November 2025: Mercury Retrograde behind communication chaos in Westminster?

13 November 2025

So how’s Mercury Retrograde going for you then?

Hopefully better than it is for Keir Starmer, with his alleged briefing against Wes Streeting appearing to have spectacularly backfired, as claim and counter-claim ricochet through the corridors of Westminster in a game of: ‘He said,’ ‘They said,’ ‘You said,’ ‘I said?’ ‘Not me!’ ‘Who said?’ ‘They said he knew they said he said you said.’

Ill-judged communications, miscommunications and confused messaging have become synonymous with this government, of course, but even by its own standards, with Mercury muddying the Westminster waters, the chaos engulfing the cabinet and the wider Labour Party this week has been on another level.

If you don't know about Mercury Retrograde, here's a quick introduction: The mischievous little blighter Mercury turned retrograde on Sunday 9 November, for three weeks. It's already in 'retroshade' and causing problems (the time I wasted on a Mac glitch yesterday...!), and until 29 November there's an increased likelihood of miscommunications, travel disruptions and tech issues, so pay extra attention to those areas.

You can help avert the potential pitfalls by taking some canny proactive measures, like hitting save frequently if you're on a Mac, and backing up important documents. Might be a good idea not to write texts while you're one over the odds either. And if you're travelling by train, get the train before the one you need.  I know, I know, these are all sensible measures that we should always, routinely, do - but we don't, and it's particularly important that we do them during Mercury Retrograde periods.

Cynics might argue that Mercury Retrograde is a load of old cobblers, and that the only reason people believe in it is down to confirmation bias - they are more aware of transport/tech/comms problems during a retrograde period and therefore attribute them to it. All I can say is that I don't live my life by planetary movements (natal astrology is my thing - the potential contained with our individual charts) so I don't note down Mercury Rx periods, but every time a couple of frustrating tech/communication things happen I wonder if Mercury is retrograde again. And it always is.

22 November 2025

Aftershocks of the 'Streeting-gate' own goal continue to engulf Keir Starmer as a buoyed Andy Burnham re-enters the fray, refusing to rule out a leadership bid after being offered a seat by Labour MP Clive Lewis, prompting a flustered PM to announce to GB News's Christopher Hope last night that he'll lead the country until 2034! Stunned commentators wondered if Keir meant 8.34 pm that evening!

Note to PM: this is one nightmare you can't blame on 14 years of Tory rule, but you could always try pinning it on Mercury Rx!

Note to everyone else: transport and tech are also impacted, but come 29th November we can all breathe a sigh of relief as Mercury turns direct.