To census or not to census

[winstonsmith]

Join the boycott.

I don't understand why the idea that census data is being collected as it is useful for planning tax and service provision is considered such an unlikely explanation.

If I could be sure that it would be used for those purposes and nothing else, I wouldn't have a problem with it.

But I don't trust the government to use it only for those purposes. All you need is one person in a position of power who is on a mission, and the information will end up being used for anti-immigration purposes or anything else they want. (This is from the government who claims to want to protect our civil liberties, and lessen the power of the state and make the state less intrusive, blah blah blah.)

Nor do I trust the company who's collecting it to release it only to the appropriate agencies. I think they wanted the contract because they knew the information would be worth a lot to someone.

I don't trust this government to do anything I want it to do, tbh. You know, like protect schools and hospitals.

How do you suggest the state provides schools and hospitals without knowing who it needs to provide them too?

Coalition you're a strange one. Your tautological, nonsensical questions are quite beyond. The census is absolutely no way a tool for finding out how many hospitals or schools to build. That's bollocks.

I'm beginning to think the coalition really DID need you to disseminate propaganda on their behalf.

please fill it in

Please fill it in but erroneously.

glasnost - that's exactly the kind of thing it's used for - resource planning. For instance several Councils around London have been complaining that there Central Government grant is to low as they are based on the figures from the last census, and they say that their populations have grown considerably since.

The failure to plan for enough Primary Schools in London is also connected to this.

They don't need a census to obtain that (admittedly vital) info. It's a trap to trick upstanding, decent citizens into giving away too much info that this rightwing state has no business in knowing.

I've read through this thread again and winston's points are increasingly pertinent I feel.

The failure to plan for enough Primary Schools in London is also connected to this

Having a census only every 10 years isn't enough for primary school planning.

It's a trap to trick upstanding, decent citizens into giving away too much info that this rightwing state has no business in knowing.

what dastardly questions has this government included in this census that 'give away too much info' ?

winston smith is a fictional character in a fictional dystopia. The clue to the tenor of the thread is in the name.

(and once more, with feeling - fill it in, and if you're not religious say so!)

Check out the questions as listed by bullet earlier on in this thread. Some are blatantly requiring info on logistical whereabouts of people. Noone can "hide" with this census. The Q's are far more intrusive wrt last time.

Asking where you were a certain night. Why the hell should I tell A GOVERNMENT where I was a specific night? Stuff I'd need a bloody good reason to tell my partner?

Glasnost - you need to where people are on X date, as if you said 'today' or 'now' or 'yestersday' you'll double count people as they fill out the form at different times.

Still sticks in the craw and I must say I've bee discussing this with a few of my more inquiring (read: paranoid) friends and some have said it could be a way of gaining info on people to then use in fabricated anti terror ambushes.

I'm not alleging this of course. One even went so far as to say that 7/7 couldn't have been stage managed without the census.

Glasnost, its simply what TCNY says. How can it be sinister to ask where you are on a date announced in advance? If you've got something to hide you'll be somewhere innocuous (unless you're a total idiot) or you'll lie.

Just don't plan that illicit night of passion or bomb-making session for 27th March and fill in the sodding form.

One even went so far as to say that 7/7 couldn't have been stage managed without the census.

eh? you mean your friend thought the terrorists needed census data to figure that lots of people use public transport in London in the Morning?

census conspiracy theories
some people have far too much time on their hands

One even went so far as to say that 7/7 couldn't have been stage managed without the census.

I actually find that quite offensive. Don't you?

The census is not going to be accurate no matter what - too many people are going to fill it in incorrectly or not at all. And I can't understand why a government would want to waste £££££s collecting false data.

It will be better than the decade out of date data we are currently using

"One even went so far as to say that 7/7 couldn't have been stage managed without the census."

This is the problem with conspiracy theories - overcomplicated.

What my mates spout in the pub of a friday evening is not "offensive" Long. It's called discussion - something unconducive to MN I fear. What they meant was some think the 7/7 bombings were a fit up and the so called terrorists were framed. Not my opinion but.

Agree, happybubblebrain.

We've had a census since 1801. There was one in 2001, under Labour, so to suggest it's somehow a Tory trick is ridiculous. In the 2001 census, many Muslims wouldn't fill in that they were Muslim because they thought it was a trick. So the figure of 3% Muslim population is probably an underestimation. Which isn't helpful for anyone because when the BNP starts spouting its usual we have no proper facts to come back with.

Glasnost, discussion can be offensive, it's peculiar to suggest it can't.

The person who calls Coalition naive because she's (rightly) suggested it's there for public sector planning is - well is there a word for the especial strain of stupidity which comes from assuming the most convoluted explanation must be the truth because anything else would just be too simple?

galsnost - How did the census come into? I well reckon MI5 or whoever could fit someone up without knowing who lived where 10 years ago.

There should be an 'it' before that question mark.