#CensusCampaign discussion on BBC Census story
The BBC News magazine website is running a story comparing the upcoming census with its 1911 counterpart. Most of the discussion in the comments is about the question on religion, with several links and supportive mentions for the British Humanist Association’s Census Campaign.
The 1911 census also offers an insight into one of the great political movements of 20th Century Britain, the efforts by suffragettes to get the vote for women.
The activists tried to get women to refuse to fill out the census, organising a mass avoidance session near London’s Trafalgar Square, prompting a heartfelt plea from the registrar in the Times.
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[A]fterwards, the Times was delighted to report that the suffragettes had failed to avoid being counted. It puts the recent international Jedi census stunt – where people listed their religion as Jedi in tribute to Star Wars – into perspective.
Looking at the 2011 census, [a family filling in the 1911 census] might have been surprised to see questions on type of heating, ethnicity and religion. Or the baffling question 17: “This question is intentionally left blank go to 18.”
Full story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12324970
It would seem from this article that if you want to be remembered in 10 or 100 years time you should embroider your census return with jokes like adopting the Jedi religion, or criticising the questions:
“The King family of Cheshire seemed to be irked, scrawling in pencil: “Would you like to know what our income is, what each had for breakfast, how long we expect to live and anything else?” ”
The harder we campaign for people to answer “No Religion” the more boring that reply seems. I’m betting that there will be more varied replies than ever, such as Pastafarian, Teapottist, or the cult of the Invisible Pink Unicorn, just to annoy the statisticians.