On 12/02/2020 09:25, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 12/02/20 08:28, Richard Conway wrote:
On 12/02/2020 08:12, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 12/02/20 07:13, Andy Burns wrote:
The next census might be the last?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51468919

Just like the previous one was supposed to be the last?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10584385

More wasted money on legalised snooping. Why don't they just pay Google
for the info?

Every ten years I have fun trying to (legally) make it as difficult as
possible for the coders/OCR equipment to read my census return.

Well assuming a team of people are being paid to manually enter any
tricky forms, that's even more money wasted then. Well done.

I do my best. But it is a drop in the ocean compared to the overall cost
of a census.

The Census Act 1920 was a short, but very well written piece of
legislation which makes it impossible to refuse to complete a census
request. Well, you /can/ refuse, but it leads to a conviction, fine, and
another request to complete the census form. Refuse that, and another
fine, etc (maybe eventually leading to even a "contempt of court"
conviction). It's obviously a really heinous crime in the eyes of the UK
Government.

Nearly all the information available from a census is obtainable form
other sources (the birth, marriage, and death register is a good start).
Some countries have realised this and don't require a general census
(see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_and_housing_censuses_by_country#Methods _of_conducting_population_census).

I guess it's like a stocktake. A shop's sales system can track stock
deliveries and sales, but they still need to stocktake to account for
anything that's been missed.

If those countries can do it, why can't we? After every census, there is
talk of abolishing it, but it gets nowhere. Even talk of making the 2021
census fillable online misses the point; it's just not necessary as the
information is already out there. If anything sensible is required which
/isn't/ out there, well, great, ask for it - but specifically.

Resistance may be futile, but if upsets the "governmental Borgs" in any
way, it is worthwhile IMHO.