Defence company to undertake U.K. National Census (and those of other countries)

The 2011 census in Scotland was awarded to CACI, which has also run the Irish census. CACI are the same US military intelligence corporation that abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

Perhaps the most iconic photograph of Abu Ghraib is of a innocent hooded prisoner standing on a box with electrodes on his genitals, standing Christ-like with out-stretched arms. The first question the man on the box was asked was: "Are you Sunni or Shia?" Even in those horrific circumstances he was taken aback.
"It was the first time I had ever heard this question" he says, explaining that before in Iraq even in Saddams personal status laws for marriage you were not asked which school of religion you belong to.

CACI interrogators will now be asking the religious persuasion of everyone in Scotland on threat of legal prosecution.

OK. good point, well made but clearly as always party politics is not the answer. I will tick green party on a ballot paper in order to vote against the BNP but I don't believe that you will get into power and I don't believe that if you did you'd change ought. So, althouh I believe this is an important issue and I don't want lockheed martin etc to ave my details, a promise to revoke their right to in 12 years time is not enough. So, can I refuse to fill in a census or take any other action?

There is nothing illegal in writing to Lockheed Martin and informing them that you do not wish them, their appointees, contractors or subcontractors to approach or question you. In addition, should Lockheed Martin wish to contact, approach or question you there will be a fee of £250 plus expenses to do so, payable in advance. At the same time, copy your MP with a note asking for a more suitable contractor to collect your census data in a way sensitive to national security.

Suitably phrased and done by enough people that excludes Lockheed Martin from collecting the Census Data without people being prosecuted for failure to provide census data - after all talking to a military contractor is not a legal requirement of the collection process.

Should enough people do this the census contract (but not the census) becomes frustrated.

One minute you're an anarchist, the next minute you love the SNP, then the next you're saying Scotland and the SNP suck. Godforsaken demagoguery is what you're pushing. Stop posting all this senseless garbage and get a life and for the trillionth bloody time stop trying so hard to derail each and every thread! For Petes sake. Go home!

I merely pointed out it's the 2011 Census for England and Wales, not the UK, that Lockheed are running. I support Scottish independence but not the SNP, because being independent from Westminster is worthless when we're still being run by Washington - as illustrated by the awful SNP decision to reward CACI with the 2011 Census for Scotland. Although Lockheed are hardly much better. I don't like the Census to start with but using US military corporations to collect sensitive information about British citizens is unforgivable. I hope the English and Welsh stop that happening in England, as many Scots will be trying to scupper our one.

Since the orginal poster hasn't accused me of trying to derail this thread, it looks as if it's you who are doing that. Again. Not got anything better to do with your life eh? Sad.

Please please take a break from the keyboard for all our sakes mate, your a posting junkey. Get some help dude before it takes over you life but I think it already has.........

Your concern is truly touching, knowing how you feel about me keeps me coming back. I'm more worried about you though, since you post every time I post, but only on the one subject- me. I'm flattered but you know, obsessive compulsions can be treated.

Ned Ludd made a great suggestion but there is a legal requirement to fill in the census that will cow most people into participating. There are a range of options for people to oppose the census that I've been looking at, but I hate to go on so. Maybe anon @narchist would like to explain what their suggestion to scrap the census are, or what they've already done about it?

Nothing anon or @narchist? So is it okay for me to speak now that I've withdrawn my candidacy for the EU Presidency?

Emmet - "So, can I refuse to fill in a census or take any other action?"

At the very least don't give your true religion. This question is optional, but rather than ignoring it you can register your protest through it even if you do decide to fill it in. There are a range of possible answers that would count as a protest, and it'd be best if everyone agreed on a common approach. Everyone could answer 'Muslim', like 'I am Sparticus'. In Scotland I'm hoping that clergy of all faiths will promote an 'umbrella religion' as an answer. My suggestion here is 'Churches Against Corporate Impunity', as that is appropriate for CACI, and people of all faiths or no faith can use it as a undeniable protest.

You can refuse to fill out the census but you will possibly face an as yet unspecified prosecution. At worst it is a small fine or a slap on the wrist, and the more people who refuse, the less likely any punishment is because it jams up the courts. In the past, accountable protests that have only had only hundreds or thousands of participants have seen prosecutions being abandoned for that reason. I've still never paid my Poll Tax for instance. You could just claim never to have received the form, because that will happen in any national administrative event. Some people have never filled in the census and have never been punished - personally I don't know anyone who has been punished.

Another legal mass-action possible is a mass-camp out during the census. This would be a more visible form of protest and could be a lot of fun. Go camping for a week on common ground, head to Eire, whatever. Stay away for the length of the operation. If enough people do this, then they have no way of knowing if you were a participant or not. They don't yet have the resources to check everyone all the time.

Apart from that, there is the normal range of tactics that all protestors use to disrupt unjust state and corporate abuse. This stuff has been happening in Scotland for some time, especially during the 'census rehearsal' but so far I don't have any metrics to judge how successful it has been. So far it's all been utterly peaceful stuff since it's recognised that the people at your door are just poor, temporary workers but when something is so unjust then a range of tactics could be employed without criticism. For instance, this census is partly internet based but you don't need to be a hacker to hold a sit-down protest in the organisations offices stopping the work being done.

It is less than two years away and most people are unaware of it so please publicise it now. The more damage that is done to the data, the more people who drop off the census, the less likely US military-intelligence corporations will be awarded more of our money or be trusted with more of our data. This is obviously an anti-military, anti-corporate, anti-ID creep, basic anarchist issue, but I've seen people from all the political parties criticise this too. There is plenty of time to reduce the official population of the UK by a few million, and thus remove these vile corporations from all EU contracts.