BS: Census day

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: JHW
Date: 03 Apr 21 - 11:01 AM

Yes but robots don't think like that, if at all.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Jos
Date: 03 Apr 21 - 06:52 AM

You would think it would be cheaper to check which households had completed their census forms, and then just send out reminders to the missing few (unless, in fact, most haven't completed it).

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: JHW
Date: 03 Apr 21 - 06:15 AM

Got a Census letter saying I hadn't completed it. Asked them for new code, not supplied. Answer was that 'Everyone in England and wales at the moment are receiving reminder letters.'

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Mar 21 - 12:24 PM

Not sure about this, but I don't think you can market something as just "fruit juice" if you've added anything to it to sweeten it. You can call it a "fruit juice drink" I think, but the labelling rules are fairly tight. I stand to be corrected on that. But don't run away with the notion that fruit juices are that healthy. Bought orange juice of the Tropicana ilk contains as much sugar as coca-cola. You're much better off eating an orange. At least you get fibre that way and the vitamins therein haven't been mangled by the processing. As for sweeteners, I once bought a packet of sugar-free sweeties from Tesco to scoff on my 90-minute drive home to come. Within half an hour of starting them my stomach was imitating a cement mixer in both churning and noise. Yep, Stevia. Always read the label and avoid Stevia like the plague!

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Jos
Date: 26 Mar 21 - 11:19 AM

I don't put sugar in tea or coffee.
I avoid artificial sweetener if possible, which means carefully reading the labels and packets of anything claiming "No added sugar" (it doesn't mean the product won't be horribly sweet - it probably will, because it will have artificially sweetener in it), and I am very suspicious of anything labelled "No artificial sweetener" (it may mean the product contains the HORRIBLE STEVIA, which is derived from a plant and thus doesn't count as artificial).

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: ripov
Date: 26 Mar 21 - 10:26 AM

Blimmin 'eck, you are a health concious lot,-no-one#s mentioned putting the sugar in,which raises another question, if you have a "no added sugar" fruit juice, do you add sugar to hide the taste of the sweetener? take a moment to ponder onhow the british paid china for their tea leaves

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 26 Mar 21 - 09:23 AM

I'd not heard of Sidney Grapes.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Senoufou
Date: 26 Mar 21 - 09:15 AM

Here's an extract (April 14th 1951) from our local paper (EDP) on the subject of the Census 'back then'. It's about Sidney Grapes and his relatives (imaginary Norfolk family) and was always written in Broad Norfolk dialect:-

"Granfar arsked har sum lot of questions. Sum on 'em wus on the form, but a rare lot of 'em wornt.
"Dew they reely want ter know orl that?" say Old Mrs W. Then she dint tell him har roit airge.
Granfar say, "If yew woz only that old, how cum yew're a-gettin the Pension?"
Arter that, Mrs W reckon she'd only bin a widder wunce, but Granfar knew she'd buried at least tew on 'em.
At the finish, Mrs W said that Granfar should put her down fer a bathroom, 'cause that'd look better.
"Bathrume!" say Granfar. "The only bathrume yew're got hang on a nail behoind the scullery dor!"

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 26 Mar 21 - 08:16 AM

We have a bottle of that Rain Dog! Good in cooking and the Mrs likes it in hot milk. A chickory Latte :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Rain Dog
Date: 25 Mar 21 - 05:05 PM

Camp coffee?

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Mar 21 - 04:39 PM

Lavazza red label beans are our go-to. We keep them in the fridge in an airtight tin. It helps that Lavazza are sponsors of Liverpool FC. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Mar 21 - 04:11 PM

I thought the same about instant coffee until I discovered Lavazza instant. Not as good as proper stuff but passable. Although I do need to add milk or cream which I don't do with proper coffee.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Mar 21 - 09:56 AM

I had a road to Damascus moment outside a cafe near Venice after I'd asked for a cup of tea. Out came a little teacup three-quarters full of rapidly cooling water, a teabag in a packet and a little jug of milk. It was not possible to obtain the required beverage from that lot. Up to that point I'd always thought that I hated coffee. But after that incident we tried coffee Italian-style and we've never looked back. We now have a bean-to-cup coffee machine. I still won't touch instant coffee, the very vomit of the Devil.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 03:43 PM

Spot on, BWM

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 03:36 PM

The teabag has to be out before the milk goes in though, Dave. Makes me feel nauseated when I see people milking it with the bag still in. Revolting!

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 02:50 PM

Well, if you are making it with a teabag in the cup you have to put the milk in last anyway. If you pour milk on a teabag then put the boiling water in it can never get to the right temperature to brew the tea!

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 07:45 AM

The official reasons for having a census are complete bollocks. Findings will not be acted on. Take the guff about housing, for example. Round here, planning for new housing has nothing to do with local need indicated by any census (massive new estates with no regard for the increased burden on local infrastructure - don't get me started...). The planning round here is far more likely to be predicated on baksheesh and on making a few landowners, especially those chummy with the local councillors, as rich as Croesus. "Planning services" has meant ruthlessly running them down for at least the last ten years. Council funding slashed, numbers of doctors and nurses slashed, schools crumbling to the ground, GP services shite... We seem to be having a census for no better reason than that we always have a census. So I'm with Dick on this. Bloody waste of money. I suppose we'll be spending a few more tens of millions chasing up people who haven't done it or who have done it wrong, and even after all that you won't find any better information than is already available at a hundredth of the cost, as if we were going to use it anyway, which we won't be. Still, it keeps an army of people temporarily busy, I suppose...

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 07:33 AM

It is impossible to estimate the cost of the current census based on previous ones. This is the first to be conducted mainly online, reducing the need for census officers to visit properties. I would expect (but don't guarantee) that this one will prove less expensive.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Megan L
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 07:25 AM

Not in Scotland our census is next year

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: The Sandman
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 07:09 AM

The total cost of the 2011 Census in England and Wales over the period from 2004/05 to 2015/16 is estimated to be £482 million. This is more than twice the £210m spent on the 2001 census. so we are in a middle of a pandemic[apparently according to the establishment]
so why are these inefficent politicians wasting this money , why not postpone the census for 2 years and spend the money on better wages for nurses and doctors more vaccines better designed virus hospitals, feckin inept idiotic politicians

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: JHW
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 07:03 AM

Nother reason not to have a smartphone.
Realised at breakfast that milk often goes in second. Had to open another bottle. Glass, delivered by the milkman.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: The Sandman
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 07:01 AM

so we are all tracked anyway if we have a smart phone, since The 2001 Census cost approximately £255 million for the UK, what does the 2021 census cost , a waste of money imo

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: The Sandman
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 06:57 AM

since they can track where people are by their smart phones, it seems to bebelonging or appropriate to an earlier period, especially so as to seem conspicuously old-fashioned

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Senoufou
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 06:29 AM

One of the silliest questions in the Census is in two parts:-
What job do you do? (Husband "School Cleaner")
Describe what this job involves. (Husband "Eh?")
He was tempted to reply "Robbing banks then cleaning their toilets".
Your ethnicity? He was tempted to answer "Senoufo" but thought they might not have heard of this tribe.
It must be tempting for people to answer facetiously to these daft questions, but I suppose they'd risk a fine.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 07:04 PM

Tea is theft??? Surely only Proudhon Tea!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 03:27 PM

Ah, sorry about that misreading, Bonzo.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 03:23 PM

Ah, sorry about that, Bonzo.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 03:22 PM

I only drink it at a weekend, Steve. The rest of the week it’s a bag-in-the-mug dunker.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 03:09 PM

We lefties don't drink proper tea. We believe that proper tea is theft.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 02:10 PM

“Yes it can. Pour some out and put more black tea in :-D”

But only if it’s ‘proper’ tea made in a tea-pot. If it’s a quick bag-in-a-cup jobbie you don’t have any black tea in reserve! ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 02:05 PM

The best salads I ever had were in Argentina - no weeds or rocket to be seen!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: DMcG
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 01:50 PM

How come you didn't know it was going to come with a rocket salad? Here in Cornwall we have things called "menus."

You would be surprised how often such things are not mentioned on menus. Many a time I have looked at a sandwich menu, selected the only thing on it without salad listed and guess what the sandwich includes?

(While salads are fine, I don't think they suit everything.)

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 12:57 PM

Yes it can. Pour some out and put more black tea in :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 12:41 PM

It is absolutely essential that the milk goes in tea last. If you put the milk in first, you don’t know if you’ve over-milked the tea until it’s too late - milked tea can’t be un-milked.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: JHW
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 11:49 AM

At a (Barnard Castle) Museum Freinds tea we were discussing scones. I proposed that the best were at the Edinburgh Modern Art place, the across the road one. Amazingly I got agreement.
I make tea in a pot, don't have sugar but milk first or after is not a decision. Might be either way

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Mr Red
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 11:30 AM

DMcG - Shouldn't 1881 be 1801?

From my days of family research I seem to remember 1881 was the first real census, but I do remember cencii (?) from about 1851 in the towns I visited (before computers), basically people lists. I did find "Burgher's Lists" which may have been the equivalent of the Electoral Register.

But mostly it depended on the quality of the reference library as to what you got. Never saw an 1801 census.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Rain Dog
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 11:16 AM

Steve asked Bonzo 'How come you didn't know it was going to come with a rocket salad?'

Yeah, how come? It's hardly rocket science is it?

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Raggytash
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 11:07 AM

Steve, if you read Bonzo post again he does make it clear that he knew the salad was part of the meal and asked for potatoes instead.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 11:04 AM

How come you didn't know it was going to come with a rocket salad? Here in Cornwall we have things called "menus."

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Raggytash
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 10:27 AM

Can't fault you there Bonzo, even though I quite like Rocket.

Furthermore I would have told the owner that I didn't expect to pay for the Rocket.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 09:17 AM

I remember meeting friends for lunch at The Waterside "Bistro" in Totnes, South Devon. The meat dish I wanted "came with" hideous rocket salad. I asked if I could have boiled potatoes instead of the salad - the young thing of a waitress gave me the "it comes with" nonsense. So I ordered a side dish of boiled potatoes, and when it arrived I exchanged the rocket for the potatoes on my plate, and shoved the bowl of rock in her hand and told her to take it away.

The owner eventually came to our table and asked if there was problem, to which I replied "I DO NOT WANT YOUR HIDEOUS ROCKET" - everyone applauded!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Jos
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 09:09 AM

Back to the census form.

Why all those details about work? They don't need the name and address of your employer or your previous employer for their statistics. Is this to be cross-checked by the tax officials? The distance travelled to work would be sufficient.
And asking whether the unemployed were actively looking for work the previous week sounds more like the details required by the benefits office, who seem to look for any excuse not to pay up.

Yes, I'm paranoid.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 08:20 AM

We always go for a cream tea on my birthday to a place called Trelawney at Widemouth Bay, where you can sit out front weather permitting. It's very close to the Bay View Inn, Raggytash. Every end-of-season, the lady who runs it, Vicky, says she's not opening next year. Every winter when we bump into her in town we twist her arm, and it's worked for many years. Who knows what'll happen this year! She serves up the cream teas exactly as prescribed. My friend's missus always asks for marmalade instead of jam, which is of course a perfectly disgusting request. I have to avert my eyes...

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 08:13 AM

Cheese scones are indeed a thing of beauty, but not with a cream tea.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 08:10 AM

Butter my arse (perhaps later...). Try asking for that round here and you'll be laughed all the way back to England!

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 07:57 AM

Murpholly, I believe we did receive a letter with the code but we couldn't find it on Sunday.

Getting a new code from the government web site sent via a text message was a simple process.

As for scones, I prefer home made cheese ones.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Raggytash
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 07:52 AM

Where is the lashing of butter in that Steve. I've GOT to have butter on mine I don't care what any celt (I think that's the correct spelling) say!

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 07:06 AM

There is only one correct way with cream teas. The still-warm scone (which should have no bloody sultanas in it) is split in two. The jam goes on, then the clotted cream. I'll brook no variation on this theme. That's the Cornish way and the only way. Just over the border in England I understand that the great unwashed Devonians have been known to get the jam and cream the wrong way round, rendering the dish completely inedible (except in emergencies). The jam may be strawberry or raspberry. The tea must be served in a pot, preferably with a dainty floral design, and consumed from proper matching china cups and saucers. And none of that bloody Earl Grey nonsense, thank you.

And if you're not getting it all down your chin you're not doing it right.

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 06:55 AM

Agree with all of that, Jos,

The jam should never be runnier than the cream so, of course, goes on first.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Census day
From: Jos
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 06:38 AM

If the jam is runnier than the cream, the jam goes on top.
If the cream is softer than the jam, the cream goes on top.
Make life easier for yourself.

I make tea in a pot. I put milk in the cup before the tea because it mixes better, so no need to stir (no sugar for me).
The idea of a teabag floating in milky liquid in a mug is so revolting I prefer not to think about it. So if I am somewhere without a teapot or a suitable jug it is certainly milk in last, AFTER removing the teabag.