You are in the
company of
Roger Warren Evans
Roger Warren Evans
|
|
You are in the
company of
Roger Warren Evans |
|
| Part of www.LivePolitics.net < Back to Home Page |
NewLiving Diary Index
|
item0055B 852, 853 852 27 October 2003
We need
Numbers matter. Our understanding of many political issues is conditioned by the numbers which are presupposed. Events this week have focused attention on the inadequacies of the 2001 Census. A recount has been ordered, of several city-centre local authorities, following years of protest. In the screening of the awful Secret Policeman TV-documentary, the "Pakis" were seen as taking over the country. David Blunkett's "amnesty" of 17,000 long-stay families seeking asylum was exaggerated, out of all proportion to the demographic facts. Our 200-year old Census system is creaking at the seams . The Authorities have recently had to concede a number of ignominious 2001 "recounts", following outraged protests by a number of big-city authorities. The French, who instituted a national 10-year Census at the same time as we did (1801) have transformed it by switching to an annual Census - sampling 10% of the population each year. A UK Parliamentary Select Committee, expressing grave concerns earlier this year about the inaccuracy of our "Big Bang" decennial census, has recommended consideration of the new French system.I am sure we would be right to make that change. Modern politics needs population statistics which are "up-to-date" - at least, not more than twelve months old. And it is clear that a 10% Sample Census could be ready for publication some nine-months into the following year. Given the retention of an October Census (no need to change that) we would have new figures, each year, by June or July. And a 10% sample would still be big enough to give reliable figures for major conurbations, if not the smallest village. And statistically a 10x10 system offers great statistical advantages, with results less exposed to maverick results of the kind which have plagued the 2001 Census.Why is this so important? Because modern politics has become a matter of identifying the "national community" with far greater precision than was ever necessary in 1801. Then, there was no Welfare State, no concept of State Benefit, no concept of nationality or citizenship - nothing which required an answer to the question "What is the UK community?" Increasingly, our fellow-citizens think of themselves as "members" of some vague national community, entitled to receive education, health, sickness, unemployment and pension benefits by virtue of that very membership. And so the addition of new members, the total size of the membership, and of inconsistency of treatment as between members - all these issues rise rapidly to the top of the political agenda, both locally and nationally.
Parliament should demand that Government should at no time have to rely on population statistics which are more than twelve months old. It will be difficult, and very expensive, for the Office of National Statistics to deliver to such a brief - but the civil-service tail must not be allowed to wag the political dog.
20 October 2003 Property
Development
This political sermon all started at a wedding. A chartered surveyor friend of mine, Alistair Gibson, and I were discussing the parlous state of the housing industry - as you do, at weddings. And we shared a common anger, as denizens of the property development world, at three great lies - deceits, dishonesties - which plague the UK development process. Alistair challenged to me to try and explain these wrongs. This is my attempt. Each of these represents a grave distortion of our planning system. And in each case, I am ashamed that my Labour colleagues reinforce Tory misjudgments. I confess that it is heavy going - it would be easier for you to turn the other way. Are you up for it? What do you think? Drop me a line
|
|
|
| Created by GMID Design & Communication COPYRIGHT
NOTICE
|
