I find it a minor, but delicious, irony that the question of how we count the population should be high up the political agenda when, particularly by the time of the inevitably controversial Census in 2011, it looks as if we shall once again be governed by Etonians
Among the questions which were once used as in introduction to the intricacies of establishing the size of the population of local areas was: Do the boys of Eton count as part of the population of Eton & Slough? Or should they be counted as members of the family household, wherever that may be?
In one sense, they should be counted both ways of course, depending on your purpose. But we have to have some discipline & consistency, one agreed national population figure. It was partly for this reason that Winston Churchill established the Central Statistical Office, to stop tedious time-wasting arguing figures in Cabinet
The question of who counts as part of the population of England used to be relatively unproblematic, compared with local authorities. But with globalisation, EU rules, cheap flights, tax breaks for non-doms etc etc …
The nation state itself has become fuzzier round the edges
