OCTOBER 2019 31
Street years” at https://reut.rs/30NJQOO). For
anyone who hasn’t followed Brexit, the term
refers to the United Kingdom’s effort to sever
ties with the European Community, which it
has been a member of since 1972. The effort
to leave was ratified in a referendum on June
23, 2016, and shortly thereafter May became
Prime Minister, charged with the main task
of finishing what the referendum had started.
It was not easy, and she failed utterly. The
referendum result had split both of the two
major parties into pro- and anti- factions and
May tried to bridge that gap by brute force,
proposing a plan that pleased few and angered
many.
Having failed to get an agreement on that
plan from Parliament by a required deadline
date, and thus forced to go begging
to the EU for an extension, May had
become extremely vulnerable, and
all her political adversaries needed
to do to get rid of her was to fold
their arms and say no once more
to her seemingly uncompromising
exit plan. The relevant portion of the
Reuters timeline picks up toward the
beginning of 2019, when there was
already serious talk about booting
her out of office:
Jan 19, 2019 - Lawmakers vote
down May’s Brexit divorce deal by
the crushing margin of 432 to 202,
the worst such defeat in modern
British history. Labour Party leader
Jeremy Corbyn calls a vote of no
confidence, which May however
survives.
May 21, 2019 - In a last roll of
the dice, May promises a “new deal”
on Brexit. It is immediately rejected
by large numbers of Conservative
lawmakers and the opposition
Labour Party.
May 24, 2019 - May announces she will
quit...during a Downing Street address to
the nation.The dated aspects quoted above from the
“Tomorrow’s News” column for the month
of May are not rare individually, but when
they come grouped together at a time of
political or economic crisis, their action can
become quite visible. Aspects like this affect
people and situations in all walks of life,
but when they seem to affect newsmakers,
they become news. The charts here show
the planets for GMT noon on May’s birth
date (no time available), and the exact time
(from a BBC video) of the beginning of her
resignation speech. P