2011 Census

JasonK said:
Visited friends of mine and my Wife's today. They're a retired couple in their 60's. They have chosen to fill in the form (OK I thought at this point, must get on and do ours :roll: ) but then described and showed how they had done it...

1. Taken NO notice of the boxes I.e. 1 character per box, neatly written in the box. Lucky if the answer to a question was written on the same line.

2. Filled in with a broad nib fountain pen (leaky) and the paper has absorbed and blotted up the ink making it hard to read

3. Partly scratched off / damaged the barcode(s) / serial numbers on the form

4. Answered as many questions as possible in such a way as to either be truthful but novel at the same time, or, have chosen to misconstrue the question if it is at all possible to do so and answer accordingly. Unfortunately, can't remember any examples at present. Too much to take in at the time as I was a little shocked.

5. And for good measure accidentally *cough* spilt candle wax randomly over the form, such that should it be put through a machine to be read / scanned, it stands a good chance of messing up the reading machine...

I'm not sure what smilies to use and more than one would probably be appropriate....

Now, as they are my elders and we should respect our elders (right?) do I follow their example? Asked tongue in cheek :lol:

I do wonder though, if they are in a minority or will lots of people find ways to rebel? I asked why they chose to adopt the approach they had towards completing the forms and it boiled down to them feeling that their privacy, previous capture and use of personal details, as well as being on CCTV when going about their daily lives amounted to the census being a step too far. They feel they have complied with the law as required, but are rebelling in spirit against it.

They aren't too worried about a fine (won't and can't afford to pay it) and I decided best not to discuss the alternative with them... It was time to move away from the subject. As an aside, they felt they were making a positive contribution for employment of the younger generations, as the details on their census form will very likely need to be inputted manually by a person as opposed to being scanned in by a computer.

It would be boring if everyone was the same I guess. I'm not saying I agree with them, but a small part of me has to admire their rebelliousnes and convictions.

Just to be clear, I am in no way wishing to encourage or condone non-compliance towards completing the census. Each to their own and if a forum mod feels this post is inappropriate then please delete and accept my apologies.

Thanks,
Jason
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Wow! What a couple of absolute rebels your friends are, I'm just about speechless with admiration for them and their ever so anarchic lifestyle. Bad enough using a fountain pen but the candle wax! Crazy or what? And as for you Jason, the way you deliberately wrongly spelled 'rebelliousness' I think your almost on a par with your friends.

Of course their sabotage of the form will provide employment for young people the length and breadth of this impoverished country that has innoculated, educated, housed and maintained your friends bohemian lifystyle and probably their deserving offspring.

Jason, you're the Che Geuvara of wet shaving.....Nearly!

PS
I'm sorry I too don't have smileys to express my emotions regarding your comrades utterly selfless act of civil disobedience.
Sir, I salute you.

PPS
You do realise that not having the funds to pay the fine is no defence in law? As an act of solidarity, and as you admire their utter contempt and dissent, I'm sure you will assist them financially if they get fined.
£5 a week ok for you?

Regards
 
Would like to add my miss-spelling / typographical error of the word rebelliousness was unintentional. It appears Iooking at my original post, that I left off an 's' at the end of the word. Am using a touch screen and this coupled with the late (or early hour dependant on your viewpoint) at the time of originally posting led to the spelling error (my excuse anyway :) )

Now had I thought of it... :twisted:

Oh, so I don't become obsessed with perfect spelling (I already have a bad case of RAD etc) I am happy to go on record as having dyslexia :cool: I do my best, but set a time limit, else I would spend hours proof reading and life is too short (IMHO).

Additionally, I hadn't seen this rebellious side to my friends before aside from some funny ideas (in my opinion), whereby 'funny' is used to suggest unusual.

My original post and reason for posting was to seek a wider view on whether my friends attitude towards the census was atypical or quite common. Why? I have an interest (hobby) in psychology. Human behavior fascinates me.

Thanks for the reply(s) thus far :)
Jason
 
The thing is with this is that, seriously, I wonder what people think they are 'rebelling' against, and what do people think filling in the form what way actually achieves? With all due respect to your friends there, I'm wondering if they're also keen on moaning about local authorities and the way they spend their money? If so, what the hell do they think the Census is for???
 
PompeyBill said:
......... With all due respect to your friends there, I'm wondering if they're also keen on moaning about local authorities and the way they spend their money? If so, what the hell do they think the Census is for???
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The Census provides statistics and these can be interpreted and used to make 'em read whatever you want :!:

As for Local Authorities, if they didn't waste so much money and I don't just mean support groups for minorites ie gay,lesbian rights groups, but unneccesary admin etc etc our Council Tax bills would be a whole lot less :!:

Funny how our local council have suddenly prided themselves on managing their budget cuts with no compulsory redundancies, they've done it with savings and careful management of funds....... I simply asked why the hell didn't they do this sort of thing before and got baffled looks :evil:

In the past I've been treasurer of various groups and a couple of the committees I reported to had a great way of handling our funds, I was advised by one of my predecessors to 'spend it like it was your own and you won't waste it' I used this to good effect :idea:
 
Not to wish to seem sceptical, however I can't wonder if at some point the info supplied may wind up being sold on, without personal details included, as a mass marketing aid to companies interested in the demographics. I know of course that we've been assured this won't happen ........... but then when the national lottery was introduced it was specifically stated that it wouldn't be used to fund government undertakings. That was until it was used to fund a breast screening campaign as I recall. After all, I hadn't realised when I first registered my motorcycle many decades ago that the time would ever come when vehicle registration docs would be routinely sold on to commercial undertakings.

Trust authorities to protect my privat information and use it wisely ? As one scribe of the past expressed it ........... "Put not your faith in the favour of princes."

Johnny (charitably think of me as disillusioned) O. \ :?
 
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