Census day (80/365)

[white_hart]

Today is census day in the UK, and I just filled ours out. I'm slightly perplexed by the insistence that answers to the questions about workplace and travel to work are supposed to be filled out for now, while we're still locked down in the middle of a global pandemic, and not for what we would have done in normal times, and I really hope this doesn't end up being used to justify cutting public transport funding "because no-one is using it".

I dithered a bit on the "national identity" question and ended up putting "European" and "British but embarrassed about it" in the write-in box. ("British but embarrassed about it" is basically accurate".) I also used the write-in box for sexuality to put "biromantic asexual", and dithered a bit about the gender identity question because today is one of the days when "female" feels more or less OK, but then I remembered all the days when it doesn't so wrote in "demigender" instead. (I'm not convinced "demigender" is actually right; on the whole I mostly just think gender is bullshit, but I don't find being identified as female or using she/her pronouns particularly painful - I get more of a niggling sense of concealing something than a feeling of actual wrongness - so demigender feels like a reasonable alternative to writing a whole essay about it.)

Anyway, that's that for another ten years.

Comments

[cmcmck]

I refused both the religion and gender questions- the latter had been rendered meaningless by the terf lot going to court and getting it changed. I'm both trans and intersex (I was born with the condition PAIS) but there was no way of making that clear, so no........

[white_hart]

I thought it was the guidance on the sex question that had been changed (to try to force trans people to record the sex assigned at birth if they don't have a GRC), rather than the gender question? Though the very binary option for the sex question does completely erase intersex people...

[cmcmck]

The whole thing was a mess.

I'd have refused the sex question too had that been an option due to the thing you mention (what would it cost them to include an 'x'?) but as it was I made do with good old 'f'.

I've spent all too much of my life being erased!

[ankaret]

The sex question was abysmal. Solidarity to you and everyone else out there let down by it.

[el_staplador]

Yes, I had similar misgivings about the travel to work question, though could at least report that we have 0 cars at this household.

[white_hart]

We do have a car, so I had to report that, even though I've only ever used it to travel to work in the last year because I was avoiding public transport.

[ankaret]

Peter insisted on saying that he cycles to work, even though he is working from home at present, because (when his bike isn't out of action, which it is at present) he goes for a ride before work. I argued with him at the time but it's not like I trust this particular Government any more than he does.

[white_hart]

I walk before work, so I suppose I could have put that, but it's really bus provision I'm worried about and I haven't been on a bus for over a year now.

[joyeuce]

I put English and British and wrote in European for me. M chose British and European, and J just British (which is fair enough as she is 8 and has never left the UK).

[cmcmck]

This is frustrating too.

I'm certainly English/British, but I also have Romani and Jewish blood and it's made impossible to answer in more than one area.

[alithea]

Not census day in the whole UK, we're doing ours next year in Scotland, precisely because the government up here figured that planning services for the next 10 years shouldn't be based on a time when many folks are in temporary households and not working or travelling as usual.

[white_hart]

That seems very sensible!

[ankaret]

I put myself down as other religion -> write in -> pagan because I am, but am now feeling twitchy about it because I am worried about counting towards 'X percentage of people in the UK have a faith' statistics put forth by people I disagree with about practically everything. Peter is No Religion so I suppose we cancel one another out.

I wish I'd thought of 'British but embarrassed about it'.

[cmcmck]

I'm a Quaker, but I didn't answer for the same reason you mention.

As a member of one of the odder small Christian(ish) sects, I know I'm a member of a small minority within a small minority (not the only one I'm a member of in truth) :o) so I hate seeing the stats abused as they have been.

[sollers]

Re workplace etc: it’s supposed to be a snapshot of one particular day. I did some research on the census returns for the area where I used to live in London and for one the population was far higher than normal because the railway was being built and all the navvies had to be included (my heart goes out to the person who had to question them).

For national identity I was very happy to be able to record “Welsh “ (and was able to tick read/write/speak/understand Welsh)

[white_hart]

I know it is, it just seems a bit daft to have a snapshot of a day in such an unusual time. I think Scotland had the right idea postponing for a year, really.

[owl]

I put down Irish, Northern Irish and wrote in European. Never regretted so much that I don't have more than the cupla focal of Irish.

[lokifan]

Bugger, I missed 'European'! And 'British but embarrassed about it' is perfect.

) I also used the write-in box for sexuality to put "biromantic asexual"

Hey, so did my flatmate :) And given the givens it does sound like demigender was the best fit when required to put something unboxable in a box!