THE English are "arrogant, condescending, and pretentious". There is nothing like it to get the hot-blooded listeners to Radio Five Live going than some nationalistic provocation, especially when doled out by the Scottish rugby legend Jim Telfer. The stout yeomen of "Blokes' Radio" duly rose to the bait, and 5 Live Breakfast (Saturday) was a rowdy and entertaining affair - even more entertaining if you are an English rugby supporter hearing it online after Saturday's match.

Six Nations Rugby perennially stirs up questions about nationhood and identity - questions that In Search of the British Dream (Radio 4, Monday of last week) is attempting to answer from the perspective of the immigrant experience. In this three-part series, Mukul Devichand asks whether there are any parallels between the American Dream, and the British Dream, which increasing numbers of immigrants apparently seek on these shores.

Devichand interviewed several immigrants who had given up opportunities for free education in the Netherlands, or excellent welfare in Scandinavia, in favour of the British system. It was, they said, the sense of fair play and the excellent education that attracted them here.

The series opened with the story of Kevin Obadacho - one that will have confirmed the worst fears of many, including the founder of Migration Watch, Sir Andrew Green. Mr Obadacho, who is from Nigeria, obtained a false passport to Germany, and falsely claimed political asylum. He then found a German woman who would marry him to get a passport; and, thus equipped with EU citizenship, moved to London, whose multi-ethnic character was more appealing than the communities he had encountered in Germany.

Yet, as a corrective to this picture of migrants' getting their hands on our milk and honey, we heard from Sarah, a genuine refugee from Sierra Leone, who was left by her father to live with strangers in London. With no way of returning home, she found herself in a legal limbo. There are an estimated 120,000 children living in this way - and, as Sarah has experienced, inevitably vulnerable to abuse.

The Life Scientific (Radio 4, Tuesdays) has, for the past couple of years, been doing a This Is Your Life job on eminent scientists, and giving those of us across the two-culture divide a sense of what it is like to put together a successful career in science. And if you think that all these career trajectories are going to turn out the same, then you should meet Professor Noel Sharkey. Leaving technical college at 15 to learn a trade, he avoided rock stardom, and instead worked in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), for a time achieving celebrity as presenter of the television series Robot Wars.

Professor Sharkey is now highly sceptical about the benefits and applications of AI, particularly when it comes to the military. The biggest danger, he argues, lies in anthropomorphising robots in such a way that we are fooled into thinking that they can understand distinctions between, say, civilians and combatants. Politicians will always run with scientific fantasies if it suits their purposes: witness Reagan and "Star Wars". It is better to call them Unit G4305 than Bob or Betty.