27th March 2011

Just filled in the Census Form online.

Certainly very straightforward and hardly invasive and there was a question about retirement, so the letter in The Times was wrong!

They do want to know whether and why you are not working or looking for a job. The demographic map is essentially a complicated one. Born, as I was, in 1945 I was part of a population bulge, the baby boomers who have put pressure on services all the way through, from Nursery, through school, university, work, housing and now retirement.

If provision is not planned then shortage becomes surplus before plunging back into shortage again.

As health improves people live longer so it is not unreasonable to expect people to retire later, by undertaking this snapshot of life in Britain on March 27th 2011 it is possible to start to plan sensibly for the years ahead.

Generally I think the Census information is very valuable the information is critical in both planning services and in ensuring that the demographics are being mapped into the future helping not only economic forecasting but practical things like education for young people and services for the elderly.

Obviously folk who are into genealogy also find previous census information invaluable in tracking down ancestors and checking whether there are any skeletons in the family wardrobes, or black sheep lurking in the background.

Maybe I am just a simple soul and certainly as we get older and start to shed some of the accumulated junk that we have gathered over the years, answering the questions becomes easier.

I guess if I had fancied heading down to Trafalgar Square or even Hyde Park yesterday I might have wanted to keep my head down or my hoody up and wouldn't have been too keen to answer all the questions. Just in case. Just in case what I don't know.

Years ago I managed to get into the newspapers in a pretty big Daily Mirror kind of way. I was named as Britain's first punk vicar. I was interviewed on Radio 4 and TV but after the initial excitement it became a bit much so I headed off to stay with relatives. Just after we arrived the 'phone rang and it was the BBC, did I wear an ear ring, No! Oh well that's too bad.

After a couple of days we driving back home heading North on the Motorway when we realised that we were being followed by a Police Car, I pulled into a services and the Police Car followed me in and parked next to me, before driving away the policeman in the passenger seat, gave me a mock salute.

It was unnerving. But they were just letting me know, so I knew that they knew. Now of course with the Internet they know so much more.

I remember a visitor we had in Newcastle years ago. We were heading down to the Pub for a quiet pint when we were stopped by someone filling in a questionnaire. I answered the questions about what shampoo I used or whatever and where I bought my razor blades thinking glad I don't have to do such a boring job in order to earn a living.

When it was his turn to answer I was amazed when my friend started by giving a false name, then a different address and then lapsed into a strange accent I had never heard before and then provided some fanciful answers to the questions.

As we walked away from the clearly utterly confused, questioner he muttered 'Can't be too careful, it'll all go in the dossier they keep'.

Wow! I thought, paranoid or what?

But of course 'they' do keep track, not big brother exactly but the amount of data out there, from information about bank details, Internet addresses, web-sites visited, shopping habits, mobile phone calls etc etc are all being maintained in order to keep track of where we are, what we are doing and why.

The big stores know a lot about us certainly more than can be gleaned from the answers to the Census, and can send detailed information as well as very targeted mail shots tempting us with things we need and things we might simply want (Maslow's hierarchy comes in handy at times!).

The last time I was in Italy I had a series of messages from various service providers and social networking sites essentially querying why I was accessing services from a different computer in a different location than usual.

The best was facebook asking me to name various 'friends' from their pictures I'm glad to report that I passed that particular test.

At one level it is quite reassuring but at another level the big society is being given an entirely new meaning.

Big Society is watching ........... and we know where you live!