to someone who they see as capable but has not contributed to it. Then they make the mistake of believing that all monies paid in welfare are paid to people who are capable but not contributing to it. 

At worst it is a statement devoid of empathy and in complete denial that in different circumstances, they could find themselves in need of support.

The world does not owe people a living. The system does, if it is to survive as a model that everyone can live within. And like it or not - you have always paid into it one way or another; if not with money then with passively accepting the existence of the homeless, the poor, the disenfranchised and those denied work for a kaleidoscope of reasons.

Footnotes

In the 15th century, poor people were being punished for vagrancy. There was no distinction made between those who looked for work, those who chose not to work, the sick, the disabled or the incapable.

In 1531 Henry VIII introduced a new Vagabonds and Beggars Act that gave licence for those unable to work the right to beg. Those who were able to work were still subject to punishment if they had none.

The Vagrancy Act of 1547 introduced branding for a first offence and lifelong slavery after that. But the population continued to outgrow the work available and so the problem of earning a living got worse.

In 1552 a new Act meant that rich people were asked to donate money. This did not always work. So in 1572 a new Act was introduced that set a ‘tariff’ of donation, which over time became a tax. In return the rich set new punishments including hanging. This did not deter vagrancy in any way.

In 1576, the first attempt of the state to provide a poor person with work, introducing the first ‘House of Correction’. The task of collecting taxes for this work creation was passed over to the church.

By 1590, those who were poor by no fault of their own, the ‘deserving poor’: orphans, physically and mentally sick or disabled, were helped and those who deserved nothing were not. The deserving poor got food and clothing.

The Acts of 1597 and 1601 was the first time that local Parish Councils were charged with providing basic shelter food and clothing to the needy but only for those within their parish. The tax to pay for this was charged to everyone else.

The Act of 1662 divided classifications of the poor thus:

Impotent poor would be cared for in Almshouses or the poorhouse

Able bodied poor would be given work

Idle poor sent to house of correction or prison

Pauper children to become apprentices.

In the 16th and 17th centuries the population outgrew the need for labour. Capitalism in trade began to grow, causing inflation, a drop in wages and an sharp increase in poverty.

The explosion of the industrial revolution introduced more child labour than ever before, often without pay. As time went on employers would rather pay child wages than adults, which meant more adults ended up having to go to a workhouse.

In 1782 the Relief of the Poor Act created poor houses for the sick, elderly and infirm but not the able bodied.

In 1834 the Poor Act was completely overturned in favour of a new system. The Whig (right wing) party at the time sought to address what they saw as abuses in the 1601 system by which relief would only be awarded through workhouses, latching on to the notion that some people might prefer to claim relief rather than work. This Act was not repealed until 1948 with the introduction of the National Assistance Act. This Act worked as a safety net for those people who did not work: the homeless, the disabled and unmarried mothers. It was recognised that the National Insurance Act, while providing a safety net for working people if they became sick, did not provide for those who were unable to contribute. People with mental health illnesses and condition were given protection by local authorities under the new National Health Service, regardless of their ability to pay.

Debtors prison: abolished in the UK in 1869

In 1910 the great unrest of workers in the UK striking appears to have boiled down to the simple equation of increasing prices and stagnant wages, hence standards of living dropping down to poverty levels. Capitalism had seemed to work well for a period and then reached the end of a natural cycle, in which profitable practices and products had to change with the times. This meant trying to extract more productivity for less. Understandably the workforce already experiencing a drop in money (in real terms) were hardly going to accept having to work harder for less and with fewer employees.

Changes to work and new technology continues today to challenge the stability of profitability over employment numbers and retaining healthy consumer activity. And yet it is hard to accept that in an environment of austerity and cuts to wages in real terms that stock market price values push ever higher to unprecedented levels. Just over one hundred years ago, strikers, who could in today’s parlance be described as worker who had become ‘radicalised’ took action against the imposed changes of their employers. Is it any wonder then that the ideological left wing values are once again becoming more popular among the people?

National Insurance Act 1911 (originally Germany had provided NI in 1884). This applied only to wage earners as a protection against loss of earnings. People who did not work were not covered. Applied by Lloyd George (Liberal) opposed by Conservative  AND trade unions.

Leave the EU? A Lucky Escape Perhaps.

I once wrote to Lion Capital LLP to make a complaint. I did not know this at the time. You see, Lion Capital, a private equity firm, owns Weetabix, who in turn owns Ready Brek. I was making a complaint about Ready Brek.

The reason behind this meandering introduction is to dispel the myth that I was writing to a company that has any real connection to the well being of ordinary people. The brand that I had an issue with makes profits for a corporation and corporations are defined legally as a person (although they clearly are not) whose only raison d’être is to make a profit.

A supermarket, Tesco (one could argue how much a supermarket chain has affected the smaller retail business and surrounding support services. Also the predatory practices they employ against their grocery and dairy suppliers) had an ‘own-brand’ cereal with slightly more cereal in the box and almost half the price. The point in question, do you buy a box with a brand name for £3 or a box without a brand name for £1.50?

A closer inspection of the ingredients revealed that the make up of the cereal was identical. So I concluded that Ready Brek were having a laugh and I wanted to know how it could justify selling a product with an almost 100% profit margin?

Talking of having a laugh

I don’t recall the response exactly but the gist of the reply was that if I were not to buy Ready Brek there would be a risk that the brand would no longer be available.

Oh no! I thought to myself. What would the world be like without Ready Brek? The answer I came to was ‘more affordable’. So guess what? I never bought Ready Brek again and in the last five or so years I have not missed it at all.

So why am I writing about cereals and brand names? There is a link I promise you. In April 2016, Barack Obama, President of the United States, popped over to Blighty to tell us in no uncertain terms that if the people of the UK were to vote to leave the EU on June 23rd, we would be in the back of the queue for a trade deal. Oh no! I am thinking. What would the world be like without a trade deal with USA? And curiously enough the answer is that it would be more affordable. Let me explain why.

I, and many others, have been banging on for years about this TTIP trade deal, otherwise known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. This is the deal to which Barack Obama is referring and it is the worst kind of trade deal imaginable. It was written by corporations for corporations. It has protectionist clauses in it and it gives corporations the power to sue sovereign countries for loss of profit if, for example, the UK decides that it does not want fracking, or genetically modified crops or weedkillers, or that we would like the National Health Service to remain as a nationalised institution.

It seems reminiscent of the corporate response I received from Ready Brek, in that the US President is saying to us, if we leave the EU there would be a risk that we would not be included in TTIP.

So I am thinking, what a lucky escape it would be if the people of the UK decided to leave the EU. As a sovereign nation we could decide what we will and will not accept in this country. If we remain in the EU we will simply support the existing corporate brands, including the corrupt political establishments that support it. Do we really want more expensive brands or are we better off with cheaper, home produced, goods? Personally I think the answer is obvious.

Having watched the fact checkers from 38 degrees for both the ‘stay in’ and ‘leave’ campaigns, the only truth to come out of it was that it does not matter what side the politicians are on, they are incapable of giving the electorate an honest answer. It is typical of the developing mantras spun by party politics. Once more the establishment, even in the UK, tells us more about their agenda than it does about our choices. With a profound dearth of honesty, it is impossible to make an informed choice about anything. It is no wonder that ordinary people around the world are not only disenfranchised with established political movements but if they did but know it, much of the disenfranchisement comes from the constant manipulation and influence of corporate interest.

Growing inequality sweeps the globe like a rampant disease, fed by the single minded ideologies of Central Bank, Corporation and party politics.

Yet the world of the average person includes none of these. Ordinary people live in a world of homes to live in, family interests, employment, small and medium size business offering basic consumption and affordable leisure pursuits. We don’t need casino banks, just a high street bank to put money and savings into. We don’t need predatory corporations using every possible means to destroy our world in their pursuit to syphon off as much profit as possible. We do not need ANY political party who does not represent the electorate. We can do without ALL of them and we would live happier and more affordable lives.

Barack Obama has presented the people of the UK with a lucky escape but will we choose to take it?

Solar Eclipse 9 March 2016

At 18º55 Pisces, the solar Eclipse of 9 March 2016 focuses on Piscean elements of water, oil, gas and anything to do with scandals, criminal activity, sleaze, fraud and theft. Pisces covers large animals, big institutions, prisons and hospitals. Consequently there is plenty of scope for something to be triggered in any one of these areas:

Oil is presently at it’s lowest price in a generation as oil producers pump out more than is demanded. Why? because if they don’t their economies will suffer and each nation is paranoid about losing it’s market share.

Fracking was meant to be the way to make countries self sufficient. However there is much opposition to it as it pollutes the water tables and pumps millions of gallons of dangerous chemicals into the ground. But since the global economy has forced oil to be over produced, the cost of a barrel of oil has fallen well below the profitability of fracking. So companies are starting to go bankrupt and the derivatives created by investors into the industry seem destined to lose their investment, which when added up is an awful lot of money.

Banks and corporations are starting to feel the economic pinch with thousands of job layoffs and the downsizing of business. Central banks are now in negative interest rates while banks themselves begin to hoard money within their vaults rather than pay to have the Central Banks charge them to hold it.

We are eventually going to say goodbye to guantanamo bay prison but private prisons have come under some scrutiny where keeping criminals for profit is turning the incarceration of people into an industry rather than a place of detention as punishment.

The National Health Service in the UK is under tremendous monetary pressure but doctors are striking because of dodgy contracts dressed up to look like improvements for doctors but in reality it is an attempt to make certain aspects of health delivery viable for private enterprise. In the US the health care system is also under scrutiny and various interest groups attempt to portray themselves as the good guys while sabotaging any attempt at reform.

Neptune is also the only transpersonal planet in it’s own sign, making the emphasis on dissolving and undermining things a legitimate focus.

In direct opposition to the solar eclipse, within 42 minutes of arc is Jupiter. So the eclipse opposes expansion. Jupiter is the old ruler of Pisces and should be considered in this light. Jupiter is in detriment in Virgo, which likes frugality, analysis and meticulous attention to detail. With Jupiter comes faith and belief systems, higher education, expansion and money.

From the years of quantitative easing we have an enormous global debt. At this point it is clear that taking out more debt does not help pay debt. In fact the whole debt crisis is being played out already, from the moment we stumbled in 2008 with the sub prime mortgage crisis, where we realised that the deregulation of the banking industry was a catastrophic miscalculation and have to this date not paid the price for the greed and avarice experienced today.

Those with money (banks and corporations) who now fear the making of money through investment in anything other than hard assets, are buying up gold, property, national utilities and anything that will guarantee holding its value. Hence stock markets, bonds and derivatives are fast going out of favour and the long awaited for global financial crash and the following depression looms closer. It is not a case of if but when. The rich and powerful have intervened since the point where it should have occurred, hence just proving the point that we can change the course of our destiny by utilising the planetary energies present if we want to. In this case, the rich and the powerful want to get as much of their wealth tied up in safe places before the entire money system goes to hell in a handbag.

Likewise there will also be an attack on religious belief systems. The war on terrorism can continue unabated, especially while Jupiter trines Pluto, which naturally costs a tremendous amount of money, payable to those who manufacture rockets and warplanes, ships and ordinance; the sound investments of those who really run the world and want to make damned sure they end up with as much wealth as possible.

Next to Jupiter is the North Node; a focus on the direction we are heading which has been austerity and care with money for quite a while now. When the North Node ingresses into Leo we may start to see a more stability but by then the rich will be richer and the poor poorer. At the very least we will know where we stand. Now that the wealthy will have as much of the assets they could get, the financial meltdown can happen without it affecting their position in the world.

Jupiter and the solar eclipse square Saturn, miserable in Sagittarius. In addition, the Uranus Pluto square comes into play with Jupiter in trine to Pluto and inconjunct to Uranus. Under the old rulership of Jupiter to Pisces, all the outer planets are feeding into the solar eclipse, with the exception of Neptune that is already in Pisces. So we should see an expansion of reform but not necessarily pleasant. We can expect to see special interest groups try to strong-arm their way into the reform process when it is the special interest groups that are so desperately in need of reform. From corporation to politician, the whole world will be place under the extremely large Jupitarian microscope that is Virgo.

Mars is in semisquare to Pluto. War continues but one must also consider the possibility of martial law where opponents to the status quo in this battle to reform our old and outmoded structures may begin to get the upper hand. One only has to look at the American candidates to see that firstly there is a direct attack on the establishment through maverick and independent candidates and secondly that those same candidates run the risk of being out front at the time of nomination in July.

In the UK there is a referendum on whether the UK should stay of leave Europe. While the establishment want to remain in the EU, there is already a growing movement in opposition that means the outcome of the referendum is not a foregone conclusion. The eclipse demands more and better information. People want to make an informed decision and that means there is a willingness to take part in the process and be educated.

The eclipse Saros cycle 18 south, according to Bernadette Brady, deals with ending and separations. I have already predicted that the UK will vote to stay in the EU (even though in my heart I am leaning towards leaving the evidence suggests otherwise) so while this may appear to be in direct contradiction to the meaning of the Saros Cycle, I would love to be wrong and this indicator gives me hope that I have missed something.

Of course the establishment has control of the media, so those who look only to the main stream media will learn only what the establishment wants you to learn. On the other hand, those savvy enough to seek alternative reporting methods will find that somewhere between propaganda and conspiracy theory lies the truth of the matter. With the eclipse and Neptune both in Pisces you can guarantee that nothing will be clear.

Saturn sits on the Ascendant at Westminster. It is with concern that the eclipse opposes the Saturn of the Duke of Edinburgh while transiting Jupiter is in conjunction. The Duke’s natal Sun is at 18º Gemini, which would make up the grand cross. The Jupiter eclipse opposition is within one degree of his secondary Sun. Jupiter in transit sits on the cusp of the Queen’s 8th house. As the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Phillip, heads towards his 94th birthday there are obvious concerns over his health. The solar eclipse position is a trigger point. When Prince Albert died, Queen Victoria gave up virtually all of her duties to Prince Edward - later to be King Edward VII. It may well be an echo today that if Prince Phillip were to die, Queen Elizabeth may well take a back seat and give the crown to Charles in all but title.

In the UK 1801 the eclipse occurs in the 6th house of service and health. There is a crisis in the hospital where junior doctors have threatened to leave now that the new contract has been imposed on them. Much greater disruption is expected in all large institutions, particularly those where civil servants, doctors, teachers and council workers are concerned.

Transiting (T)Mars in the second house semisquare (T)Pluto in the fourth house implies an active strengthening of values within the family. The paedophile debacle within the entertainment industry and within Political and other powerful circles, covered up and inquiries delivering inadequate justice, has galvanised the general population against the rich and powerful even more than before.

People can sense the corruption and the abuse of privilege creating one rule for the haves and another for the have nots. In fact (T) Pluto is only a couple of degrees away from opposition to the UK natal Moon that the little people will soon take on the establishment to demand justice and rights and equality that they cannot see happening today; this is two years away but leave plenty of time for the injustice to fester and ripen.

(T)Saturn is in the 3rd house conjunct natal Mercury. This does not bode well for trade and every day dealings in the UK. Exports in particular may suffer, which may lead to job losses well before the fear of jobs disappearing as a result of leaving the EU. Further cuts to public services are likely in the Chancellor’s Spring Budget in March. George Osborne had speculated on using pension money to balance the budget but has been warned off. This will further tighten the burden of austerity for the poor and welfare will most likely be in the firing line once again. I anticipate that the growing resentment will lead to mass protests and enormous unrest.

There are only 11 days to the Aries ingress, so one could place this eclipse as an overriding colour to the Aries New Year chart. But it would seem clear that events are going to affect the big things in the world: the corporations, the banks, the large institutions and governments. We have reached a point where all that will be left is denial and misdirection. The money is gone, the debt is unpayable and the corruption is starting to show.

EU referendum 2016 prediction

Voting on the British ‘in/out’ referendum on Europe will end at 10:00pm on Thursday 23 June 2016. This will be the first time the British population have had to vote on being a member of the EU since 1975.

The importance of this vote will be lost on many but despite Prime Minister David Cameron’s show of ‘getting a better deal for Britain’, the general UK population have no real idea of what goes on in Brussels and therefore have no idea what it is they are voting on.

For many people, especially in the ‘no’ camp, the issues for them are immigration, immigration and immigration. The stress on the National Health service and other services are very noticeable. The British government has no say on it’s borders (Saturn in Sagittarius) and cannot possibly plan effectively for the increase in population. Net migration was recently measured at a surplus of 320,000 and increasing.

Housing is in such demand that no one can afford to live in London. Rent is sky high while housing benefit is capped. People blame the high housing cost on the government’s failure to build more houses but also because immigration is making matters worse.

So the issue of immigration permeates the British perspective.

Those who want to stay in the EU are those who look at trade links, jobs and the joint power that can be influenced over climate change. Then there is also the benefits of have the European Human Rights legislation and the European courts.

However, the continuation in the EU may mean that the UK is dragged into signing the TTIP agreement and may give itself up to fracking and GMO crops in the process.

So this is by no means a simple decision, even if people have little or no knowledge of what the EU does.

The chart of the EU referendum, set for Westminster, has Capricorn as the Ascendant with Pluto 2º away in the first house. The ‘establishment’ presents itself for scrutiny, trining a Jupiter / North Node conjunction in the 8th house. Jupiter in turn has a returning square (albeit loose) to Saturn in the 11th of those being governed and applies by square to Mercury in the 5th house of speculation. Those who are not avid Europhiles but most likely to vote to stay in the EU may do so based on how the Pro-EU camp puts forward their argument. Yet the Pro EU campaign will find it hard to get voters to believe their reasons. With Saturn in Sagittarius there is already an anti global sentiment and with Saturn square to Neptune in the 2nd house of values and income (Neptune thereby opposing a departing Jupiter) much confusion still remains at the point where decisions are required. I believe there will be a huge number of undecided voters who will either not vote or will decide when they hold a pencil in their hand at the ballot box. So for some the result may be decided by flipping a coin.

Mars is retrograde, conjunct the MC and trine to Chiron in the 2nd house. Curiously there was a recent report that France declared, if there was a no vote, that they would open their borders and allow all the migrants at Calais to rush the UK border. France clearly wants the UK to remain in the EU but the threat of yet more immigrants could be enough to scare more voters into voting to stay in. Mars in this position clearly shows that the government is in no position to act if the referendum result is to leave. There is a sequiquadrate from Mars to a loose Sun / Venus conjunction in the 6th house of service. While the people may want to do the right thing there are just too many people who have no idea what ‘the right thing’ is anymore. What they require more than anything else is more information (North Nose in Virgo).

Bear in mind I am looking at the chart for the close of the EU referendum poll and if the people still want more information it begs the question as to whether the result was truly the result of an informed decision. The 4th house, the end of the matter, is in Taurus but without planets, so as Venus is the ruler of the 4th house, we must presume that the result is going to be one that is made with all good conscience - to do the right thing - but based more on belief than reliable information.

So the question may come down to who puts their argument across in a way that influences voters to move towards in or out. The power of the position of Pluto strongly implies that the establishment are firmly in control and therefore a yes vote is desired. But there is a rebellion seen through the inconjunct of Mars to Uranus in the 3rd house of everyday affairs. These are the people disenchanted with the ever growing globalism that robs them of their sovereignty, their borders and the power to govern themselves. Led for many years now by the likes of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) it is an influence that means the result may not be a massive endorsement for the government. In fact I think the result may be much closer than the government would like. The Moon in the 1st house (Aquarius) is sextile Saturn and applies by trine to Mercury and inconjunct to the  Jupiter / North Node conjunction. So the masses want to vote the right way but feel the dilemma between the believe of ‘better together’ grinding against the disastrous situation with housing, borders and infrastructure. What to do, what to do?

The EU result becomes clearer through the lens of the UK1801 chart where Pluto sits at the bottom of the chart and the Sun / Venus conjunction is in the 9th house and applies to the MC. Uranus placed in the 7th puts the No camp in opposition to the status quo. Saturn in the 3rd house and Jupiter in the 12th highlight that the decision on which way to vote is more likely to be based on what the voter fears to lose rather than what they hope to gain. In this instance the fear of change may far outweigh the courage of conviction. Mercury is strong in its own sign of Gemini and is also 9th house. The inclination is therefore to vote to stay with our European friends rather than risk the isolation once again of an Island Kingdom.

I do not believe that the yes vote will be as convincing a win as the government would hope for but I predict the yes vote will win. However, the margin of victory might be as narrow as 60%

There is a tremendous feeling of antiestablishment worldwide, as we plough our way through the Uranus / Pluto square reforms, and if the population were less ignorant of what the EU does and how it works, I would speculate a much tighter result. But the mass media has done enough of a job, I believe, to filter what the elite want the masses to know and understand.

It would be a catastrophic blow to the hegemony if the UK voted to leave the EU. In many ways that result is unthinkable because there is no plan B.

As for me, my intention is to vote out - but I predict the result will go against my decision.

Aries Ingress 2016

Aries Ingress 2016

The year of financial uncertainty

We enter the new astrological year of 2016 with Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and the North Node in mutable signs. Venus joins Neptune in Pisces to set up not only financial uncertainty but most likely (and especially in the UK) fraud, scandal and ‘creative accounting’. A Venus / Neptune conjunction (9-10º Pisces) is the stuff of fairy stories. There is glamour, charisma and illusionary beautification. Jupiter (16ºVir47) is in wide opposition but is applying, almost dangling a carrot of promises of better things to come. All you need is belief and to stay the course and all will be well. Yeah right!

This illusionary view squares the midpoint (10ºSag28) of Mars and Saturn in Sagittarius, making all the promises of jam tomorrow a little hard to believe. But war (Mars / Saturn) making aspect by midpoint to the planet ruling oil (Neptune), while Jupiter and Saturn are still very much in a waning square (business difficulties) indicates how impossible it is going to become to fool all of the people all of the time. Joining these planets is also the North Node (21ºVir24) in loose conjunction to Jupiter but also in close opposition to Chiron. There is much to analyse and digest, too much for many.

This is the year where we become fatigued by austerity, war, ideals and endless bickering. The potential for apathy and resignation is perhaps no less likely and never more dangerous. The corporate world would like nothing more than for us to go crawling back to our personal bubbles of ignorance and let them enslave us without any further resistance. And yet the focus of the people is clearly frugality and close analysis, not just of money but of political belief systems. There has indeed been a growing participation in the political process and it looks set to continue for the whole of the 2016 astrological year.

Jupiter trines Pluto and inconjuncts Uranus. It isn’t just money that needs reform. The way we deal with our belief systems from politics and religion to extreme fundamentalism. The game does not work, which is why there has been such a growing disenfranchisement towards the same old solution proposals that have succeeded in no more than perhaps ‘kicking the can down the road’. If nothing else comes out of 2016, the consensus of opinion will be that we cannot continue as we are now.

Mercury (26ºPisc26) suggests worried trade; at the very least the oil trade is strongly indicated. The Sun (0ºAries of course), Uranus (19Ari17) and Pluto (17ºCap16) in cardinal signs dominate the ‘more of the same reform at any cost attitude by the government; We forge ahead regardless of set backs and hardships. One can almost sense a cognitive dissonance as stalwart ideology is ridden high over the needs of ordinary people.

This leaves the Moon (23ºLeo16) as the only fixed sign aspect. All we have left is pride and even that is prone to be hijacked in guise of patriotism and the great British stiff upper lip. We are, of course, supposed to vote on whether to stay in the EU or opt out. Note the loose grand trine of Moon to Saturn and Uranus reflecting nicely the Prime Minister’s wish to reform (Uranus) the structure (Saturn) of our membership (Moon) in the EU.

I predict that the British public will vote to stay in Europe, irrespective of their understanding of it (which is not a lot) and there may be enough glamour to ‘sell the sizzle and not the sausage’. Given how much Europe will change before we reach the referendum I have no doubt that the tactics will be as fluid as the circumstances... or to put it another way, it will be messy.

War in the Middle East will continue. Oil prices look to be great at the petrol pump but not great for the economy.

The potential for bankruptcy and a global economic meltdown has never been more pronounced than with Jupiter and Saturn in waning square at the same time that Venus conjuncts Neptune - all in mutable signs. At the very least this suggests instability in the world of banking (Saturn), money (Jupiter), finance (Venus) and oil (Neptune). In Barbault’s cyclic index the greatest plunge into minus territory occurs in 2016. I noted this date when we were experiencing the 2008 start of what started as a ‘credit crunch’ and was later given the title ‘great recession’. The thing is, if Barbault’s predictions on the great recession was accurate then 2016 is destined to be a whole lot worse than that.

Back in October 2015 I looked at the potential of a stock market crash. The indicators for this to happen was there but central banks have manipulated money for so long now that they have created the artificial facade of stability. Recently, however, the Federal Reserve announced it was about to increase interest rates and this could be just one of a number of triggers that brings down the house of cards. In addition to this there is financial instability in Russia, China and South America. In Europe, Greece is in a hopeless position and Italy is on the verge of collapse. The Euro zone may yet be forced to rethink it’s entire structure before the UK referendum. I expect much confusion and conflicting stories for the whole of this astrological year.

In the UK the Chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, warned on 22 January 2016 that Britain is at risk from a ‘hazardous mix’ of threats (Daily Mail p4) and that we need to see every shoulder at the wheel; every country acting as one in search of growth.

The economy needs growth. The world does not. This is the problem of the entire capitalist system. Business needs growth. The people do not. This is the disconnect between government and their people. The people want to see reform but not the kind the elite is trying to force through. World debt is already insurmountable. We can’t grow our way out of it this side of over 300 years.

Looking at the UK 1801 chart, there are a preponderance of planets in the 3rd, 6th and 12th houses. The transiting Jupiter Saturn waning square clocks natal Mercury in the 3rd house. This is the UK as a trading nation and I think we should expect to see our home GDP contract. Job losses are inevitable.

With the transiting Venus Neptune conjunction in the 6th house and Jupiter in the 12th, not only will the NHS dominate our political consideration (in terms of both money and structure) but also I think the same conjunction, with Venus being the ruler of the 8th house of other people’s money, the whole business of tax dodging will command centre stage.

Transiting Mars, conjunct natal Chiron in the 2nd house of values, highlights the government’s ill treatment of people with disabilities both in welfare and in social facilities. One also has to consider that our attitude towards immigration will also draw scrutiny. in fact it is postulated even now that the unprecedented flood of immigrants coming to Europe, and the attitude of the different member states towards how to deal with it, could threaten the very cohesiveness of the EU as a collective. Already there are countries creating borders where there are supposed to be none.

Transiting Moon is within 4 minutes of exact conjunction with Natal Saturn in the 11th house of groups. This is interesting in the sense that stubbornness within groups generate tribal competitive values. Secondary Mars is within just over 18 months of going into the UK 12th house. Mars in Virgo - to analyse what we do, moves into the house of large groups and institutions. Is this the time where the emphasis is placed on actively reducing the size of ‘too big to fail’ businesses? Will the masses (Moon) support each other as a cohesive whole (Saturn) to weaken the corporate stranglehold over our economy? Is it possible that the Trans Pacific Partnership (TTP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will meet so much opposition that it will never be ratified? Never more so does it seem that the electorate stands alone against the might of the ruling elite, corporate muscle and mainstream media propaganda. It may be yet that the people, not the most powerful 1%, will decide the direction the world goes in.

 The Aries ingress is anchored in the Uranus Pluto square and also the Jupiter Saturn square. This is a time to see bad business go. Propaganda is rife, so it is not helpful to rely on the mainstream media for accurate and objective reporting. Saturn is starting to apply by trine to Uranus but refrains from aspect; Saturn goes retrograde on 26 March and will not trine exactly until 25 December 2016. The breakdown (Uranus) of structures (Saturn) may be a theme for the entire year but may take much longer to see the result.

Both Mars and Saturn will be retrograde until the end of June 2016 when Mars stations at 23ºSco03 (Jupiter (trine Pluto) and Neptune in loose opposition, so possible significant terrorist event around this time). War is never progressive when Mars is retrograde. War in the Middle East will drag on for another year without seeing an end to it. But while the media tries to point the eyes of the masses towards war, the masses should be aware that it is for economic reasons that those wars were started in first place and that it is the economic restructuring (the global financial reset) that our eyes should not be diverted away from.

Thus 2016 begins a period of major transition towards the brand new cycles of Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto. Expect a difficult year but consider that for those who are not aware how difficult this year will be, it will be more so. By now you should all have spare money outside the banking system for when the banks suddenly close and non perishable food for when the supermarkets have no deliveries. Most economic pundits are saying when rather than if and now even George Osborne has offered a muted warning.

Capricorn Ingress 2015

The crash of October 2015 did not appear to happen. Financial markets are overpriced, gold and silver, suppressed and austerity rampant. This is the legacy we take into the last quarter of the Astrological year.

The Capricorn ingress is seen as the seeds that are sown for the next harvest. The Sun moves into Capricorn, usually on the shortest day of the year (21 Dec) but this year a little later at 4.48am on 22 December; note 2016 is a leap year and the extra day will bring ingresses back again.

Venus sits on the Ascendant at 20º13Scorpio opposing the Moon at 02º17Taurus. Venus sextiles both Mercury 18º05 Capricorn and Jupiter 22º46 Virgo, both creating a grand trine with the Moon. So Venus, finance opposes Moon, the people, when dealing with Mercury, trade and Jupiter, Money. And here is the problem; for finance to work properly there has to be business and money consumed via the masses - that’s you and me. But in order to consume one has to have money to spend. Money is what we don’t have.

In fact, linked by sextile to the Moon is Chiron 17º12 Pisces, which in turn is linked by sextile to Mercury. And Chiron opposes Jupiter. So both the people AND money have a problem and that problem is debt. The IMF recently noted that the UK economy could flounder because of ‘household debt-to-income ratio’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35069589 

In only a few weeks time the US is believed to want to increase it’s interest rate. Most likely the UK will follow suit. Legarde alluded to an interest rate increase in her analysis for the UK. She said it ‘could leave some households vulnerable’. So 2016 looks like a year to save money and pay off debts. Jupiter is uncomfortable in Virgo because it wants to expand but is being told to be frugal. Saturn is in Jupiter’s Sign of Sagittarius, trying to hold it’s structure together but in an expanding environment. Not enough money and everything going up. This could be a serious blow for people overburdened with high mortgages. And bearing in mind that lots of rented properties are buy-to-let, it is certain that a hike in mortgage interest rates will be reflected in higher rental prices.

A few months ago I predicted, incorrectly it seems, that there would be a stock market crash in October 2015. Those holding the power (central banks in this case) have plugged a cork in the dyke of the inevitable collapse for so long I was surprised they managed to shore up the global economy for so long. But collapse it must because the debt to income ratio is so high. In personal finance just a small interest rate rise could be devastating and those who cannot keep up with debt repayments run the risk of losing everything.

Mars 23º02 Libra (square Mercury 18º05 Capricorn) is in an applying semi square to Saturn 10º02 Sagittarius. The Mars/ Saturn cycle will come to conjunction on 24 august, so the period within the closing of this cycle is likely to be bloody and hostile, particularly in terms of the conflict in the Middle East. Saturn and Neptune are also in square, so I believe we can expect a further erosion of structures that would have once defined the 20th Century. 

Saturn trines Uranus, 16º33 Aries, and Uranus continues to apply the square to Pluto 14º42 Capricorn. Global reform is beginning to emerge for all to see, as the structuring becomes clearer. The force of corporate momentum is unstoppable at present and 2016 will see only a further push towards the envisaged ‘New World Order’.

According to the UK 1801 chart, transiting Venus (square transiting Chiron) conjuncts natal Neptune and Trines the natal Moon, creating a grand trine with the transiting Chiron. This strongly implies further battles for UK benefits, disability issues and a further erosion of the National Health Service. Transiting Uranus conjuncts natal North Node, implying a further leaning towards right wing ideology. 

Transiting Moon opposes natal Neptune (conjunct transiting Venus). Debt will conquer many individuals, who will face the ever increasing risk of repossession, eviction, bankruptcy. Those who took on board the warning to prepare and get rid of debt are likely to weather the storm without loss. Getting into debt at this time could be incredibly risky unless you have a guaranteed means of paying it back.

With less money around there will be less consumer activity, With less consumer activity there will be less manufacturing. Job losses are certain. With less employment there will be less tax revenue, which in turn will not service the national deficit, which will require higher taxes. The government has already maxed out it’s own credit card and there is no magic wand to save anything from collapsing. They tried quantitative easing and it failed. They tried zero interest rates and it also failed. There is nowhere left for the economy to run. This is what the global financial reset was all about; push the world into an impossible corner and then offer the only viable solution (that they wanted you to have all along), which is a global financial system controlled by the elite for the benefit of the elite.

The Capricorn ingress chart defines the seeds we plant for the following year. The grand trine of Moon, Mercury and Jupiter (the people, trade and money) demonstrates the economic problem beautifully. Moon is in Taurus, strong and looking to satisfy it’s basic needs. To do this they look carefully at what they spend their money on, which is Mercury in Capricorn, and finally they have to pay for it. Jupiter in Virgo is restricting expansion, looking at what is affordable. Both money and trade are tied by sextile to Venus, the economy, not only demonstrating the issue between trying to bring business and money together but it’s policy in opposition to the people who are the engine behind any economy.

Furthermore, the Sun at 0º Capricorn squares the North Node (which applies by conjunction to Jupiter but only very loosely to the Sun) is indicative of the focus of austerity measures to solve the problem of money. Saturn is still in square to Neptune, further highlighting the problem if debt and the ongoing deficit. The issue of debt is a long term one and how we tackle it may take several years to work out. By the Aries ingress of 2016 it should be fairly clear where the lines are drawn between the haves and the have nots.

Which brings us back to the question of the long predicted economic crash. According to Barbault, 2016 looks like the most likely year for a depression. On February 8 2016, transiting Mars conjuncts the UK natal Neptune while Jupiter (conjunct North Node and in an acceptable trine between transiting Mercury and Venus in the 4th house of home) is in the 12th house of loss. Transiting Venus and Pluto are conjunct in the 4th house of home. Transiting Sun and Moon is midpoint natal Venus, all in the 5th house of speculation. The transiting Mercury is inconjunct natal Saturn (trade restrictions?) with such close proximity to venus applying that one wonders if this does not indeed apply to the banking industry.

The rest of February 2016 looks to be a turbulent month with transiting Venus coming ever closer to conjunction with transiting Neptune, which will be a main feature in the most dire Aries ingress for the UK for some time. Will there be a build of lies and deceit over what is really going on in the financial sector or will we see the gradual disintegration and exposure to one of the biggest financial scandals in history? Certainly with Jupiter traveling in frugal Virgo through the UK 12th house it is unlikely that this will have anything to do with making or finding lots of money.

Moving for a moment to the issues of war in the Middle East, Mars in the Capricorn ingress chart is in the human rights sign of Libra and is semi square to Saturn. This is a closing square which suggests the pressing desire to work towards a conclusion. The UK wants to be seen as a leader in the conflict but in truth has very little influence outside of how the British public is led to perceive it. The recent decision to bomb Syria ( a long held desire by the Conservative government who have tried and twisted every scenario to justify doing so) just adds the UK name to the list. There is no short solution and there will be no significant changes by the time we reach the Aries ingress. Meanwhile the UK government, eager to look big on the international stage, wants to restrict the amount of displaced Syrian refugees and to cashier all economic migrants, will spend the next two years ducking it’s responsibility because the UK is in no position to provide a service for it’s own people, let alone thousands more. While there is money to be made in war the UK government see this as a business opportunity to make money through the use, sale and further production of weapons.

It is curious to note that the trine aspect between Saturn and Uranus, present in the Capricorn ingress chart, will also be in trine aspect again by the 2016 Capricorn ingress chart. This is an ongoing threat of chaos (Uranus) over stability (Saturn) with an ongoing ease. Add the aspect to the fact they are in mutable signs means there is no chance of anything becoming settled for the next year.

2015 will be a year to adapt and keep up with the changes. It may not be a good year to make foundations for the future.