Guest tbatst2000 Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7882774/National-census-to-be-axed-after-200-years.html On the one hand, this is sad news given the historical aspect. On the other, the kind of stuff asked under NuLab has gone way beyond the original basic information to the point of being another nasty state sponsored invasion of privacy. I suspect Maude is right though and there're now much more accurate and cheaper ways of getting the same data so it's not worth spending the money to collect it this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Executive Sadman Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 I thought censuses were part of a stimulus package, ala Obama. pointless anyway, i'll bet the population is over 85 million. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEATH Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 (edited) It says it is too late for them to stop the March 2011 one from going ahead and that the Government (Telegraph said "Labour") has already spent £300m on it! Maybe they spent the £300m on a state of the art experimental spacecraft in order to discover if "Jedi Knight" was really a religion? Edited July 10, 2010 by DEATH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 The census was there to collect unknown information.....today they have all the information they require on all of us,so why waste money unnecessarily on even more unnecessary statistics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hilltop Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 A cynic might say that the Census will reveal how the structure of our population has changed, reveal the full impact of mass immigration. Our society has got complex and multi-layered. Libcon policies will only deepen divisions. When Clegg says that coalition government is with us from now on, there are things they want to do without ever having them revealed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken_ichikawa Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Heh I've never appeared on a census before anyway! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meat Puppet Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Meetings discussing what questions should be asked on the census have been going on since at least 2007. Communities and Local Government has a full time team working on this very issue. No doubt consultants have made a fortune phrasing the questions, designing the questionnaire, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RufflesTheGuineaPig Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Chances are the results of the census would lead a massive move to the far right in next years council elections. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jareth Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Meetings discussing what questions should be asked on the census have been going on since at least 2007. Communities and Local Government has a full time team working on this very issue. No doubt consultants have made a fortune phrasing the questions, designing the questionnaire, etc. My mind boggles at why it should ever have taken such a long time and cost just to decide some poxy questions. What did they ask last time and why did they need to ask more than that? Who lives here? What nationality are they? How old are they? What is their job? Don't need to know sex, religion, race, colour or anything else as, if we are in pursuit of genuine equality, those things should not matter when it comes to how we are governed. I vaguely recall the case being made that businesses find the data useful and are prepared to pay for access to it. If so, let them sodding well pay for it directly and collect the information themselves rather than hiding behind the authority of the state. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deflation Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Another page of posts here: http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=146859 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riedquat Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 My mind boggles at why it should ever have taken such a long time and cost just to decide some poxy questions. What did they ask last time and why did they need to ask more than that? Who lives here? What nationality are they? How old are they? What is their job? Don't need to know sex, religion, race, colour or anything else as, if we are in pursuit of genuine equality, those things should not matter when it comes to how we are governed. I vaguely recall the case being made that businesses find the data useful and are prepared to pay for access to it. If so, let them sodding well pay for it directly and collect the information themselves rather than hiding behind the authority of the state. Those things are still useful to know if you 're interested in demographics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
non frog Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Chances are the results of the census would lead a massive move to the far right in next years council elections. I don't see why. The results would show an ageing population of mostly UK born white working class people and a small percentage of other ethnic groups, most of whom are rather poor by comparison. The racists are popular in areas where there has been high levels of immigration of non-white people who have subsequently been excluded from the job market. Nothing much has changed as far as I can see. It seems to be rather like the crime phenomena, the people that mostly go on about immigration live in areas where there is little of it and those who live in multicultural areas tend not to be bothered by it. A look at crime statistics shows that the fear of crime is highest in the areas where crime is lowest and predominately amongst people the least likely to fall victim to crime. Most of this is stoked up by the gutter press, like the Mail, to ensure the bottom third of the population is too busy fighting itself to understand it is being laughed at by the likes of Dave and his mates. I suspect the census is being ditched because the toffs don't care who or how many people live in the UK as long as they know their place and keep giving their money to the deserving rich. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dissident junk Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 I suspect the results of the 2011 census will be awkward, and will pose a lot of questions about how government calculates funding and under what basis. I have heard the ONS are nervous about the census and have been attempting to run interim assessments so they do not get caught out (like they did over the disappearance of some 120,000 young men back in 2001). I do also wonder just how much the census might undermine official employment statistics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RufflesTheGuineaPig Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 The results would show an ageing population of mostly UK born white working class people and a small percentage of other ethnic groups, most of whom are rather poor by comparison. I think you'll find the results would show that immigration has been far higher than the government admitted. I think the government would come under pressure not from racists, but from ordinary people. The assumption that someone who is nationalist or who wants a future where their children are not forced out of jobs by a cheap migrant work force and where people with AIDS don't flock to the UK for free treatment on the NHS are racist is part of the alarmist neo-liberal claptrap that got us in this mess in the first place. Claiming that anyone who isn't pro-immigration is a racist is frankly offensive. I live in Luton. In Luton's schools, English is rarely the first language spoken by the pupils. In fact, an army of multilingual teachers is employed to teach lessons in over 100 languages. I'm not racist, and think if people want to come here to be useful part of society then generally they should be allowed, however, there have to be limits. The problem is half the world speaks pigeon English (including the Scottish) so if they have to pick a "nice" country to move to it will be the UK. The entire planet can't come and live in the UK. What's happened at the moment is frankly ridiculous, and the government is scared sh!tless that the census will highlight to the population just how bad the situation had become. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stormymonday_2011 Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7882774/National-census-to-be-axed-after-200-years.html On the one hand, this is sad news given the historical aspect. On the other, the kind of stuff asked under NuLab has gone way beyond the original basic information to the point of being another nasty state sponsored invasion of privacy. I suspect Maude is right though and there're now much more accurate and cheaper ways of getting the same data so it's not worth spending the money to collect it this way. They need the money to pay Francis Maude'e expenses claims http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5304772/Francis-Maude-claimed-for-second-London-home-MPs-expenses.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloo Loo Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 This article is clearly nonsense. We know this because Historical Documents from the Starship Enterprise ( 400 years in the future) quite clearly prove that the captain was constantly informed that census indicate Klingons in orbit, or shuttle approaching, or some such danger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scunnered Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 The problem is half the world speaks pigeon English (including the Scottish) so if they have to pick a "nice" country to move to it will be the UK. That's 'pidgin'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
non frog Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 .....I'm not racist, That's your opinion. The problem is half the world speaks pigeon English (including the Scottish) ... Pathetic and utterly bigoted then if you prefer (are the Scots a race?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billybong Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 What's the betting that any new system will end up costing taxpayers more then the current system. Odds on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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