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The Office for National Statistics (ONS) admitted some time ago that the religious question in the 2001 census was designed to capture the weakest affiliation with religion. Why? The question should have been designed to capture the data that fulfilled the intended governmental purpose. What possible use could the Government have for capturing the weakest affiliation (other than religious propaganda)? So, having admitted wasting public money on a flawed question, and having read reports from the British Humanist Association (BHA) that pointed out the flaws in no uncertain terms, what do the ONS do? They deliberately repeat the error.
The BBC article says
Do the ONS really think that it is more important to be able to compare two sets of flawed data than it is to capture one set of good data (even if the skew of BHA publicity is ignored)? It sounds like a poor excuse to me.
How about this for a slogan: "The Government would like you to tick the 'Christian' box on this year's census".
Permalink Sun, 06 Mar 2011 20:19:06 UTC | #599459