It's Census time! I love the census. I try to get interested in politics but sometimes it's really hard, even when the outcome affects me personally. Like, for example, privatisation. It seems pretty clear to me that everything absolutely essential to the continued success of our country should be not-for-profit and overseen by the government. I'm talking Healthcare, Education, Transport, Defense and Communication. Certainly other things as well, but that's not the focus of this post and I know how my brain works. If I let it run it'll keep coming up with new things I think should be nationalised and I'll feel uncomfortable if I don't include them. Emergency Services. The point is, whenever politicians and the media talk about privatising some of these essential services, I zone out. It's very important, it's something that does concern me but it's like watching the The Inbetweeners. Sheer embarrassment on behalf of everyone involved means I feel I ought to go make myself a drink, or maybe now's a good time for a toilet break and when I get back everything will be better and Simon won't be tripping over his words talking to girls and David will have found the money to pay the police.
But when it's Election time or Census time, everything changes. When it's voting time, I feel Invovled, like maybe my single vote on which way this country should head will Make A Difference. I tend to vote Lib Dem, so secretly I know that it won't and weren't we all a little surprised when the Lib Dems actually became important this time round? And don't we all wish they'd go back to being the sensible but unimportant party so we could feel good about voting for them?
This isn't an Election though, this is a Census. We're not choosing our representatives here, we're telling them who they represent, and that's still awesome and it's still important. It's important because political parties and pressure groups will use the information from the Census to forward their agendas. There are going to be people who look at this data and say "Well, we need the government to encourage more women to go into higher education" or "So many people drive to work in seperate cars, can we increase public transport or carpooling?" There are going to be people who look at the overwhelmingly large number of ethnically White citizens who identify as British and ignore the number of ethnically Black citizens who identify as the same, who will use the data to push what they see as Traditional Values and I what see as Blatant Racism.
That's how the Census works. It's open to abuse, but it is helpful. There's one question in particular I want to talk about. One question that I don't think should be on the census, that was introduced for the first time in 2001 and led to Jedi becoming a national in-joke. It's an optional question but that doesn't make it any better.
"What is your religion?"
Data from this question will be used by religious groups to push for an increase in state funding of faith schools and religious insititutions. It will be used by the government to justify that spending. I've made it pretty clear in the past that I'm a secularist and I don't think there should be any state funding at all of these things but I don't think the government is going to cut the ties completely any time soon - not least while the Church of England is still the Established religion in the country. The best we can do for now is ensure they have the correct data to work off.
If you're not religious, as the British Humanist Association's campaign slogan goes, for God's sake say so. This main focus of the campaign isn't aimed at me and it's not aimed at Britain's admittedly large religious population. It's aimed at people who consider themselves culturally of one religion but without the faith. Maybe you grew up in a Jewish household or went to a Christian school. Maybe you think the Bible is a good basis for an ethical society and we can just ignore all the bits about God. The phrasing of the question itself implies you have a religion, encourages you to select Christian or Jewish or Muslim or whatever but unless you actually believe in the religious aspects of that culture you should tick 'No religion'. If religion is not a significant aspect of your life, tick 'No religion'.
There is a second front to the Census Campaign, and this one is aimed at me and at the religiously apathetic. In 2001 I - along with nearly four hundred thousand other people - put down my religion as 'Jedi'. This was fun, this was fine, this was still officially counted as 'No religion' but the fact that I didn't tick that box meant Religious groups could use the low number of people who actually declared 'No religion' as a sign that Britain identifies as a God-fearing country. I've seen campaigns run this time encouraging people to declare Jedi, Heavy Metal and Dumbledore's Army - as well as many others - as their religion. This choice will still be counted as no religion, so just tick that box. Give a clear signal that you are not religious. By all means set your religious view on facebook as Heavy Metal but jokes are less funny the second time round and I'm sorry but the Jedis got there first on this one. Tick 'No religion' and move on.
The lovely folks at the BHA Census Campaign have given us a nice little list of some ways the 2001 census data for religion has been misused by government ministers to justify spending on religious groups, which you can read here.
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