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 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.