List members with an interest in Surveillance might like to read the
following link
http://www.staffs.ac.uk/faculties/art_and_design/new_students/subject_pa
ges/st_sociology.jsp
Scroll down to A Day in the Life of Julia which I use as a Level 1
induction exercise and also my module Big Brother is Watching You: Life
in a Surveillance Society.
I must agree with Humphrey. Although I've found this discussion most
stimulating, perhaps as this is a local history web site be
concentrating more on the historical and local.
David
-----Original Message-----
From: From: Local-History list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Humphrey Southall
Sent: 09 July 2010 11:48
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [LOCAL-HISTORY] 2011 census
I find the tone of many of the contributions to this discussion quite
odd, and a bit disturbing. This is supposed to be a list for historical
discussion, but there have been almost no references to the need to
create, or rather extend, a record of how the country has changed, or
anything much about history at all. The motivations that seem to be
assumed for the census come across as surreal if you have any
real-world contact with the actual census process, and the needs of
diverse organisations that drive it.
The background to the one break down in census confidentiality that has
actually happened, in 1913, was that press hysteria meant that the
government "had to do something" about the German spy menace, but were
completely unprepared: the 1911 census was about the only body of
information in government hands of any relevance. Interning vast
numbers of foreigners was a complete waste of resources, as well as
oppressive, as the German spies were almost non-existent, and utterly
ineffective -- read Chris Andrews's book.
The situation today is very different, with vast bodies of surveillance
data, held by the Security Service and by the very alarming police
"domestic extremism" unit (see http://www.netcu.org.uk). Before anyone
refuses to complete the 2011 census form, they should certainly go for
private health care and try to get themselves off the NHS Central
Register, which holds far more personal data about almost everybody,
i.e. everybody in the NHS. You can't get off the NETCU database:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/25/peace-campaigner-classified-dom
estic-extremist
Humphrey Southall
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