There have been suggestions that this years census will be the last due to the cost incurred.
Now, granted that £500 million is a lot to find while we're making "cuts", but given that the census only takes place once every ten years then in the grand scheme of things it is a drop in the ocean. Are the government really suggesting that we won't be able to afford it in the future? Perhaps they are - in which case they seem to share my view that this "recession" is going to be a little more serious than most think.
However, I don't believe they really believe that. The Tories are signed up to the globalisation fantasy that we in Britain can maintain our high debt, high salary, high living standards based on an economy that is primarily geared to buying stuff and producing nothing.
And under that fantasy they expect us to be living the high life again within a year or two - and that this will continue unabated for the rest of eternity or until global warming consumes us in a fiery hell/watery grave/frozen tomb/dusty disaster (delete as appropriate) whichever comes first.
I suspect the real reason they want to stop doing the census is something else.
Because the fact is that in ten years time it will be impossible to hide the fact that the policies of successive governments over the last 30 years have changed the racial and religious makeup of Britain forever.
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Unfortunately, you don't need a census to tell you that England has changed in terms of racial/religious makeup. Just go out and about in any English city or town, and you'll see and hear the proof. When I lived in London, I felt like a foreigner in my native country, and some parts of the town where I live now are just as bad. In places like Blackburn or Bradford, you risk being assaulted (or even killed) just for having white skin.
Od course, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland don't have this problem as they are almost entirely monoracial and monocultural.
Thank you, all the governments since WWII.
No, I suspect they won't need another census in ten years time because by then pervasive surveillance will have become so pervasive that anything they want to know about you will be instantly available to them from their real-time databases.
France abandoned their census on the grounds that the information was already held in government computers, and there is no reason why the same does not apply here.
Add that to the fact that many of us are determined to give misleading answers wherever possible, it does become rather pointless.
For example, why ask about the number of bedrooms, it's on the plans at the town hall, so is the fact that our house has a conservatory. How many bedrooms? An estate agent would say four, but as there are beds in only two, that's what the answer will be. There's plenty of scope for the imagination!
And is anyone going to record the illegal immigrants living in the "summerhouse" at the bottom of the garden which exists not very far from here?
Its just jobs for the boys.
While it is true that all the information is stored on computers and that the evidence of unrestrained immigration is all around us, the census has the effect of forcing the government to publish the information with very high media coverage.
With regards to illegal immigrants - due to the confidentiality of the census it is one of the few instruments we have for actually calculating the number of illegal immigrants currently residing here.
Whilst the census may not be perfect, it is considerably less flawed than the planned ID cards that we have recently abolished
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'With regards to illegal immigrants - due to the confidentiality of the census it is one of the few instruments we have for actually calculating the number of illegal immigrants currently residing here.'
I have no way of knowing whether this is intended as an ironic statement but just in case it is not, are you seriously suggesting that anyone actually believes enough in the 'confidentiality' bit to admit anything which otherwise they would not?
My own experience of 'Government' is that they lie through their teeth if it assists them. Am I alone in this?
"My own experience of 'Government' is that they lie through their teeth if it assists them. Am I alone in this?"
No, you're quite right, but the census is not run by the "government" as such (albeit, by a government agency) and is protected by law.
Only general statistics are published with no specific detail - the information the statistics are based on is kept confidential for 100 years and is not available to government either.
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