2011 Census soon!

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 10:29

The UK Census will be conducted in just under seven weeks.

At the last census, people were encouraged to report their religion as "Jedi" - what will happen this year?

For a starter, anti-war protesters are panning to boycott the census altogether as a result of the involvement of the American arms firm Lockheed Martin.

Protesters say they are willing to break the law and face a £1,000 fine and a criminal record by refusing to fill in the 32-page questionnaire. Resistance to the decennial census is growing as a coalition of anti-war groups, pacifists, religious organisations and digital activists begin raising public awareness about the role of Lockheed Martin, America's largest arms manufacturer. (The Grauniad)

Sounds like a worthwhile protest

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 10:58

A number of points:

I object to the census being organised by ANY foreign company
I am not convinced that the census data will not be used commercially or for surveillance purposes (e.g. the UK ID Card)
I believe that the census is largely a "fishing" expedition

I can entirely understand why someone would provide misleading information (e.g. born in Ramsbottom). Anyone who refuses to complete the form, pays £1,000 and gets a criminal record for a political protest will earn my deep respect

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 11:00

neocon said:
... I bet they plan to sell the information

Yes, they do.

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 11:13

Von Smallhausen said:
At stockhausen, will you be boycotting the census ? ...

Of course not, that would be against the law

Von Smallhausen said:
... As far as I am aware, census information is not used for surveillance and have to ask how could it be ? ...

I simply can't imagine . . . I'm sure that Lockheed Martin, the US Government and perhaps even the UK Government will find a way

Von Smallhausen said:
... ID cards are also being scrapped by the Coalition aren't they ?

Of course they are . . . and there is absolutely no way that will ever change because we know that the Coalition ALWAYS keep their promises

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 11:16

Stumble Bum said:
Why should anyone be forced to fill in a Government questionnaire and threatened with prosecution and a 1000 fine?? ...

Because they are fans of "Big Government" :confused:

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 11:44

rypt said:
I will fill out Fox, I will just take the **** with my answers. ...

Reluctant though I am to agree with anything at all that you say rypt, I have to agree with you on that

If everyone made a few of the answers just about credible but still wrong, the census would be pretty meaningless and impossible to rectify. Amount and source of income would be a good start - how about loads of geriatric male prostitutes

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 11:58

rypt said:
... The global banking system somehow manages to talk to each other

Yeah, it takes three (working) days to transfer from an account at Barclays to an account at Lloyds and a nanosecond to bankrupt the country

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 12:00

RDM said:
The people complaint now ...

I wonder if the new census will have a question on "English, do you speak it . . . ?"

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 14:26

I believe that one of the uses of the form is to allocate funds to local councils; if you happen to live in an area with a Tory council, I suggest that you complete the form online (using Tor) and record your address as some derelict property in an area with an exclusively Labour council - ideally Liverpool

There is no more risk of your getting caught and fined than there is of the TV goons catching you

ps - I would be far more relaxed about this form if it wasn't yet another way for the Tory Government to ship jobs and money out of the country :mad:

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 14:45

JamesU2005 said:
... far too many people who spend the entire day reading The Daily Mail ...

Not today they don't

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 14:59

Castiel said:
What weird alternative universe do you actually spend most your time?

I wonder if the new census form will have a question on "English, do you speak it . . . ?" :rolleyes:

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 15:37

Wicksta said:
You've got to laugh at stockhausen haven't you.

Living in a place called "Burnham, Bucks", I suspect that a sense of humour, no matter how underdeveloped, is pretty much an essential requirement

. . . On reflection . . . do you by any chance happen to have a Labour controlled council . . . :confused:

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 16:19

Hikari Kisugi said:
... People can continue with cerain lines ...

I think you should cut down on the "cerain lines", you might then actually make some sort of sense

ps - I'm glad you are entertained, the weather is a wee bit miserable, isn't it?

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 18:37

Tefal said:
I get the feeling Lockheed are used to keeping immensely more valuable information (and easier to sell information) than Stockhausen's religion and and ethnicity secret.

They aren't going to be any the wiser in seven weeks

As a side issue, what "immensely more valuable" but "easier to sell" information do you "feel" is held by Lockheed Martin or are you talking your usual nonsense?

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 19:03

Castiel said:
Well, considering they are the United States biggest defence contractors that is pretty obvious.

Well, that IS a relief.

To summarise, Lockheed Martin are the American Government's biggest defence contractor and therefore there is absolutely no way that they would ever pass on any data on citizens of a foreign state to the US Government or any commercial organisation - why, they may even refuse to make the data available to the UK Government - I am reassured

Thank God there is such a competent and trustworthy American operation available, allowing the UK Government to avoid having to rely on one of the utterly incompetent and untrustworthy private UK enterprises - our Lords and Masters come to the rescue again - HALLELUJAH!

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 19:43

Energize said:
Why does the census ask useless rubbish like "do you have a toilet"?

For the Welsh, the question will be amended to read "Do you have a bath and what do you keep in it?"

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 20:00

"andy" said:
they DO inforce it , thousands of people are employed to go knock on the doors of people who havent returned it

you will get three visits to your house per week for a month , then after some that some guesses are made and if you still havent filled it in your details get passed to whoever does the prosecuting.

so even though it will only take 10 minutes and you may get a record for not returning it you will still 'not bother' ?

Off-hand, do you have any idea how many of the 60 million or thereabouts people in the UK were prosecuted for not returning completed census forms in 2001 or was there 100% compliance?

stockhausen · 20 Feb 2011 at 22:50

burtieb1 said:
Jesus do you ever get laid.

I believe that she spends a lot of time under some BMW that's been round the houses a few times if that counts?

stockhausen · 21 Feb 2011 at 17:26

shaank said:
lol at the people that are moaning about filling in the census. To those people, I point out that you have spent more time posting to moan about it and some unrelated nonsense than it would take to fill out the actual form.

I suspect that there may be a wee bit more of an issue than just the time taken . . . although you may be underestimating the time needed to craft credible but misleading replies, e.g.

misspelling your place of birth
getting your postcode wrong
muddling up the day and month of your birth-date
carelessly entering the year as 1948 rather than 1984

etc.

stockhausen · 22 Feb 2011 at 08:28

Sin_Chase said:
... Do you people have any kind of an idea just how much of your personal information is in the public domain or on someone's file server anyway? ...

I fail to see why that makes it a good thing :confused:

Sin_Chase said:
...
At least with the census you are actually giving it away to a useful process. ...

Freefaller said:
... Furthermore, a lot of the questions seem to be totally unrelated to mapping out the population. ...

Seems to cover my response to your question pretty accurately.

Sin_Chase said:
... Same bunch of people who go insane over CCTV destroying their personal freedoms because what they do in public, for all to see anyway, might end up on a HDD/tape.

Personally, I don't feel all that strongly about that; at least, to date. Those images can't yet be mass processed and to be honest are really only of value in deterring crime and aiding in the pursuit and prosecution of criminals after the event . . . maybe I'm just being naive?

As to why I object to the involvement of Lockheed Martin, it is for much the same reason as I object to wholesale privatisation and our turning the financial and intellectual future of the UK over to whoever happens to have the money but absolutely 0% interest in the people of the UK other than as a commodity. The fact that Lockheed Martin is a major US Government contractor is the icing on the cake.

If you love the idea of the census or really don't care about anything at all, fill it in as carefully as you can . . . if you don't or if you object to the "outsourcing" and flogging off of everything possible, don't fill it in or make the detail misleading

2011 Census soon!

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina

Capodecina