Rod, Nigel, Romanians and Germans. And James O'Brien.

...and finally...

to end UKIP Night here at Is the BBC biased? we turn away from the BBC and towards James O'Brien at LBC...

Mr O'Brien was, as you may recall, aghast at Nigel Farage for comparing the neighbourliness of Romanian immigrants with Germans immigrants (like Mr Farage's wife), to the considerable disadvantage of  the Romanians - and aghast despite the fact that Mr O'Brien had aggressively goaded Nigel Farage into making such a comparison.

Rod Liddle has James O'Brien's number though. Unlike the BBC's Nick Robinson, he's prepared to tell the truth here: FOI requests reveal that Nigel Farage is correct and that James O'Brien is wrong. 

There are some 45,000 Germans living in London (as per the 2011 census) as compared to some 42,000 Romanians - not too big a difference in numbers.

However, when it comes to deciding who would make the best neighbours the stats are very clear: Romanian immigrants are VASTLY more likely to have been arrested for crimes than German immigrants. VASTLY so, according to the Met Police's figures. They even "out-crim" the Jamaicans and the Somalians. 

But aren't those Romanians really Roma (i.e. Gypsies)? 

Rod Liddle's take on this is:

Sadly, the Met Police did not distinguish between ethnic Romanians and ethnic Roma; if they were born in Romania, that’s good enough for the Old Bill. So it would be unwise to speculate any further, wouldn’t it?

Wouldn't it indeed!

And as for much of the media, Rod is surely correct to conclude:

Still, I suspect that this explanation, the presentation of the facts, is superfluous. For the likes of James O’Brien, it’s still raaaacissst, and for the rest of us, we could have guessed as much anyway.

Indeed it is and indeed we could.

Don't forget to vote tomorrow.