Whatever you say Dave:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19646459

Really liked this bit though:

"Ever wondered how many people are moving to, and leaving, the UK? If so, you're not the only one - the official figures are said by some experts to be based on not much more than guesswork."

1: "The e-borders scheme - which was meant to do this job - is still a work in progress" - and likely to remain so for a long, long time.

2: " the government relies on the answers given by a sample of travellers who agree to be stopped and questioned by a team of social survey interviewers at Heathrow and other main air, sea and rail points of entry to the UK."

3: "despite the increasingly high hurdles to jump through to get a visa to come to the UK, it seems there is no way of knowing if someone is still in the country when it expires."

4: "So if Britain does not count everybody in as they arrive, and count them out again as they depart, where exactly do the net migration figures announced each quarter by the government come from?

The main source is the International Passenger Survey (IPS), which was designed in the early 1960s to find out how much foreign tourists were spending in the UK - something it is still used for today.

It works something like this: There are about 240 IPS officials stationed at major airports and ports around the country.

They pick out every 30th or 40th passenger streaming through arrivals or departures, depending on how busy they are that day, and ask if they wouldn't mind taking part in a short survey.

"There may be times when, owing to a particular flood of passengers, you just cannot keep an accurate count. Do not panic if this happens but keep counting as best you can," advises the Office for National Statistics training manual."

In other words DtG - Your "official statistics" are a guestimated crock of shit, worth absolutely S.F.A.

"what do you call someone determined to rail against all foreigners, other than "a racist"? -Richard Bridge

I would call that someone "xenophobic"

A "racist" being: - A person with a prejudiced belief that one race is superior to others.

While a "Xenophobe" is: - A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.