Do we really have ‘superflu’?
More or Less
BBC
4.6 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The NHS is warning of an unprecedented flu season - we check what the numbers say.
Is there really a mass exodus of Brits leaving the UK due to Labour tax policies? We look at the latest emigration figures.
We take a look at the prison service’s curious habit of letting prisoners out early – or keeping them in for too long - is there a trend?
Plus - why the US economy can’t grow at 25 percent a year.
Presenter: Tim Harford Reporter: Nathan Gower Producers: Charlotte McDonald, Katie Solleveld, Lizzy McNeill and Tom Colls. Production co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound mix: Gareth Jones Editor: Richard Vadon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | My Christmas Mix is pure 90s festive nostalgia. |
| 0:11.1 | You know, the Christmas songs you listen to on repeat. |
| 0:14.0 | Ho! |
| 0:14.3 | Ho! Ho! No, no, no. |
| 0:17.5 | I'm all about the big hitting Christmas anthems. |
| 0:20.4 | Come on, guys. What about those tunes that really slay? It's Christmas kitchen disco season, surely. |
| 0:26.4 | Give me hip-hip-christmas banners every day. Those Christmas tracks that are straight out of Lapland. |
| 0:30.9 | Get all kinds of Christmassy. Just search Christmas music on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.7 | Hello and welcome to a brand new series of more or less. |
| 0:39.4 | We are weekly guide to the numbers in the news and in life, and I'm Tim Harford. This week, |
| 0:45.1 | we're getting to grips with the unprecedented winter superflu, if indeed it is unprecedented, |
| 0:52.4 | or for that matter, super. |
| 0:57.1 | It's flu anyway, and we'll be running through the numbers. |
| 1:02.3 | We'll also look at the prison services, curious habit of letting prisoners out early, |
| 1:04.3 | or keeping them in for too long. We'll ask whether there's really a mass exodus from the UK under labour, |
| 1:09.4 | and why the US economy can't grow at 25% a year. |
| 1:13.6 | First, winter pressures on the NHS have become a depressingly familiar story. |
| 1:20.6 | Hardly a winter goes by now without worrying headlines about the strains that the health service is under. |
| 1:26.6 | And the media didn't need much help drafting those headlines. |
| 1:30.7 | This was part of a press release from NHS England. |
| 1:34.5 | With record demand for A&E and ambulances and an impending resident doctor's strike, |
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