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 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!