Summary
What does a detailed look at immigration statistics tell us about the benefits, or otherwise, of welcoming overseas citizens? Plus, is it true that by the age of 60, more than twice as many women as men are single, and that older men are often living with younger men? Do two large glasses of wine triple your risk of mouth cancer? And which of the world's best tennis players of all time is also the worst-ranked player in one sense. Tim Harford presents.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading more or less from the BBC. This is the version of the program |
| 0:04.6 | first broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Here's Tim Halford. |
| 0:09.3 | Hello and welcome to more or less the program which explores and explains the numbers in the news |
| 0:15.3 | and in life. This week, wine, women and tennis. But we begin the program with a question posed |
| 0:23.1 | by loyal listener Andy Howarth. I was listening to the fascinating debate on Radio 4 recently called |
| 0:29.6 | Immigration Good for Whom. One expert confidently asserted that immigrants made a net economic |
| 0:36.0 | contribution of some huge amount. The OECD is a very reputable international organisation which |
| 0:41.5 | has looked at this in some detail is saying that on average migrants in this country are contributing |
| 0:48.4 | 70 billion a year. But then another expert equally confidently asserted that the net economic |
| 0:55.0 | effect is either neutral or slightly negative. It is simply not true to say that there is this |
| 1:01.2 | huge fiscal benefit from immigration. If you look at the overall picture, fiscal contribution |
| 1:07.1 | has probably been neutral or slightly negative. I don't feel I can form a valid opinion unless I |
| 1:12.0 | know which statement is true. Can you investigate? Andy was listening to David Goodheart of the cross-party |
| 1:18.4 | think tank demos and author of the British Dream successes and failures of post-war immigration. |
| 1:25.0 | And to Susie Symes, an economist and chair of 19 Prinslet Street, Europe's oldest museum of |
| 1:31.3 | immigration and diversity. So whose numbers were right? Well Ruth Alexander has been looking at this |
| 1:36.7 | and Ruth. Susie says immigrants contribute 70 billion pounds to the UK economy. That's a big |
| 1:42.6 | number. That's over a thousand pounds for everyone who lives here. Yes, rather too big. Susie |
| 1:48.5 | actually misspoke and accidentally multiplied the number she was referring to by ten. |
| 1:54.7 | Well, we've all done it. Yes, although not many of us on national radio like you Tim, |
| 1:59.2 | but anyway Susie meant to say seven billion pounds. Now this is an extrapolation of a calculation |
| 2:05.8 | done by the organisation for economic cooperation and development, the OECD. And they weren't actually |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.