Pnewsology

The week's news with a dash of psychology!

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about

I am a professor of health psychology loving being able to get out of the ivory tower. I have written many research papers and 9 books on aspects of eating behaviour, women’s health and communication. I write for inews and often contribute to radio and print media. I have a regular slot with James Cannon on Radio Surrey where we discuss the weekly news with a psychology take. Great fun!

  • Pnewsology – the one about first impressions and why everything is a form of signalling!

    The week’s news with a dash of psychology!

    Jane Ogden (Professor in Health Psychology, Emeritus; email janeogden509@gmail.com; based on a conversation with James Cannon at Radio Surrey; 8.40 am 24/07/2026)

    Week ending 24/07/2026

    All opinions are those of Jane Ogden

    I used to teach my students that everything was text and could be read – clothes, hair, body language, cars as well as the spoken and written word.  It’s all a form of language and all signalling something.

    This week there’s been a lot of signalling with people doing and saying whatever they can to tell us ‘this is me!’

    It’s been Andy Burnham’s first week as PM and during this time he had no lectern outside number 10, wore a polo shirt and no tie, capped bus fares at £2, cut tax on pubs and cafes, removed VAT on electricity and announced he was going to use influencers.  He’s signalling! He’s one of us, a normal guy, who cares about the same things as us and is going to get going on the job straight away!

    Meanwhile we’ve had photos of Trump shaking the hand of the Energy Minister of Saudi Arabia stating they have made a deal to enable the Saudis to have nuclear power (and the US to make a fortune from selling enriched uranium).  He’s signalling!  Power and wealth are what matters.

    Then a Russian warship fired missiles off the coast of Plymouth!  We are here and we do what we want – they are telling us.

    And Iran have threatened to attack the UK as we are allowing the US to use our airbases to carry out ‘defensive’ attacks on Iran.  Iran are saying the UK are our enemy and there will be consequences for your support of Israel and the US.  And we are saying – that’s scary! And we are pathetic for caving to the US.

    Its all language and a form of global communication with everyone making sure we see them as they want to be seen and posturing to each other.  Whether its real or true or good is another matter. But we are being coached (manipulated?) into seeing the world as they want!

    And then there’s the Clacton by election and Count Binface (together with Nick the incredible Flying brick, Woke Trump Carrzee, Baron Von Thunderclapp and Howling Laud Hope) who are signalling what? That politics stinks? That fun is good? That we a proud democracy? And that they just can? And for the first time in a while I feel proud to be British!

    Everything is text and everything can be read and often without knowing it, we are reading this text and changing how we think and feel.  This is just the way of the world but it’s very powerful, as as soon as we have formed an impression it’s very hard to change.  We search for evidence to support what we think, ignore evidence that contradicts it and base our views of people often on our very first snap judgements.  For Andy Burnham, this has been a good week and I’m sure lots of people will have formed the impression that he wanted.  For other more malign people, it often means they can get away with literally murder as once their supporters have decided to support them it seems to take an awful lot for them to change their minds.

  • Pnewsology – the need for a plan (and when to stick to it or change!)

    The week’s news with a dash of psychology!

    Jane Ogden (Professor in Health Psychology, Emeritus; email janeogden509@gmail.com; based on a conversation with James Cannon at Radio Surrey; 8.40 am 17/07/2026)

    Week ending 17/07/2026

    All opinions are those of Jane Ogden

    I love a to do list and this week the need for a good plan was clear!

    Last week Morgan McSweeney, the ex-Chief of Staff for Keir Starmer disclosed that they didn’t really have plan when they took over as the government 2 years ago.  A bit shocking! I’ve been shouting at the TV for 14 years as to what I would do if I was PM! Surely, they must have had some idea!

    Then this week (ironically) Rachel Reeves announced that Andy Burnham really needs a worked through plan in order to govern and then as we speak, the man himself is preparing to announce this very plan before he takes over as PM next week.

    Then we also heard from the COVID enquiry how we wasted £10bn due a lack of a plan for the epidemic and it is forever clear that Trump has no plan how to end the war in Iran.  It is one of those forever wars he vowed never to have!

    And then there was the football and England lost to Argentina.  It was so painful to watch and has been so upsetting to deal with for many reasons – one being that my Dad is a massive football fan and often tells a story of 1966 when I was on his knee and how he threw me up in the air when we won and he says ‘and she hasn’t come down since’.  He now says each time ‘maybe this is my last World cup’ and I so wanted us to win for him.  But we didn’t.  We had a great plan – to score goals.  It worked and we scored a goal (and dealt with endless pushing and punching and tripping from Argentina with a surprising amount of cool and resilience).  But then we changed our plan and went defensive.  Aiming to do this for 40 mins!  This plan didn’t work (they scored – of course they did) BUT we didn’t change that plan and they scored again!  Basic psychology – have a plan, if it works do it more.  If it doesn’t work change it.  And I am back to shouting at the TV.

    Plans are good.  They take away our spontaneous decisions which in the moment are often off the back of panic and pressure whilst plans encourage us to behave as we would wish to.  Plan to eat well (buy it and bring it into the house) and it’s easier to say no to cake and plan how to drink less (I’ll have a zero beer) and its much easier not to have another glass of wine.  And as with all things, if our plan is rewarded by success we tend to carry on with that planned behaviour.  If it fails however, we then are not rewarded so we change it.  Unless we are the England football team, or Trump or the government, in which case no plan or a bad plan seem to carry on regardless of the consequences. 

    As a good psychologist I’ve always believed we are all fairly simple at heart.  Plan things. Reward things if you want more of them and give bad things negative consequences and they are less likely to happen again.  This week something when awry!  It seems some of us are more like pigeons than others and the universal rules of human behaviour are not as universal as I thought.  And it also seems that shouting at the TV has no effect whatsoever!

  • Pnewsology – the one about red tape and why sometimes nothing seems to change!

    The week’s news with a dash of psychology!

    Jane Ogden (Professor in Health Psychology, Emeritus; email janeogden509@gmail.com; based on a conversation with James Cannon at Radio Surrey; 8.40 am 10/07/2026)

    Week ending 10/07/2026

    All opinions are those of Jane Ogden

    I am feeling cross and have lost faith in government!  I watched ‘Dirty Business’ on Channel 4 which is the most amazing dramatized exposé of the British water companies and how they keep illegally pouring sewage into our rivers and seas, covering it up and then how the regulatory bodies do nothing.  It also shows how water companies were asset stripped by private companies and how the CEOs paid themselves a fortune rather than repairing any damage to the infra structure.  And we see how the PR people twist and turn their language to pretend there’s nothing to see.  This was all known decades ago; there was a Panorama documentary in 2021 and this programme came out in Feb 2026.  So I was already upset!  Then, this week, Thames Water announced they had upgraded Burstow sewage works.  This was using customer money (not their dividends), is clearly too little and you could see in their framing that the language was exactly the same as it always has been.  Why does nothing change?

    We also heard this week that a Which report identified 150 baby products, which have been found dangerous and subjected to product recalls, STILL on sale on Amazon, Ebay and Tik Tok.

    And we heard that some money has been made available to have dangerous cladding removed.  Grenfell was 2017!! Buildings still have the same cladding!! It hasn’t been removed!

    Its all like the Post Office scandal.  Dreadful things happen.  There’s a cover up.  Then there’s a big reveal.  Then nothing happens and people just get away with it!

    But not everything is slow!

    This week Trump phoned Fifa to overturn a red card for a US football player.  It was overturned.

    Andy Burnham is set to be our new PM by the end of July due to overwhelming support by Labour MPs.  The whole process has taken about 6 weeks.

    And Nigel Farage decided to trigger a by election by resigning from his seat in Clacton.  He resigned and the by election was called!  Just like that! Go Count Binface by the way!

    There is red tape which makes things slow and nothing happens.  But when this is removed, we have tragedies of e coli in our water, dangerous baby products and cladding that creates roaring flames that no one can put out.  Then we have red tape when we need to find out what has gone wrong.  And this takes forever so we never seem to get anywhere.  There are no consequences, no justice and no change.

    But where there’s a will there’s a way and when the powers that be really want something to happen, suddenly all the red tape vanishes and stuff changes.

    So – the red tape isn’t the problem.  It’s the way the red tape is used or blamed or hidden behind that is the problem.   We need the red tape to keep us safe.  But we don’t need people hiding behind the red tape when it suits them.  Without that there won’t ever be any closure or any justice and without that we will lose faith in government which is slippery slope towards the kinds of governments people end up when they have lost faith in government.

  • Pnewsology – the one about how one person can make such a difference (good and bad)

    The week’s news with a dash of psychology!

    Jane Ogden (Professor in Health Psychology, Emeritus; email janeogden509@gmail.com; based on a conversation with James Cannon at Radio Surrey; 8.40 am 03/07/2026)

    Week ending 03/07/2026

    All opinions are those of Jane Ogden

    I am a great believer in society, culture and how it takes a village to do its thing.  But every now and again it becomes clear that one person can have a massive impact on the rest of us – for good and for bad.

    This week Harry Kane rescued England from failure in the match against DR Congo and without his skills we would have been kicked out of the World Cup.  But their wonderful goalie Mpasi also deserves a mention – he was spectacular!  I know there is supposed to be ‘no I in team’ but this week we saw two ‘I’s absolutely do their thing.

    We then have had the ongoing optimism around Andy Burnham as our new knight in shining armour about to save us all.  He has made promises to devolve power to the north, invest in council housing and re-nationalise water.  We so hope he is one of those special people who make a difference! But who knows? And who knows whether Keir Starmer really was that bad, until history has taken its toll.

    And we watched as Taylor Swift got married to the love and adoration of her millions of fans worldwide!  One woman seems to have captured the hearts of so many people who follow her every word and sing her many, many songs word perfect!

    But not all individuals who make a difference bring joy!  The investigations into Donald Trump’s finances were released this week and show that he has made over 2 billion dollars since being in power due to sales of his embossed bible, perfume, cryptocurrency, merchandise and lawsuits.  It also showed that his trusts have made more than 21,000 individual stock trades and that his financial report for 2025 was 927 pages long (compared to Biden’s 11 pages!).  Apparently, some of this might well be legal but it’s certainly not ethical and looks very much like corruption!  One person takes power and one person makes a fortune for themselves and their family from it!

    And in the background, we still have Putin and Netanyaho killing people because they can with the UN concluding from their commissioned enquiry that Israel is committing genocide by deliberately targeting children in Gaza.  It makes for very grim reading.

    I was brought up on the fairy tales of handsome princes, white stallions and the hero emerging from behind the scenes to save the day!  When it soon became clear that this simply wasn’t going to happen (!) I leant into the psychology of the sum being greater than the parts and the role of the village.  But every now again, even I need a hero and this week we have seen a few.  And what a relief that it!  But if individual’s can be good then they can also be bad.  And those baddies seem to just carry on regardless with no consequences.  So thanks to the heros when they pop up, but where are the proper heros when you need them to stop all the baddies in their tracks and let us get back to being a nice village where every can just be safe.

  • Pnewsology – the one about humour and how it makes us more forgiving

    The week’s news with a dash of psychology!

    Jane Ogden (Professor in Health Psychology, Emeritus; email janeogden509@gmail.com; based on a conversation with Mark Carter at Radio Surrey; 8.40 am 26/06/2026)

    Week ending 26/06/2026

    All opinions are those of Jane Ogden

    This week amongst the extreme heat, the dreadful earthquakes in Venezuela and the highs and lows of the World cup it has been clear that we desperately needed a bit of humour.

    Andy Burnham was signed in as an MP and as he entered the formal hall, full of smartly dressed officials, someone from the back heckled ‘He’s not Messiah’ to which he smiled and said ‘I’m just a naughty boy’.  Everyone in the room laughed, it went viral and we all laughed.  We needed to laugh; we needed to like him and by making us laugh we decided he seemed like a good chap.  Phew – maybe we have someone in charge who is a bit like us, knows our cultural references and doesn’t take themselves too seriously.

    Prince Charles met the Afghan women’s cricket team who have been banned from playing in their country by the Talban.  It could have been a solemn occasion but he welcomed them and joked that if they lose they can blame him for taking up their time. They laughed and seemed to think he was another nice chap.

    And then there were all the World cup shenanigans! Scotland’s tartan army seem to have been having great fun dancing with robots in kilts, singing in bars and making the local Bostonians love them for it and Norway fans have rowed like Vikings on escalators, in Time Square and in the stadiums.  We have all come away liking them just that bit more.

    But then not everyone seems to have a sense of humour! Trump (as ever!) took offence at an inflatable frog protesting in favour of the algae in the reflecting pool.  He missed the joke and spent the night railing against the frog on social media.

    And not everyone gets what humour is! Clearly, we all find different things funny but the UK Head of Information commissioner recently resigned for what he called ‘humour’ and what was also described as ‘vulgar and sexualised language’!

    Keir Starmer looks set to stand down as Prime Minister and whatever his policies and whatever he has actually achieved, the main problem seems to have been that we just couldn’t quite like him.  He’s seems like a serious chap not a fun one and much as this should be the best kind of leader, without making us laugh (at least sometimes) we couldn’t quite get behind him.  Humour makes us feel warm and fuzzy.  It makes us relax and it makes us, at least at the moment, feel that the world is OK.  But more importantly it makes us forgive the flaws and errors and try to see the best in people.  Johnson was a dreadful leader but people forgave him all sorts of sins because they liked him.  Trump (for some reason that’s beyond me) seems to be the same.  But Starmer couldn’t quite do it.  So without humour we go cross with him, blamed him and wanted him gone.

    The world is a tricky place at the moment with all sorts of horrors and mostly it feels very unfair.  Laughing can’t make it go away but it can provide a sense of temporary relief.  Lets hope Andy Burnham can make us like him.  Lets hope he does some good things.  And lets hope he doesn’t give us too much to forgive.

  • Pnewsology – the one about masculinity (and still believing that’s its more nurture than nature!)

    The week’s news with a dash of psychology!

    Jane Ogden (Professor in Health Psychology, Emeritus; email janeogden509@gmail.com; based on a conversation with James Cannon at Radio Surrey; 8.40 am 12/06/2026)

    Week ending 12/06/2026

    All opinions are those of Jane Ogden

    So – heads up!  I have a lovely son, a lovely Dad and a lovely boyfriend!  So this is not about man bashing! BUT this week the news has been full of men behaving appallingly! (and not in a cheeky chappy kind of way!).

    We have had the West Ham co-owner accused of preying on women for sex.  There was the dreadful knife attack in Belfast followed by the riots and many arrests.  We had a man in North London jailed for murdering his wife and trying to hide it by blowing up their house in a gas explosion and a male teacher found guilty of raping a pupil in Manchester.  Plus – we had arrests (of mostly men) at the Epsom Day races and Stokes was removed as England cricket captain after a punch up. 

    In fact, once I started to think about covering masculinity, stories of men being horrible just seemed to be everywhere!  

    I know men have more testosterone than women and are probably evolutionary programmed to be more aggressive etc etc but what has gone wrong? Many men are nice and calm and caring and don’t murder or rape people.  It’s therefore not biologically inevitable and has to be nurture to some extent?  And if nurture is bringing out the worst in men then surely it can bring out the best?

    Men are physical.  But surely this can be exercise not fighting? And if it has to be fighting then surely this can be in a ring not on the streets? Men are also sexual.  But so are women – so why can’t it just be about consent then everyone is happy? But men also struggle with identity in a world where a lot of the ‘manly’ manual jobs have gone.  And this can lead to problems with mental health if they are told to ‘man up’ and keep it all in.  So we need a new way to help men find a new identity in a changing world whilst also helping them let off steam in appropriate ways and feel safe to talk about how they are feeling.

    So some good news! This week we also heard from Gareth Southgate who gave his views on boys, arguing that they do need to be treated differently to girls to help them manage their need to be physical as a means to help with their identity, mental health, employment and educational success. And we also heard Declan Rice talk about how his mum was cross with him about his sunburn at the World cup which made me smile!

    Men and women are different.  But this doesn’t mean that men will inevitably behave appallingly.  I have many good men in my life who play loads of sport and talk the talk as good as anyone.  The problem is supposed to complex!  But it seems to me that the solution is actually quite simple! Do sport of every kind and then just chat!

  • Pnewsology – the one about adulthood and when it starts (and should end)

    The week’s news with a dash of psychology!

    Jane Ogden (Professor in Health Psychology, Emeritus; email janeogden509@gmail.com; based on a conversation with Lucy Ambache at Radio Surrey; 8.40 am 19/06/2026)

    Week ending 19/06/2026

    All opinions are those of Jane Ogden

    This week has been a mixed bag of news but with much of it raising the thorny question of how old is old enough? And when is too old?

    Today the results came through of the Makerfield by election with Andy Burnham winning with a comfortable majority of over 9000 votes. He beat Reform easily! But when are we old enough to vote and take such responsibility? At the moment its stuck at 18 but many are pushing for 16.  Younger people voting could mean we educate them at school about politics and encourage them to vote throughout their lives?  It could mean the government no longer just reflects the views of the grey pound who are more likely to turn up on election day? Or it could mean that people who don’t have a clue get a vote? (and it probably means this anyway!).

    We also heard about the introduction of a social media ban for the under 16s limiting their access to popular sites such as Tic Tok and Instagram. I thought this was a great idea until I read about young musicians, writers and artists who would see their following massively reduced.  As a grey pounder it seems I was out of touch with what social media is used for!

    Then we read that Prince George was being sent off to board at Eton at 13.  That seems very young to be living away from home!  How will his parents support him if he is lonely, bullied or just wants cuddle?

    And we heard of the massive success of the HPV vaccination which has now reduced the risk of cervical cancer in 20-24 year olds to zero! Wow!  This is given to 12-13 year old girls who can catch the virus through sex or close skin to skin contact reminding us that the age of consent for sex is 16.

    And many of us are watching with men’s World cup with tentative optimism – did you know the youngest men to play for England were Walcott (16), Rooney (17) and Owen (18).

    So how old is old enough? There’s a lot of responsibility in voting, doom scrolling on your phone, leaving home, having sex and representing your country. There’s also the additional rules around driving, alcohol, smoking and vaping.  It’s a tricky one! People clearly develop at different rates and some need protected more than others and some behaviours are riskier than others.  But how do we decide when someone is an adult?

    And can someone stop being an ‘adult’ with all the benefits that brings? What about the other end of the spectrum?  I’d hate to be accused of ageism but watching Trump turn 80 with a cage fighting spectacle on his front lawn.  Seriously?  We are run by old (mostly) men who seem to be making an absolute mess of the world whilst we prevent young people having the chance to change it.   

  • Pnewsology – the one about how people respond to tragedy (and why some just want a fight!)

    The week’s news with a dash of psychology!

    Jane Ogden (Professor in Health Psychology, Emeritus; email janeogden509@gmail.com; based on a conversation with James Cannon at Radio Surrey; 8.40 am 05/06/2026)

    Week ending 05/06/2026

    All opinions are those of Jane Ogden

    This week has been one of dreadful tragedy and sadness as the video of Henry Nowak’s death was released showing him handcuffed after he had been stabbed and not believed that he was the victim not the perpetrator of a crime.  Just horrific and shocking although I chose not click and watch as I have my own son and I just didn’t want the images in my head. 

    But this week has also been one of a range of reactions to this tragedy.  Henry’s family have shown huge dignity and calm and an amazing ability to think of others as they called for people not use this as a chance for violence.  They asked for something good to come out of their son’s death.

    In contrast, Farage was quick to jump to accuse the country of two tier policing brought about their attempts to deal with racism.  JD Vance was also super speedy to use it as a basis to criticise the problems of migration in Europe and Elon Musk took to social media to stir up division in the UK.  At the same time, rioters took the streets of Southampton to demonstrate against the police and to date several have been arrested. 

    Why do some people see tragedy as a opportunity to gain political points? Why are some so poised to be angry? How do people live their lives with such a short fuse? And why are people living in America so obsessed with what is happening on our little island so many miles from theirs? If we called for division, riots, changes in policing laws etc etc every time someone was murdered in the US no one would ever get anything else done.

    And then we have the ongoing wars in the Middle East with bombs still falling on Lebanon and Iran and people still being killed in Gaza and the West Bank (including a baby in a car) with the US and Israel reacting to every cease fire, every complaint or every sniff of a reaction with more bombings and more killings.  Just poised to aggression all of them. 

    But some people don’t react to tragedy like that.

    In Guildford, Matt Gaskin, a local businessman, reacted to his friend nearly dying from a heart attack by buying a red phone box and setting up a defibrillator in town for everyone to use.  In Tonbridge Wells, an 11 year girl called Kirsty and her family reacted to her own diagnosis of a brain tumour by raising awareness for paediatric brain tumours through tracking down Kirsty namesakes across the world.  Right now, they have already recruited over 10,000.  So if you are called Kirsty (or something very similar!) do get involved!  Which reminds me of Charlie’s promise, a charity set up for knife crime education after Charlie was killed, and the Stephen Lawrence foundation set up by his parents after his death.  Aggression doesn’t always have to be followed by more aggression.  Sometimes it can lead to something good.

    Some people must live their lives like coiled springs feeling so much anger and stress that anything can be a trigger to an outbreak of violence.  Some just coldly and calculatedly watch for such moments they can exploit for their own personal (or political gains).  And some seem so detached from their actions, even violence means nothing as they can’t imagine the effect on people of the other side.

    But then some people do manage to take a breath and do some good. 

    I don’t really believe that people are born good or evil.  And I’m not sure I really believe in personality – that we are just one thing or another.  But I do believe in childhood, and learning, and role modelling and culture and norms. And I also think that all this violence now, can only breed more violence later as more people are damaged as they watch and learn that this is the only way to be.  So those people being violent now – you are the cause of more violence in the future. But, a massive appreciation to Henry Nowak’s parents who in a time of absolute devastation managed to role model decency and goodness and I just hope that within all the point scoring and anger more people learned from their behaviour than that of all the others we are constantly hearing about.

  • Pnewsology – the one about what good parenting is in the modern world (and how on earth should we manage risk?)

    The week’s news with a dash of psychology!

    Jane Ogden (Professor in Health Psychology, Emeritus; email janeogden509@gmail.com; based on a conversation with James Cannon at Radio Surrey; 8.40 am 29/05/2026)

    Week ending 29/05/2026

    All opinions are those of Jane Ogden

    Parenting is hard and this week the news has been filled with stories highlighting how difficult it is to get it right.

    There have been a series of tragedies involving teenagers and somewhere in the background many parents must feel just devastated.  The news of the 3 teenage boys who raped and filmed 2 teenaged girls but avoided a custodial sentence, rumbles on as it is referred to the higher courts.  

    A teenager was stabbed in Brighton and at least 7 young people have drowned in open water this week during the heat wave.

    How do we keep our children safe? Where is the line between stifling them and keeping them indoors under our watchful eye versus giving them enough freedom to grow up and learn how to deal with risk? And how do we teach our children to behave well and respect others without driving them into rebellion through relentless preaching?

    I was always more risk averse when my kids were little than I probably should have been but then heard about a tragedy happening during a gap year in South Africa.  I looked at my little ones and thought – when you are 18 you can do whatever you like.  Between now and then I need to let you takes risks, fail and learn so that when you go on your gap year you are better prepared. I think it worked (so far) but it was hard going and definitely much more work and much more worrying than having them bubble wrapped!

    And then we have had reports about a ‘lost generation’ of young people who are out of work and education due to a perfect storm of COVID, mental health, AI taking entry level jobs and social media.  And we also had the report that ‘social media is as bad as smoking’ causing all sorts of problems particularly for young people.  All of this making it even harder for parents to get it right. 

    How do we get our children off their phones (when they love them), into school (when they hate it) and into jobs which are boring and not what they expected adult life to be like?  And how do we get them to move out so they can on with their lives when wages are low and rents are high?

    I am quite conflict avoidant, hate rows and don’t like public arguments!  But parenting is not just about managing risk it’s also about managing conflict and deciding which fights to have and which avoid.  This generation are being dealt a difficult hand by factors beyond ours and their control.  But parents also need to step in and whilst sometimes this can seem like a battle (get off your phone, get into school, just get a job any job!!) these are battles worth fighting for the longer-term gains! 

    So – I think parenting is a job which is really difficult to get right.  But sometimes it’s better to make it difficult now (take risks, have the battles) and reap the rewards in the future than go for an easy life now but which backfires later.

  • Pnewsology – the one about money and what happens when it gets into politics

    The week’s news with a dash of psychology!

    Jane Ogden (Professor in Health Psychology, Emeritus; email janeogden509@gmail.com; based on a conversation with James Cannon at Radio Surrey; 8.40 am 22/05/2026)

    Week ending 22/05/2026

    All opinions are those of Jane Ogden

    The gap between the rich and poor is getting bigger and this week’s news has been filled with stories of both.

    The Beckhams became billionaires, Oasis joined the rich list and Elon Musk is set to be a trillionaire (so many zeros it hard to even imagine it!).  We also learned that HS2 is to cost over £100 billion, which is more than a trip to the moon and its not even going to be very fast.

    Whilst at the same time, on the same planet, the sinkhole in Godstone is still there a year later devasting local businesses and causing people to have to relocate, many women leaving prison have nowhere to live and supermarkets are being asked to cap their food prices as normal people struggle to lead normal lives.

    There is a lot of money around but most of it sits in the pockets (and off shore bank accounts) of a very few.

    But as well as this blatant unfairness, this week we have also seen what happens when money gets into politics.  The US held elections in Kentucky between the incumbent Republican Thomas Massie who has been named ‘Mr No’ and been very critical of Trump, and Ed Gallrein, who Trump likes.  It turns out that money really does matter and having spent over $20 million on an advertising campaign to attack Massie, Gallrein won!  The money was mostly from Trump and Miriam Adelson who in turn donated over $100 million for Trump’s own campaign.  Surprisingly (!) Massie has been a massive advocate of releasing the Epstein Files (which Trump is in) and of removing support from Israel (which Adelson supports).  The only consolation is that Massie now has 7 months of impunity and says will read out the redacted names from the Epstein files!  Well all that money backfired a bit at least! Lets hope he stays away from open fire escapes.

    And here in the UK the saga of the Nigel Farage’s £5 million is ongoing.  He seems to think it’s fine to take money.  Reform UK is just a limited company owned by him and Richard Tice so the extra money comes in handy! The rule of law however, seems not so keen!

    But some good news!  Prince William has announced that he will sell off 20% of his Duchy property and use the money for property and nature projects and Wes Streeting has said he will look into a wealth tax (which works).

    The massive gap between the rich and poor is wrong for so many reasons.  Clearly the poor suffer and have less money.  And clearly their lives are harder, their health is worse and it is so much harder for the next generation to do better than the last.  And then when money gets into power, the rich do everything they can to rig the system and make the gap even bigger with tax breaks for themselves and cuts to education and health care for others.  But on top of this, the perception of massive inequality is also bad for us.  Seeing people with so much more money, living indulgent lives and not caring about the society they live in creates resentment, bitterness and anger which makes being poor even worse. 

    I accept that some people have more money than others and that maybe this will always be the case but we need to have system that’s rigged in our favour not theirs.  But we also just need to get them to pay their fair share of tax.  I pay mine because I believe I should, because I am too scared not too and because I get a glow of smugness for being such a good citizen.  I think they would also pay theirs if there were consequences for not doing – so close the loopholes and sort this out.  But I also think many (not all!) would pay up if we rewarded them for doing so!  Not more money! Just a celebration each year of who paid the most tax!  Sweden and Norway do it!  They could compete for being the best taxpayer, we could all cheer and then we could get their money – just as we should do!