Worth his salt

WHEN the first item on Radio 4's Today Programme this morning was about Britain's burgeoning population, I was expecting the usual 'smoke and mirrors' from the BBC.

Jon Humphrys first question gave no indication of what was to follow when he said: "Isn't our growing population down to us all living longer and having more babies?'

But enter Professor John Salt, of the migration research unit at University College London, who laid it out in no uncertain terms why the UK population grew by 408,000 in 2008 - the biggest increase for almost 50 years.

"No it isn't", was his no-nonsense reply. He then went on to explain that it was down to immigration, the birthrate of second and third generation immigrants and the birthrate of immigrants newly arrived in this country behind Britain's population explosion.

It seems that the only way the British population will stabilise is if native Brits emigrate to Spain and France at the same rate as immigrants give birth.

You can hear the report here.

The Guardian have latched on to the story of the Three Owls Bird Sanctuary with the expected jibe by Esther Addley in her Diary column. But we can live with that. It's more publicity for a very good cause and there's even a cartoon of Nick to accompany the report.

You can read the report here and the cartoon's below.