First we had UKIP foaming about the European interest in cohabitation, now Master Hurd is in a bate about the 2011 Census.
The first point to make is that in this country the census is not just of population but also of housing. It is our only (once a decade) opportunity to count the number of dwellings & to measure how they meet the needs & standards we nowadays expect.
The 2011 census is going to be the first to count bedrooms.
The Bedroom Standard has been around for a long time - at least since Parker Morris. Nobody enquires exactly who sleeps with whom but we have come a long way from the days when children could be expected to sleep top to tail, 4 or 6 to a bed, or immigrant workers to the northern mill towns expected to do shifts to sleep in a bed as well as to work in the factory.
It was always a source of regret that the census did not provide reliable data about how far the bedroom standard was (or was not) being met in local areas (national data was provided by sample surveys); instead the looser & less satisfactory “persons per room” had to be used as a proxy for overcrowded housing conditions. The precious space on the census form was used for the even more important (& shaming) information about how many households lacked a bathroom, kitchen or inside lavatory to call their own.
At least we now have Sir Michael Scholar to doughtily defend the statisticians against accusations of political interference.
In 1981 the Registrar General had to speak up for himself.
It was his misfortune (in the circumstances) that his name was Roger Thatcher (no relation).
The prime ministers private secretary no doubt shared the joke. His name was Michael Scholar.
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