Census Day

Today is Census Day. The purpose of the census is to provide a snapshot of how Britain lives and works, and to measure how the population has moved and changed since the last census in 2001.

The reason why the census is completed on one day is to avoid counting people multiple times, or not at all. Inevitably there will be people who are not recorded, either by successful evasion or by no fault of their own, but usually the information is 99% accurate.

The completion of the census is required by law, but for the first time you can complete the questions online (which is how I filled mine out) making the process much simpler for both the respondents and those processing the information.

So remember to fill it in and send it back. You might well get a knock on the door to remind you otherwise!

JR

Compare and Contrast

Today the TUC organised a demonstration in central London called March for the Alternative. It was a protest against the government's programme of cuts and mainly passed off peacefully. There was, however, a significant number of people who caused criminal damage, especially on and around Piccadilly.

It was interesting to see that while both Sky News and the BBC covered the live pictures in much the same way, their respective websites take two very different views on proceedings.

Firstly, here's Sky News;

and now here's the BBC;

Neither are reporting the story fully in their headlines, but is there any bias? I'll leave that decision up to you!

JR

Spring Forward

Don't forget to put your clocks forward one hour before you go to bed. British Summer Time starts at 01:00 GMT, when the time will immediately become 02:00 BST.

Unfortunately this will mean we lose an hour in bed, but at least the evenings will be lighter for longer.

JR

NUS Block Candidates 2011

All right, I've caved in to the overwhelming number of you who are searching for NUS block candidates on google and other search engines, and finding themselves looking at last year's list on my blog.

Since I have no wish to make this year's list of candidates hard to find, here they are; all 28 of them ...

Mark Bergfeld - National Executive Council
Nes Cazimoglu - University of Reading
Michael Chessum - University College London
Chris Clark - Buckinghamshire University
Lauren Crowley - University of Kent
Daniel Cooper - Royal Holloway, University of London
Matthew East - Anglia Ruskin University
Lee Gavin - University of the Creative Arts
Charlotte Gerada - London School of Ecoonomics
Ruby Hirsch - Hackney Community College
Taylor Kane - Mid Kent College
Aaron Kiely - NUS Black Students’ Committee
Joshua McKenzie - Harrow College Students’ Union
Joe Oliver - University of Sheffield
Surya Prakash Bhatta - Edinburgh Telford College
Ian Pattison - Leeds University
Mary Prescott - Coleg Gwent
Liam Preston - National Executive Council
David Radford - Leeds City College
Zahid Raja - NUS Wales/UCM Cymru National Executive Committee
Sophie Richardson - Queen Mary University of London
Joshua Rowlands - Canterbury Christchurch
Rahul Sahni - Greenwich University
Mo Saqib - University of Manchester
Daniel Stevens - Warwick University
Rachel Wenstone - Leeds University & National Executive Council
Lori Wheatman - Teeside University
Stevie Wise - Edinburgh University

A quick count up sees 5 Further Education candidates (who are eligible for the 5 FE reserved places) leaving 22 other candidates going for the 10 remaining open positions (assuming none of the FE candidates get RONed, which I'm pretty sure they won't).

You can view the manifesto booklet here, and you can also see the list of full time candidates.

JR

Bank of England Hold Interest Rates at 0.5%

Interest rates have been at a record low for two years with today's decision by the Bank of England to hold them at 0.5%. The decision of the bank's Monetary Policy Committee was carried by 6 votes to 3 (who were in favour of a rise of a quarter of one percent, to 0.75%). That margin is the closest since the rate was dropped to its current level in March 2009.

The MPC members that voted for a rise were concerned that the rate of inflation doesn't look to be falling from its current level of around 4% to the bank's target level of 2%; but others believed that raising rates now would lead to the economy falling back into recession in the current quarter, after a shock contraction of 0.6% in the final three months of 2010.

The decision means that rates will likely remain where they are next month too, as there are no economic reports due until after the committee meet in April, but estimates of the changes in GDP (economic output) and in the CPI (inflation) will be available before the meeting set for 5 May.

Ring 5 May in your diary!

JR