Number crunch: why Britons ignore immigrant drop
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 10 June 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The British government tightened immigration in response to public demand. Yet that policy damaged both the country and the Labour party. Our correspondent embeds on a US nuclear submarine to find out how China and Russia are vying for dominance in the Pacific. And what anti-ageing products actually work?
Guests and host:
- Joel Budd, Britain social affairs editor
- Anton La Guardia, diplomatic editor
- Ainslie Johnstone, science correspondent
- Rosie Blau, co-host of “The intelligence”
- Jason Palmer, co-host of “The intelligence”
Topics covered:
- Immigration, Britain, asylum
- Submarines, Pacific, geopolitics
- Ageing, wrinkles, retinoids, peptides
Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—Subscribe to Economist Podcasts+
For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Economist. |
| 0:09.0 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 0:13.0 | I'm Rosie Bloor. |
| 0:14.0 | And I'm Jason Palmer. |
| 0:19.0 | Today on the show, aboard a US nuclear submarine and which products actually fight wrinkles. |
| 0:33.5 | First up, though... |
| 0:34.8 | First up, though. |
| 0:46.5 | Immigration to Britain has gone through the most extraordinary boom and bust cycle. |
| 0:49.1 | Joel Budd is our social affairs editor. |
| 0:55.8 | After the COVID pandemic, when Britain started to allow people to move freely into the country, |
| 1:02.2 | the number of immigrants rose very, very dramatically to the sort of levels that Britain has never seen. In the year to March, 23, more than one and a half million immigrants arrived in the country, |
| 1:10.6 | intending to stay for more than a year or so, at least. |
| 1:14.2 | And many, many fewer left. |
| 1:16.0 | So net migration, which is what Britain tends to obsess over, |
| 1:20.4 | went above 900,000 per year. |
| 1:23.2 | So it was as though a city the size of Birmingham |
| 1:26.0 | had suddenly materialized in the country. |
| 1:30.2 | Who were they? |
| 1:31.9 | They were a mixture. |
| 1:33.4 | Some were Hong Kongers and Ukrainians because the British government had favoured people from those countries, |
| 1:39.0 | recognizing that Hong Kongers were facing oppression and Ukrainians, of course, invasion. |
| 1:43.3 | Some were students who were |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 23 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Economist, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Economist and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.