HOW LONG WILL BORIS JOHNSON LAST?

You never know with Johnson. He defies political gravity. It can be hard to get a rational discussion about him with people identified with the Left, to whom he appears as some sort of devil incarnate. Which of course he isn't. It's just the usual projection. I will try to be rational about him.

                      

 

Partygate has left him tainted, electorally toxic, just as the Iraq War left Blair electorally toxic - and hated by many ever since. It is not about policy, it is about the man, and that is much harder to shake off.

 

Admittedly, having illegal parties is trivial compared to taking the country to war on a false basis, even if Blair believed otherwise. Truth and lies are typical issues for political Geminis, whether Sun (Johnson) or Rising (Blair). It is Johnson's personal hypocrisy which rightly sticks in the throat of voters. 

 

Why did he allow the parties to happen? With a Sun-Venus conjunction and Libra Rising, Johnson almost can't help being a people-pleaser and having a keen sense of enjoyment himself. He didn't want to upset his staff by banning the parties. As a Gemini, he thought it is was just a detail that didn't matter. Mutable Gemini often doesn't think things through. Saturn in Pisces is only responsible when collective matters are to the fore, not personal ones. If he survives, maybe he will learn to pay more attention in this way. 

 

It is possible that much of the electorate will eventually put the matter aside, admittedly still with a bad taste in their mouths, in the interest of the larger issues, which is where Johnson's strengths lie, albeit still with his Geminian (and Saturn in Pisces) lack of attention to detail. But that is often the way of it: people who are open and creative are often not very conscientious. And the opposite too. Look at Theresa May, so buttoned up and correct, unable to get the NI deal through Parliament because she lacked imagination and the willingness to do the necessary fudge to make it happen. And so fiercely critical of Johnson, in an unseemly way for his immediate predecessor.

 

This autumn, Saturn and Pluto will go Direct, and begin their run-in to Johnson's second Saturn Return, and Pluto square Moon (all but), the Moon ruling Johnson's MC, his career point. This is the time of the Conservative Party conference, and perhaps their last chance to get rid of him before the next General Election.

 

Johnson certainly won't go of his own accord. The Saturn Return, all of next year, will be a time of the reaping of consequences. But he will reap the consequences too of his achievements. Getting Brexit finally done, which needed to happen, whether or not you agreed with it. Taking the country through Covid. Injecting a new energy and optimism for the future around sustainable energy and North-South inequality. Giving the country a sense of leadership at a time of momentous change.

 

My guess is that many voters will hold their noses and still vote for him, because his failings have been more personal than governmental. And who else are they going to vote for? Unless Labour gets rid of Starmer and puts someone in charge who can lead, like Andy Burnham, there doesn't seem to be much of a choice. And Johnson has so far always had luck: next year he will have a Jupiter Return.

 

Then in 2024 Johnson will properly begin a long series of major transits, which I think will keep him in power for many years. Pluto square Moon. Neptune square Sun, Venus, then North Node and his Angles. I reckon he will be with us until the early 2030s, when the major transits come to an end. This is often the pattern with leaders.