Boycott called for UK census

seun · Feb 25, 2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/19/census-boycott-lockheed-martin

People are being urged to boycott next month's UK's census because the US arms manufacturer responsible for Trident is involved in gathering the information.

£150 million to an arms manufacturer? Got to love our Government.

Maxinquaye · Feb 25, 2011

Lockheed Martin – which does 80% of its work for the US defence department – assists more than two dozen American government agencies and is involved in surveillance and data processing for the CIA and FBI. It has controversially provided private contract interrogators to the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. All US-based companies are subject to the Patriot Act, which allows the US government to have access to any data in the company's possession. Campaigners have warned this could give the US government access to detailed and personal data on the UK's entire population.

Such a nice choice of contractor for a national census with all sorts of sensitive information, isn't it?

seun · Feb 25, 2011

A tenner says someone leaves it all on a train somewhere.

Maxinquaye · Feb 25, 2011

Well, considering the interrogators supplied to Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo the door-to-door canvassing of respondees could be interesting.

MarkEsq · Feb 25, 2011

I myself signed up to be a census canvasser in Swindon. Two weeks later I found myself in a Romanian Rendition Camp with a hammer in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. The dude tied to the chair in front of me was super nice and cooperative.

scarletpeaches · Feb 25, 2011

Apparently David Cameron is advocating waterboarding for non-respondents.

seun · Feb 25, 2011

scarletpeaches said:
Apparently David Cameron is advocating waterboarding for non-respondents.

If the Libya rescue mission is anything to go by, their attempt at waterboarding would involve a broken teacup half full of weak squash.

dpaterso · Feb 25, 2011

Much laughter! I'd looked at the sample form when the census was announced but didn't notice any physical threat clauses. Just what are the consequences of not filling it in and returning it?

-Derek

seun · Feb 25, 2011

A £1000 fine if I hear correctly.

scarletpeaches · Feb 25, 2011

How would they know where to find you, though?

seun · Feb 25, 2011

I'm putting my address down as yours. Expect a visit from Lockheed.

Mr Flibble · Feb 25, 2011

I did hear something about the census on the radio-about the growing number of adherents to the Church of the Latter Day Dude, and a debate on how many people will put Dudeism as their religion.

A Dudeist Priest was quoted as saying the best part was, his duties were to 'be cool'.

Could be a threat to the Jedis among us, you think?

scarletpeaches · Feb 25, 2011

They're probably all terrorists.

Mr Flibble · Feb 25, 2011

I think that would all be a bit too much effort for the Dudeists.

Bartholomew · Feb 25, 2011

seun said:
A tenner says someone leaves it all on a train somewhere.

No way. Then the correct people could possibly retrieve it, and no government is that careful.

It probably all gets fed-ex'd to Identity Theft Inc.

darkprincealain · Feb 25, 2011

Wow, I think perhaps LM shouldn't be doing this census. The Patriot Act was just recently renewed--after a period of time where they pretended to fail to renew it. For my own part, I don't think this looks good. I filled out our census, but I would be much more uncomfortable filling out yours.

cethklein · Feb 26, 2011

The contractor will get paid just the same. How will boycotting it hurt the UK government? Unless you consider causing a cut in civil services to to improper data, leaving millions of the UK's citizens without things they need, to be a valiant effort. In which case, carry on. That'll show em'!

Maxinquaye · Feb 26, 2011

cethklein said:
The contractor will get paid just the same. How will boycotting it hurt the UK government? Unless you consider causing a cut in civil services to to improper data, leaving millions of the UK's citizens without things they need, to be a valiant effort. In which case, carry on. That'll show em'!

Maybe it's only a raised haroomph-reaction to feeding even more British personal information to our dear friends at CIA and the FBI?

In this case, there's nothing wrong with Buy British, I think.

seun · Feb 26, 2011

cethklein said:
The contractor will get paid just the same. How will boycotting it hurt the UK government? Unless you consider causing a cut in civil services to to improper data, leaving millions of the UK's citizens without things they need, to be a valiant effort. In which case, carry on. That'll show em'!

I don't think the boycott is about that for a lot of people. It's about being pissed off with who's running the census and the amount of money spent by a government which is cutting back on just about everything due to a lack of funds. People want to send that message to our government.

Priene · Feb 26, 2011

If you boycott the census that will directly affect government funding for your area, as that's partly dependent on size of the local population. As happened in the 1991 census, when everyone was dodging the poll tax.

Boycott called for UK census

seun

Horror Man

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer

seun

Horror Man

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer

MarkEsq

Clever title pending.

scarletpeaches

seun

Horror Man

dpaterso

Also in our Discord and IRC chat channels

seun

Horror Man

scarletpeaches

seun

Horror Man

Mr Flibble

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

scarletpeaches

Mr Flibble

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

Bartholomew

Comic guy

darkprincealain

cethklein

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer

seun

Horror Man

Priene

Out to lunch