A Week Of Political Drama & Intrigue
Looking back on the UK week ending 23rd Oct '22. Pride & hubris, timing, scrutiny, the inevitable "cut" arrives, a man assessing his support.
So how well did my daily readings reflect the flavour of the week just gone?
I think, rather well in political and news terms. As Wednesday’s was a personal reading, I’ll leave it out of this analysis (although it was indeed a fairly accurate reflection of the day for me). I think in some ways a lot was setting the scene for the strutting Boris Johnson to attempt to make a “saving the day” reappearance later in the week.
As a reminder, these were the reading summaries. Click on the day’s heading to read my full analyses for each one.
Overall Picture Of The Week: Pride & Madness
While “high on celebration” for any gains made, it may be pertinent to remember that pride usually goes before a fall. Something of a frenzy this week, it seems. All seems good… temporarily, but there’s a hint of a warning in there about someone going overboard.
Who the “young” woman in the reading was meant to be, I was unsure; I suppose it could reflect now ex-PM Liz Truss, in the sense of her having been a “new face”. However, it was indeed a frenzied, “drunken” week for the UK press, certainly celebrating a great deal of fallen pride and hubris, madness, an utterly embarrassing downfall for the beleaguered but previously strangely arrogant Truss, now with the dishonourable record of being the shortest-serving UK Prime Minister in history, and yes, outlasted in office by a lettuce. Those outside the UK looking in shaking their heads in disbelief at the disaster of it all. “Taking back control” as claimed by the Brexiteers, we certainly haven’t, as the country descended into yet more absolute chaos, with the PM failing to show at a crisis debate in the Commons on the Monday (“Where is she? Hiding under a desk?” came the cries of laughter from the Opposition parties) with no-one officially running the country at all at one point.
I can’t help thinking, however, that strutting pride and arrogance doesn’t just belong to Truss, with the not entirely unexpected return of the preening Boris Johnson from his Caribbean holiday later in the week, to attempt to restore what he seems to imagine is his rightful “throne”. He had, after all, urged his ex supporters to support Truss in her leadership bid, presumably in the knowledge she’d fail, although perhaps he didn’t expect it to be quite so quickly, with his “resignation” speech only weeks ago conspicuously failing to actually mention “resigning” and strong “Hasta La Vista, Baby” hints that he fully intended to return.
Tuesday : Timing, Scrutiny, Mess
There are tough choices to be made, around a time of gloom and uncertainty, a mess which is under close scrutiny at this time. Options and routes will be looked at closely, a time to look carefully at the details, but the outlook is not looking good right now, with the gloom, uncertainty and confusion causing real hardship as well as infighting and strife.
Scrutiny, timing and mess three central aspects here, although the timing aspect didn’t become clearer until later in the week. What were the options available to the key players in this drama? Interestingly, it turned out later in the week that many that Johnson might have expected to support him in his attempt to stage his kingly “Restoration” are adamant that “Now is not the time.” This reading had the feel of a plot around it, of strategy, of “What the hell do we do?” while the governance of the country descended into absolute chaos, and far too little attention appeared to be being paid to the impacts on the lives and prospects for the “little people” the scrapping politicians and their kingmakers have, after all, been elected to represent.
Thursday: The Swift Cut Arrives
Today brings news of sudden, swift and likely painful change, as something or someone is cut off.
All change. Thursday did indeed bring the day of reckoning, the cutting off, the necessary surgery: the swift resignation of Liz Truss. Not much more to say about this really; the reading was pretty clear and accurate on this.
Friday: A Man Considers His Allies
Today, we see a particular individual, a man thinking about changes, perhaps changes he’s been able to make, with regard to his friends, those who love him, and supporters, or simply how his support base has changed.
Now, this was interesting, and again, very accurate in terms of Johnson, whose plans for imminent return began appearing in the press. As ever, and as we can see, he thinks mainly of himself. From what I understand, much plotting and game-playing ensued with regard to social media, and reports of how much support he would or wouldn’t get, with a lot of ringing around and attempts being made by his allies to influence and change the outcome by drumming up the idea that he was going to get a lot of support and that a win for him would therefore be an inevitability. Much of this is a numbers game, with the likely candidates needing the support of over 100 MPs each to enter the race (his main rival, Sunak, I understand, has already achieved this comfortably), but also the likely support of the party membership, who are still inexplicably Johnson fans. It won’t be over til the fat lady sings…
Saturday: An Older Woman Offers Service
The apparent love and affection connected with an older woman and the offer of service is not as it appears. Be careful of messages or news on this as it—or she, or whoever is offering— cannot be trusted.
Very unclear who the “older woman” might be in this scenario, although stories were appearing in the press about Johnson’s former home secretary, Priti Patel, lining up support. She’s not an elderly woman by any means though! But then, neither is Liz Truss a younger one, so it might refer to how long they’ve been a “face” but hmm. Jury’s out on this reading for me, as I can’t see an obvious link with any of the major news stories without complete shoe-horning.
So that’s my assessment of this week. Aside from the last, pretty accurate oracle card readings, I felt.
Onto the next…