Ending the Census would be an act of vandalism

Francis Maude's plan to end the Census is deplorable.

The Census collects information which is simply unavailable from other sources.

It has a time-line stretching back 200 years and it should not be casually abandoned.

The Census gives us an idea of who we are and the circumstances in which we live. Whether we can go back 20 years or 200 years.

As it happens, using the Census and the old parish registers which pre-date it, I can go back to 1750 to a certain John Prentice of Stone in Lanarkshire. On the other side, with a few dog legs along the way, I get way back to 1613. And then it all peters out.

Anyway...

Much is made of the cost of the Census. But it works out at 87p per person per year or £8.72 per person every decade.

This is a trivial sum of money for something so inherently valuable.

When the Public Administration Select Committee looked at this issue last year, Glen Watson, the Census Director at the Office for National Statistics, told my friend Paul Flynn that it costs “considerably less than in Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. The England and Wales Census is actually very good value for money and it stands up very well internationally.” (see Q72)

Quite so.

Don't ditch the Census.