Title says it all.

I used to work for Moran, who struck me as being a pleasant woman (more pleasant than subsequent MPs that I've worked for and happier to promote someone who was enthusiastic but thinks slightly too much outside the box) but it's a shame that she appears to have been tainted by this scandal because the most endearing memory is the garden party she held at the end of the summer I spent in Luton and how ordinary it seemed. I think I had been brought up to see Parliament and MPs in general being a bit like Francis Urqhuart in House of Cards - posh flats, swish demi-tasse cups, leafy London homes and extensive country estates to shoot on. The difficult thing is that Moran stands accused of gross fiddling, which I don't dispute. But personally I can't deride her too much because she did help me on the way to finding my political way, even if it was outside the Labour Party, and to understand the ordinary nature of politicians. I've also been to parties with John Redwood and Rob Marris, and both again seem human - all too human. Laughing at the idiots turns quickly to dismay that good people have been brought down by this as well - but there can be no sympathetic aspect to what is coming. 

So will Esther - who I don't know and who is well acquainted with the high life, despite her tireless work for charity - win Luton South, will Margaret hang on - or will something else happen, a wild card enter the situation? Let's see what the cards say.

Past - IV Swords

Moran did begin as a good MP - and I worked for her a year after her election to the House of Commons - but she had begun to become complacent, particularly after keeping her seat last time around. She worked hard but like many MPs became far too routine in her duties and then had to deal with a partner living in Southampton, the cause of her potential downfall. This card brings stasis, a healing stand-off in which very little, positive or negative, happens. This breeds complacency and then arrogance, shown here.

Present - Temperance, reversed

A time in which this balance is disrupted and undermined because of external events and the revelations of problems in the system which has hitherto been churning away quite quietly in the background. The upset balance has led or is leading to resolution.

Rantzen currently - Justice

Rantzen feels she is an avenging angel, and this card hints that she is a real danger to Moran, who needs to be cut out of the body politic she has helped to damage. I feel a great sadness in this - not least because of the personal connection I have with her, above party politics - but it is having to deal with this cancer in general that is the greater good, and Rantzen is a means to this end in this area. I feel sorry for Moran, but justice must be done, and seen to be done.

Moran currently - Ace of Swords

The Ace is either doing, or being done to, and this is Moran being challenged on home turf by someone perhaps with an unfair advantage but with a genuine anger. Owlperson says that Rantzen is a catalyst, not a born winner, but he also says that the blow has to be hard and that my personal sadness for Moran is just that - personal, not political. Moran is held at swordpoint, and it is a decisive and destructive Ace that holds her now.

Future - VII Cups

The future is still invisible - we can see no further into this as there are still a lot of moves to be made before Rantzen and Moran face each other over the ballot box. Owlperson suggests we look at the results first for the people of Luton South, then for the election in general, then finally for Moran and Rantzen and how the story ends for them, since the future is hidden behind the veil of possibilities that may have to be left unanswered at this time.

Luton South - future representation in Parliament - IX Wands, reversed

The stockade falls down around Parliament, and Luton South, as a marginal, will follow the rest of the country in delivering its verdict. The protective wall has fallen and there is the sense of a rushing in - a dam breaks not only for Moran but also for Rantzen. Try as I might, I can't answer at this time whether we will see Esther Rantzen MP - Owlperson says she is not suited for parliament because of her lack of pragmatic thoughts in this particular campaign, but he also says her future is not for me to know or prejudice in any way, since the issue has a long time to roll yet. But it will still be relevant at the next election, because what is happening now will drive this surge of opinion against the current set-up - all of them except those who eventually oversee the transition period after this deadly battle.

The Election in general - V Pentacles, reversed

The upright Five here means disappointment or, more explicitly, not seeing the woods for the trees and missing what really matters in pursuit of an illusory goal. The Rider-Waite image is of a stained glass window giving the picture of another world of riches and splendour, though also carrying connotations of spiritual wealth, with the human figures common to all cards poor and desperate, looking everywhere but upwards to the light. In this sense, the reversed card suggests the scales fall from the impoverished people's eyes, and they finally see the glory they have been missing or have been searching for. Thus this coming election will really decide the future of the country, and will not be skewed in the direction of the people who have hitherto controlled the levers of power - and I do also mean the two-party, or two-leadership, duopoly of Brown and Cameron. They are desperately trying to prevent people looking upward, but Rantzen embodies the third way - if you will pardon the reference - even though I don't see her actually getting the benefit of this deal.

Margaret Moran in general - King of Pentacles, reversed

It is a shame that the King here is reversed and dethroned, because I do believe that Moran remains interested in her constituents and her unfortunate circumstances led to her being profligate with our money, rather than her spending it on feathering one's own (ducks') nest. She did work hard for her constituents in ways that they don't understand, and I see her heading for defeat anyway if she stands, though I am, as I said, not wholly convinced Rantzen will be the one who dethrones her.

Esther Rantzen in general - Knight of Pentacles, reversed

Rantzen is also hard at work - making she gets her own way - but the reversal here confims my belief she won't make it into Westminster (and who can say her own ambitions are spotless? isn't she just in it for herself as well?). The Knight has less control over events than the King, above, and although Esther has done things for people through her work for That's Life and Childline (as well as other media hobby-horses) she has not got the worthiness of Moran's own direction, and will just as soon be eaten by the mill she currently feeds. She isn't going to make it into Parliament, and although the future is still veiled, it is almost certain that this is not Tatton 1997, and also almost certain that this seismic change in politics will rival 1688 rather than being "1945 in spades", as 1997 was labelled by Jim Callaghan the morning after the night before. So no-one here will profit from it - but everyone will benefit.