How to be Cornish
I'm grateful to for drawing my attention to which advises us how to fill in the 2011 census form. But spare a thought for those poor souls from the who have to juggle a huge number of competing claims for "tick-box" self-identification as ethnic groups, including Welsh, English and several Asian or Arab sub groups. Indeed, for those who want to be really picky about which group they think they belong to, I suggest this devised to help police monitor and interpret their arrest statistics. If you were devising a census form, which ethnic groups would you deny a tick-box, and why?
I'm ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Devon’s Graham Smith, blogging on news, views and some fresh insights into West Country life, particularly the way government works locally and nationally.
Comment number 1.
At 23rd Feb 2011, TheCornishRep wrote:Good question Graham and there are infinite combinations of ethnic identity. Personally I'm 100% happy with someone calling themselves a black Cornish Muslim for example if that's what they feel best describes their identity. There are always going to be problems of which groups to include, to give tick boxes to. Somewhere this is a political decision.
However if you are going to ask about national identity and allow people to define as English, Welsh, Scottish or Irish then it is only fair to allow Cornish as an option as well. Even though Cornwall does not have the same official national recognition as Scotland, Wales and England (ignoring our Duchy constitutional status for the moment) it cannot be denied that an alternative and longstanding national identity -Cornish- does also exist. Is it the job of the census to record only government sanctioned national identities or ALL naturally occurring national identities?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)
Comment number 2.
At 24th Feb 2011, Graham Smith wrote:Let's be clear - national identities, or ethnic groups? I don't think they are the same thing. The census form does appear to have tick boxes for separate English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish and British national identities, but not for ethnicity. If I remember correctly, in 2001, the 390,000 who wrote "Jedi" did so in a box reserved for "ethnicity and religion."
Complain about this comment (Comment number 2)
Comment number 3.
At 24th Feb 2011, backofanenvelope wrote:There should just be one question. Do you hold, or are you entitled to hold, a British passport. Given your place of birth and surname, a computer programme could then extrapolate what ethnic/national group you were in. The programme could also look at surnames and estimate what religious group you were in. All these questions are designed to slot us into groups as desired by the people in power. I just wish they would mind their own business.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 3)