If you have nothing to hide
you have nothing to fear....
A.C. for the obvious reason, Moneypenny.
The first casualty of next month’s 2011 census could be the secret identities of Britain’s top spies – not to mention the location of senior police officers, judges and intelligence eavesdroppers as well. This follows a release from the Official of National Statistics (ONS) last week, reminding all UK employees that they will …
The ONS website clearly states that the information collected will not be shared with any other Government departments, but does not clearly state that this information will not be transferred or sold to 3rd or commercial parties.
Within the survey itself it also makes reference to protection of "personal" information. Does this mean that there is information collected by the census that is considered "impersonal" and can there for be flogged for a profit also?
WTF?! These hypocritical bastards don't want to live under the rules they set for all of us. So one rule for them and another for the rest of us. The irony is, many of these hypocritical Narcissists are the very people society needs to be watching closest of all.
They want Big Brother, so its time for them to suffer even just a small fraction of what they do to others. Maybe it'll make them think of what they do to others! ... we can only hope ... oh yes, a lesson in empathy for them ... but oh no, of course not, so many of these hypocritical bastards lack empathy for other people and they can't believe they could ever be in the wrong in anything they do to others and put others through. They have already collectively moved us nearer to a Police State than at any point in human history. But no, they don't want to suffer even a small fraction of what they do to everyone else. Typical. :(
What's the recommended way to answer question 16 if I think that "ethnic group" is a stupid concept and not one I want to have any truck with, but I don't want to pay £1000?
"Any other ethnic group, write in" ... "human"?
Every other form I have to fill in with "ethnic group" on it has "refuse to answer" as one of the options.
Also, why haven't they asked people what languages they know? That would be much more interesting than some of the crap they've asked.
Anyone carrying a credit card or having a bank account (in the UK) is automatically checked against the credit bureau records. Didn't do my bank much good as the CB said I didn't exist and that the address I used wasn't in their database either.
Given that much CB access is via computer and all sorts of people are permitted access confidentiality has as much meaning a Secret does to the U.S. State Department.
Never completed a census in any of the countries I've resided in and businesses didn't seem to mind too much, either.
Some census questions are really intrusive and one has to wonder just what it matters how many toilets, wash basins or bathtubs one has in a property. And whose business is it which God or idol you pay homage to?
But the up side is that employment figures improve for that point in time and the unemployment rolls drop, a little.
A friend of mine traces family trees and she does dig up some interesting poop from past (100+ year old) census information but the newer ones are less helpful. The churchyard moving and amalgamation activity also screws things up for her.
Ethnic minorities seem to be particularly reluctant to complete these questionnaires, especially when some family members may be less than legal. Promising Plod won't see the info does seem to carry much weight with them, either.
I don't know. I figure that if I'm Commander James Bond (Ret.), working for Universal Export, it's not exactly particularly likely that some dedicated individual in the census firm is going to double-check the accuracy of my form to such an extent as to determine that I'm really working for M. I. 6, and didn't fill it in accurately. Women hiding from abusive partners, on the other hand, have fewer options, but I would think that whatever the classification, confidential census information is not easy to get one's hands on.
Reading the form, I'm of the view that the information being requested isn't actually far off the level of intrusiveness we saw when Labour were trying to press the ID Card into our unwilling palms a few years ago. In fact if you added the requirement for biometric it would be very close. The point quoted in the article that all the information requested about workplace and your employers being used to help businesses plan is such an indefensible crock of crap - but I bet the HMRC will find it useful.
It's hard to to come to the view that a lot of this information is nothing to do with what a census actually needs, and is a wider data trawl. In this decade, more than in 2001, the people have the opportunity to network virally and register a protest.
In 2001, thousands of people all declared themselves to be Jedi in objection to the religious questioning. Perhaps for 2011 we should all hand in the postcode of a single pub in rural Somerset and declare (in our millions) that we were all in the same pub.
Let's all remember that the census is being carried out by weapons mega-corp Lockheed Martin, a company who make every kind of killing technology you can imagine, including things like cluster bombs that indiscriminately kill innocent civilians for years after they are deployed.
There is no way that I would buy a vacuum cleaner from a company who also made weapons, and I'll be applying the same principle here. If you also think that the world would be a better place without the likes of Lockheed Martin, do not cooperate with the census.
Christ, did they want to know your employers name and address at the last census?
Anyway, on a lighter note for Q20, Id suggest such religions as Fellater or Felcher (Jedi is SO last decade). And Q35 "What did you do at your job" is just crying our to be answered with "drinking" , "lighting farts" or perhaps "not much".
Lets face it..... in 100 years time, some kid will be reading through this lot as part of a school genealogy project. At least give them a giggle.
One would hope that MI5 and MI6 officers would be able to do something off the wall, like LIE.
Find out if the census is going to check the answer you give for employer, if not, make up something, if they are, get together with colleagues, set up a dummy company(s) and use those.
The Met senior officers shouldn't have a problem with this, they know all about lying anyway.
Like everyone else employed by HM Government in one of the security services, I only ever gave my occupation as "Civil Servant". That is sufficient for the census form. HM Government ensure that those who work in security related occupations have a postal address that they can use as their employer's address which does not identify the service that they work for. This whole article is making a mountain out of a molehill (or is a storm in a teacup!).
Please, none of this 'where's the Jedi answer?' etc.
It's probably some sort of crime to encourage others not to comply with the bastards currently in charge...but let's just say, if you were to leave your census form next to the bin...and it was to accidentally fall in...and it happened to be that one day of the month when the sun and blue moon and men who get up far too early collude to say it might be bin day...well that's OK...really it is...
You might be fined £1000. Highly unlikely - heading towards lottery jackpot odds. Personally, I believe in the 'frustrate' tactic, and if enough people stand firm the bastards are fucked...for now at least.
There's a reason this is going to be the last census. From The Telegraph:-
"Mr Maude said the Census was “out of date almost before it has been done” and was looking at ways to count the population more frequently — perhaps every five years — using databases held by credit checking firms, Royal Mail, councils and Government.
“This would give you more accurate, much more timely data in real time. There is a load of data out there in loads of different places,” he said."
They won't stop until we burn them. That is all.
"Women hiding from abusive partners" - one of my friends had to change *his* name and move to my city to get away from his abusive ex-wife, who has threatened on several occasions to stab him if she sees him again. It's not only women who have to hide from abusive exes. Please don't perpetuate feminist stereotypes by wording such statements gender-specifically.