Census Rehearsal 2009 On British Economy & Population?

Hi there, thought i'd bring this into this forum for debate, this is a rehearsal for the 2011 Census................. apparently

Just what is a Census Rehearsal? (i hear you say)

Well..... it is one of those Government questinaires which find their way onto your doormat every few years!

It is a complete invasion a persons privacy!

For those who don't know what i am chatting about i shall give examples of questions asked:

1) Who usually lives at this address?
A)(Starting with yourself, list the names of people who live here)
B)(Apart from everyone included above, who else stays here overnight on said date?)
C)(How many pmembers of this household are related to eachother?)

2) What type of accommodation is it?
(This goes on to ask is it self contained? how many rooms? Whether you have central heating? owned or rented? How maby cars you own? etc etc)

3) What is your name?
4) Your sex?
5) Date of birth?
6) Married or Single?
7) Are you a student? If so, do you always live here?
8) If you weren't born here, when did you arrive?
9) How long do you intend to stay here?
10) What passports do you hold?
11) Do you stay at another address at any time of the year?
12) What is that address?
13) What is your ethnic group? Language? Religion?
14) One year ago what was your address?
15) How is your health?
16) Qualifications?
17) What were you doing last week?
18) Looking for work?
19) If a job were available last week, could you have started it?
20) Have you ever worked?
21) What is your main job? What do you do?
22) Job Title?
23) Name of organisation? etc....
24) Address of workplace?
25) How do you usually travel to work?
26) In your main job, how many hours a week do you usually work?

Now while i see what they are trying to do, it is a big invasion of privacy.... as you can see from the questions asked. Now maybe they are trying to establish who is here illegally and what not but do they really believe that illegal immigrants are going to fill these forms out? The average Biritish person will know that they have nothing to hide but i'm assuming most will not fill out this form and return it or those who do can't see through the clouds!!

So, what do you think? Invasion or not?

This came through my door yesterday.... they say it's to gather stats on the British Economy & Population!!!









[edit on 29-9-2009 by TruthxIsxInxThexMist]

Can't believe this thread has gone unnoticed by the UK so i have to bump it back up.....

A national Census in the UK is nothing new, I remember my grandparents explaining it to me when I was a child.

Here's some history.

The 2001 Census was the twentieth full national census of population. It marked 200 years since the first census in modern times was carried out in Great Britain.

ons.gov.uk Census History

Here is some info about the rehearsal.

The next full census of England and Wales will take place in 2011 and includes a number of new approaches which will be evaluated during a rehearsal on 11 October 2009 with around 135,000 selected households in three local authority areas.

The 2009 Census Rehearsal will test, among other things, the questions we are asking, the accuracy of our address list for posting out questionnaires and the new internet services for getting help and completing questionnaires online.

ons.gov.uk Census Rehersal 2009 info

It has always been an intrusive thing, but nothing that sinister. It gives the government and academics access to data vital for the gathering of statistics on the population. It also allows for a better look at things like wealth dispersion, home ownership trends and populace. The data becomes publicly available after a certain time for a fee. Nothing to worry about if you ask me, It has happened before and will happen again, they are just updating how they carry it out.