News 2011 census

[cHodAX]

It's that time of the decade again where we all get to declare our religion as Jedi! This time I am definately going Sith as the last 10 years have not been kind and I have now developed an irrational hatred for all things small and furry, yep that is right Scousers and Ewoks.

Anyone else going to join me as a Sith?

 

[rynnor]

What a terrible waste of money - 500 million for stuff thats already known by bits of government.

 

[gohan]

what about a jedi sith like vader?

 

[Zenith.UK]

Ordinarily I would agree with the privacy campaigners about duplication of data.
In the case of the census though, it's a different kettle of fish.

The first thing is confidentiality. The information provided is secured BY LAW (Census Act 1921) for 100 years. That means even a DPA or FOIA request for information can't access an individual's data as the older law overrules DPA and FOIA.

Secondly, the various Govt. departments hold a variety of pieces of data for each person but there is no unique identifier or primary key that links all those records together across the different DB tables. Yes you could poll the NHS, HMRC, Land Registry, DVLA and other Govt agencies for information, but ensuring that you've got all of the right information attached to the right person is a nightmare.
What's to say that John Smith of 1 Some Street is not the same John Smith as the one in 11 Some Street ? Is it a typo, or are there really 2 John Smiths? You could unravel it but you'd need to manually check addresses, tax records and NI numbers. Doing that for the whole population would take a huge amount of computing and millions of working hours.

Then there's the people who aren't on all the databases. Infant children will only show up on NHS records until they enrol in school.

Doing a head count every 10 years makes perfect sense since the previous Govt. cannot say how many people immigrated to the country. We had a massive influx of east european people when the accession countries joined the EU. These immigrants didn't all settle in one place but all over the country. Knowing how many people live in any particular area helps Govt planning for essential services like hospitals, schools, housing, utilities and road infrastructure.

The final reason I am all for the census is selfish. Genealogy. In 100 years time, my descendents will have a snapshot of my family at this point in time. I've used census data every 10 years from 1841 till 1911 to track my ancestors and work out who was living with who and where.
I've found some interesting family stories (of no interest to anyone outside my family) and a few surprises like an industrial accident in 1899, a gamekeeper on a Lord's estate, a lady in waiting for Queen Victoria at Holyrood Palace and a stonemason who fell off a church spire. I found all these individuals from census entries in the first instance.

The present day objectors are taking a very short term view. The Govt and Civil Service are taking a medium term view for the next 10 years. Genealogists will be going over the data in 100 years and learning a lot about the people of today.

I was also considering Sith this time around.

 

[Bugz]

Census is also very valuable for time-series econometric analysis.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Fairly sure they changed the thing about religion so that Jedi did not count, so you'd basically be writing "I'm a cock" on your form.

 

[Ezteq]

I kind of object to this, everyone else can do it if they want I got no problem with that and their ancesters...hang on, their future ancest...their decendants *nods* can see what they did and find out about them, I don't want anyone decending from me so it doesn't matter and no one else has any right to know about me in the future.

...also in the last one the census taker bloke was really fucking rude and patronising to me so I am not disposed to help...in fact I am storing a nice chianti on the off chance that bloke comes back.

 

[Corran]

Fairly sure they changed the thing about religion so that Jedi did not count, so you'd basically be writing "I'm a cock" on your form.

I think I would write "I'm a muslim because you favour them and not the main religion of the country"

<p.s. Not religious at all really, think it all a load of made up shite to try control and/or rip off the masses >

 

[Gwadien]

I think the new religion motive should be Hamsterists, People who beleive that hamsters are living gods.

 

[Ezteq]

omg omg lets all say we're muslim and scare the shit out of the daily mail reading public when the stats get published!!

Dude, that would totally rock lol if you listen hard you'll be able to hear the collective shitting of bricks from everone who believes the media haha!!

 

[Edmond]

Lets say we are Gay, Black and Muslim, and that we hunt down and slaughter pedophiles for fun, Their heads would explode

 

[Ezteq]

oooh I like your style! yeah lets freak out 'the man' lets screw with 'the establishment' lets stick it to 'the squares'

far out; where's my jefferson airplane album???

 

[Cerb]

Freebird!

 

[Ezteq]

aaaaaaaaaaaand thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis biiiird you cannot chaaaaaaaaaaa-aaaay aaaaay aaaaaah aaaaa aaangee!!!

 

[Cerb]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man in attendance of a good concert/small gig must be in want of a freebird.

 

[Mabs]

there is no threshold for recognition, so even if 1000 billion people put "jedi" they arent required to recognise it sadly

i might put "daily mail reader" to confuse them

 

[Ezteq]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man in attendance of a good concert/small gig must be in want of a freebird.

hahaha omg you got a pride and prejudice quip in there as well; dude if any chicks actually hung out in here you'd have just scored major points with that one!

 

[Cerb]

I'm not ashamed to admit I love that book. Say what you want but Austen could write!

 

[rynnor]

Secondly, the various Govt. departments hold a variety of pieces of data for each person but there is no unique identifier or primary key that links all those records together across the different DB tables.

Million's didnt return it last time and its no more real a picture of who's actually living where than any other govt form - illegals etc. will still not appear on it same as the council tax database.

Then there's the people who aren't on all the databases. Infant children will only show up on NHS records until they enrol in school.

Thats not true actually - the previous govt set up a large database of all children which was shortly after released in a data breach.

The final reason I am all for the census is selfish. Genealogy. In 100 years time, my descendents will have a snapshot of my family at this point in time. I've used census data every 10 years from 1841 till 1911 to track my ancestors and work out who was living with who and where.

A hundred years ago this was true but if you only appear on birth, deaths and census's in this modern age then you probably are fictitious. Each of us creates a huge cloud of data that will be viewed by our descendants telling a far more detailed story than the crappy census.

Its a terribly expensive and flawed exercise - luckily this is the last one.

Edit - oh and racial origin we should all put black african because that is the origin of homo sapiens...

 

[megadave]

how is the census done? fill out a form and send it back? I cant be bothered with that