Pnewsology

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 09/01/2026)

Week ending 19/12/2025

All opinions are those of Jane Ogden

This week’s news has been full of rules being broken with me frequently shouting at my phone ‘how can that be allowed’!  At the start of the week, we read about the catastrophic fire in the Swiss basement bar which took the lives of 40 young people as well as injuring many others.  It seems to have been caused by sparklers in champagne glasses being held up to the ceiling whilst people stood on tables.  The flammable sound proofing then caught fire, the fire extinguishers were locked away and there was no available fire exit.  How on earth was any of that allowed? Where were the health and safety rules? Where was the fire training and more basically where was the common sense of the owners? Just tragic.  What with this and Grenfell I don’t think I will ever complain about health and safety again.

And then Trump excelled himself! He removed the President of Venezuela and his wife killing many Cubans in the process and declared that he would run the country himself.  And since then he has threatened to take Greenland and possibly Mexica, Cuba and Columbia.  How is any of this possible? What has happened to the rules and where are the consequences?? I thought we had agreements about national boundaries and sovereignty. Or at least that people just knew what was right and wrong.

But then some semblance of sanity here in the UK.  At last, new rules are being introduced about eye tests for driving if you are over 70, lowering the level of alcohol permitted before driving and there is some discussion about dementia and cognitive function.  I know some people don’t like rules and will kick against these changes, but it does seem sensible that people should be able to see properly to drive.  In fact, shouldn’t we all get our eyes tested regularly, not just for eyesight but also for other health issues (tumours, haemorrhages etc).   And I’ve never understood why we can drink even a bit before driving.  Doesn’t this encourage people to test the boundaries? To argue ‘I have a fast metabolism’ or ‘I’m all muscle’ or I’m a good driver and know what I’m doing’.  Zero tolerance might be an easier rule to follow. And having that conversation with a loved one that maybe their driving days are over is so hard BUT much easier if the you can say ‘but its the law!’.

Rules can be annoying and sometimes intrusive and feel like an infringement of our autonomy and personal freedoms.  I have been known to break a few ‘silly rules’ in the University world where bureaucracy seems to have gone mad!  And if it wasn’t for the suffragettes I wouldn’t be able to vote, have a mortgage or get a divorce.  But many are there to just keep the world a safer place.  We need world order and some sense of right and wrong and what’s allowed and what’s not to keeps things ticking along in a fairly sensible manner.  But when these rules are broken something needs to happen.  I’m sure many bar owners looking at the Swiss tragedy will question their own escape routes and call in the inspectors.  Even more so that the owner is now in custody.  Children learn through consequences – touch the kettle, it hurts, don’t do it again.  But at the moment rules seem to be broken all over the place with no consequences.   If we want world order, peace and some kind of calm, consequences need to happen and me shouting at my phone just doesn’t seem be enough!