to think people are being oversensitive regarding the census?

[TrillianAstra]

The census is not trying to get at you.

It doesn't matter who is person #1.

No-one is making a moral judgement based on your answers.

Just fill in the form so that the government can count you up and in a hundred years' time your descendants can look up great great aunty Jane and think "isn't Jane a funny old-fashioned name?".

The benefits to locals is crap. Fuel prices are such that people can't afford to get to work, homes aren't being heated adequately, food prices are going through the roof, rents are going up while HB goes down, jobs are being lost, I just can't believe that people care about playgrounds and free yoga right now, I really can't. They are going to use the census to muller local areas and slash useful things even more, then cover it up with useless tat. Wake up

one of the London boroughs lost a years worth of funding after the last census because so many people didn't fill it in - that's not just free yoga classes, but money for all council services for a whole year.

The religion question says it is optional, btw. Or you can put no religion, or write in whatever religion you want - you don't have to tick one of the boxes.

pink, does it not occur to you that it's possible your area is poorly funded because people like you refuse to do the census? How can they allocate enough funding to your area if people like you opt out of the form?

I don't think anyone would be commenting on your intelligence if you'd not suggested that you were just far too academic and clever and busy to fill in a form. Get over yourself: you're one of thousands of people doing the same thing, why should you consider yourself so special?

We have to complete a census form every 10 years, so it's not new. Personally I love being able to access the census records to see what my ancestors did way back in 1841 and am happy to complete this one for the benefit of future generations. Perhaps if you haven't got roots in the UK it doesn't matter so much to you but it may do to your future generations.

I agree with Tiniestclanger. Lockheed Martin are an American aerospace and defence company. IMO, it's a national security scandal that we are legally compelled to supply them with personal data.

It's OK I've decided to do it . Was in a proper shitty mood over the housing payment but just found out my hours at work are getting increased so I don't have to resent the census anymore, not for this decade anyway

Hey, that's nice to hear!

Good on you for coming back and saying so.

I do know what mean about getting into a mood and feeling as if everyone is agin you, it's not fun.

I do not think it should be unlawful not to participate.
littlepigshavebigears

Crickey! It took me a while to unravel that one

Do we actually need a Census?
No....... and it seems the Government agrees.....

"Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, is looking for "ways of doing this which will provide better, quicker information, more frequently and cheaper". The census, he complains, is "out of date almost before it's done"; data held by the likes of the NHS, councils, Royal Mail, the electoral register, tax returns and even credit card firms and phone companies can do the job."

There's at least one mailing list that has me down as 'Wing Commander' Chil1234 and, judging by the mistakes I get via other organisations, there are a lot of other dodgy databases out there as well.... And I don't mind so much that my details (as an adult) are officially phished from other databases but, when it comes to information about my children, I'd like to be sure that what is being recorded is correct.

Do you guys actually want to encourage the government to access and collate all the other databases that hold info on each of us?
Do you think they'd get it right? Would you be pleased for the govt. to lose and mishandle and misinterpret all those different datasets? The govt. would need to have copies of the originals on one central server including perhaps, lots of ancilliary info like our bank details & tax codes , what a terrific target for identity thieves. Better than anything else ever created.

Out of curiousity, would the Census objectors list some of the questions that they think are most pointless and unnecessary to ask?

With explanations, why you feel that question is so ridiculous, unnecessary, duplicated, etc.

well i've just filled mine in and submitted it.