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 15/05/2026)

Week ending 15/05/2026

All opinions are those of Jane Ogden

At the start of the week the internationally renowned cyclist Katie Archibald announced a change of jobs and that she had falling in love with nursing.  That’s interesting I thought – why do people leave their jobs and what thinking is involved.  But then as the week progressed people were leaving their jobs left right and centre and it now looks as if Keir Starmer might be leaving his as well!

Following the local elections about 2000 councillors lost their jobs and were forced either to go back to what they did before or find a new career.  Six government aids then stood down from their key roles in government and 5 ministers resigned including Jess Phillips and Wes Streeting who wrote very public, detailed and sometimes accusatory resignation letters.

And now Andy Burnham has announced he will give up being the Mayor of Manchester and a local MP Josh Simons, has given up his role so Andy Burnham can get a chance at the top job.

So will Keir stand down or will he fight? And will he manage to do it with dignity or will his, and many other political careers, end with a send of failure?

Changing jobs is a massive decision for most of us as we factor in our rent or mortgage payments, the monthly bills, the impact on our pensions and the cost of childcare not to mention our happiness, sense of fulfilment and determination to make a contribution. 

This can be a drip drip process as we weigh up the pros and cons and slowly come to a considered decision that the best thing is to make a change.  Or at times it can be more or an epiphany when we wake up one morning and just think ‘enough’s enough’ I just have to get out.

But for others who have family money, trust funds or live off the interest of interest (apparently this is the rich person’s goal??) they can just jump whenever they feel like it in the safe knowledge that their parents’ or even ancestors’ money will see them through – what a different life that must be!

But for Keir, he also has to weigh up the good of the country.  He was voted in with a massive majority for 5 years and has only done two.  I’m not a massive fan and would love someone with passion and policies to do some good and move the country away from the slide into racism which seems to happen when people are feeling angry, ignored and poor.  But it is always possible that Keir going could make things worse.  Months of a leadership contest, labour MPs arguing in public, criticising each other, looking inwards not outwards can’t be good and makes politicians look petty and self-obsessed. When angry, ignored and poor the mantra seems not only be to blame ‘the other’ and right now that seem to be migrants, but also to believe that ‘all politicians are the same’.  Together these two beliefs are toxic and dangerous.  Clearly, we get a move to the right and we end up with far-right marches like we had at the weekend.  Blaming someone seems to make people feel better.  But once we lose faith in politicians and tar them all with the same brush, we also strangely seem to become more tolerant of corruption, lying and general criminal activity rather than less.  If one politician is corrupt, lies or breaks the law we call it out and expect them to be brought to trial.  But once we believe they all are the same we seem able to ignore it as its just what we expect.  And once that happens – well we know where that is heading!  The Americans seem completely able to tolerate all laws being broken at once! We mustn’t go there as well.

So, Keir and his contenders may need to weigh up their domestic finances against their ambitions. And they must also weigh up the bigger picture.  But even more importantly we need to believe that this is all about the bigger picture – and about us not them.  Trust in leadership is one of the biggest predictors of stability.  And we need that now.  So, if they do argue, my hope is that they do it all behind closed doors. And when someone emerges as the leader (whether Keir or not) we need to believe that politicians are not all the same so that when one or even many of them step out of line we can still be bothered to make sure they see their day in court.