The political card of the day is a Major Arcana "trump", which signifies big movements, although I feel this means for the moment behind the scenes rather than in front of the press.

Justice

The Justice card differs from the nominally similar Judgement card in being man-made arbitration and its logical conclusion rather than divine intervention or outside force imposing an ajudication by force. Justice here means that those people who are in control have their say, and decide on the basis of clear sight and fair play. The card depicts the familiar figure of Justice - a stern woman with sword and scales - with the only difference from the modern depiction being she is unhindered by the customary blindfold. This is an earlier viewing of the figure of Justice; the blindfold is a modern interpretation of what Justice means.

An illustration of this concept and its symbolism is the figure which adorns the gates of Dublin Castle (in Dublin, Ireland, natch...though since Leeds Castle is actually in Kent, it doesn't necessarily "go without saying"). The castle was the home of the Viceroy of Ireland during the period after Cromwell's seizure of the island and the period in which it was by and large independent but under the suzerainty of Great Britain (that changed in the early 1800s when Ireland was fully subjugated to Westminster and not released from that grip until the establishment of the Free State in the 1920s). It was the home of justice in Ireland - not just judicial justice but of the wider concept of government by the British puppet state under the "Kingdom of Ireland" and then as part of the union after home rule was abolished. Correspondingly, the figure of Justice stands looking out over the courtyard. She is as depicted on this card - without a blindfold, and with her head approvingly looking in the direction of the palace court itself.

This is always taken by Irish nationalists to represent the notion that British justice, under whose auspices the figure was erected, was partial. The lack of a blindfold, both on the statuette and on the card in front of me, suggests that Justice entertains more than should enter normal due process of law. Juries are selected in this country on the basis of not knowing the defendant or plaintiff (Owlperson was a lawyer, he should know) and thus can arbitrate from a completely neutral point of view. However, the difference in this figure led some to regard the statue as symbolic in a direct manner that justice in Ireland was partial - to the British monarchy - and until something was done to re-establish not only home rule but full independence, then true impartial justice could never be done.

However this concept of Justice here leaves out the idea that actually, Justice in this sense cannot be done unless we know all the facts; unless we can see the evidence before us. It is no surprise that this card falls on the day the Labour NEC "Star Chamber" meets - in secret, of course, but then this is a party matter and would be hampered by the scrutiny of the press who have their own separate agenda, largely involving the downfall of Labour and of the Prime Minister. Brown in my opinion can do a lot more thorough justice than Cameron can, largely because Cameron is too reliant on ad hoc systems played out in public with a semblance of a panel constructed with him and the whips, whilst the Labour NEC is constructed such that the membership of the party is represented in various forms and although controversies have arisen in the past (with the 1997 contest hotly fought by Peter Mandelson and Ken Livingstone largely the only time it has ever really hit the headlines; I voted, by the way, in that contest and voted for both of them) it has largely been a body ignored by the press. Labour's bureaucratic notion of justice therefore suggests that actually an unhindered justice is taking place here, and while perhaps the Irish nationalists may have had a point, the figure without a blindfold is actually a more historically important symbol of Justice than that with a blindfold (oops, almost wrote "blingfold", which would be interesting to see...maybe a spangly one which the contestants on The Apprentice could sell for us on QVC...).

Owlperson notes that the Tories do things differently, preferring ad hoc controls on their party and debate. However, I put it to him that this has often backfired in the past. Although I often praise him for other reasons, I remember the seeming absurdity of what Michael Howard said to the party conference as Shadow Foreign Secretary in 1998.

Last week, there was a debate on Europe at the Labour Party conference - behind closed doors!

If you hold your debates in secret, you must have something to hide!

Madam Chairman, we - we have nothing to hide. We are confident to be leading the debate.

The Tories were leading the debate, indeed, but the chaos and devastation of the mid to late 1990s was such that perhaps the European debates should have been conducted in private - behind closed doors - and a consensus reached, at least at leadership level, to avoid the damaging divisions which ultimately - and sadly, when he had moved into a position of proposing his own moderate Euro-scepticism as an alternative to the reeking Europhobia which has come back to taunt the party with the prospect of sharing a group with the "BNPski" parties of Eastern Europe - damaged his own leadership in 2004 because he could not come to grips with his own party's wilful determination to have that debate in public and not in private. Where Cambo falls down is not having that debate at all and giving us potential Conservative voters the worst of all possible worlds.

It was also symptomatic, Owlperson tells me, of other divisions in the Tory Party at the time, and cannot be taken in isolation as Labour is as equally split by Europe as the Tories, but Labour managed to avoid the debate or subsume it into internal party cohesion because they were - and still are - broadly united on other fronts. The Tories lack a single unifying element to their ideology which keeps them together during rough times. Labour have the explicit commitment to social justice which keeps them focussed on achieving and maintaining power, and this to a certain extent still holds the party together long after it should have collapsed, as the Tories did in 1992-1997, into a dysfunctional, squabbling mess. No amount of media manipulation or fire on the leadership has broken Labour ranks, even at Brown's nadir last summer. Johnson too might have done a Miliband and fired the first salvo too soon coming out in favour of PR, and Owlperson says the last person Labour will turn to in this crisis is Alan Johnson, who has no ridiculous expense claims but a skeleton lurking further back in his closet which will see him destroyed too. There will be few survivors from this who are currently on any frontbench; OP is saying he is working hard to save people on both Labour and Tory benches but that those who take over will by and large come from the middle ranks, and former cabinets, as anyone inside the current Cabinet or Shadow Cabinet are doomed to the same oblivion as their leaderships.

Returning to the main issue, Labour's careful deliberation may deliver more lasting and concrete justice but the Queen of Wands, as a clarifying card, suggests that a lack of control over the situation in general may mean they are only now able to respond or react to changing circumstances, and not even being in full control over the responses to events means that the full extent of Labour's response to the crisis may be to exacerbate it rather than bring it under human management.

What Owlperson and other spirit guides feel - if we can bring them down to earth a bit and make them focus on actual events rather than the view from upstairs, though I get the feeling they are enjoying this as much or even more than we are - is that this is a shift to do with 2012 and to do with another version of 1688 - and that the expenses scandal is a tip of an iceberg, and the catalyst for a really destructive shake-up of the political system. It is not something that can be palmed off by the perpetrators with PR or their own favourite solution (government by SMS being the best Cambo can come up with), it will need the sheep separated from the goats and the ability to sort Parliament out, sort the government out, and bring lasting, genuine Justice to bear. Nick Clegg's proposal that there should be no summer recess until this is sorted is fairly prescient (makes you wonder what he's been taking) and although I consider his article in the Grauniad yesterday to be just another partisan manipulation of justice and judgement, it gets close to the truth of what will be going on this summer and what we now have to do to re-enact 1688.

In summary - Justice takes many forms, but here she works with the facts and figures, with her eyes open, not blindfolded by cynical partisanship. Expect intense fireworks, but only after the deliberation has today taken place.