To be honest, to base an argument about population on a couple of years' figures is facile. The argument has to be based on trends. On the longer-term figures we have, the trend over the past decade has been substantially higer than for previous decades. That is what people are concerned about. The fact that the past two years have seen a net migration deficit is important, but we will need to see if that trend continues.

You may feel that the UK's population density is irrelevant. Perhaps, but this is where we have to return to perceptions. For sure, the Yorkshire dales, the Highlands of Scotland and the uplands of Wales have very few people, but the major conurbations are very densely populated, and incomers have always headed for the conurbations.
The unspoken fear of many is the "ghettoisation" of many parts of our larger cities, coupled with a perception that many immigrants appear not to wish to integrate with the existing population - particularly those coming from a very different culture (Polish and Irish incomers are harder to spot and therefore harder to point the finger at than Somalis or Afghans). In that sense, relative population densities are important to people and should not be dismissed.
However uncomfortable the subject, it should be engaged with and not avoided or pushed aside as irrelevant.

As Peter Kelner says in Kenan Malik's BBC analysis, "those drawn to the BNP because they have become alienated from the mainstream political process should not simply be dismissed as bigots by the mainstream. It is the failure to engage with them, and with their fears and concerns, that helped pave their way to the far right.
"But just as fear is driving many towards the BNP, it is also shaping much of the response to the BNP. The result is an incoherent and illiberal reaction, vacillating between demonising the BNP and pandering to its prejudices."