More than three years ago I expressed some concern here that a US arms manufacturer was about to be selected to run the 2011 UK census. Despite the campaign I reported on, Lockheed Martin was indeed selected for the contract.

I should clarify that the Lockheed Martin contract was never for the whole census, but only for data processing and storage. Assurances have been given that this foreign company will not have access to personal data. The British company Capita has been contracted to recruit and train the 35,000 staff who are collecting the data.

Census day is now nearly upon us (Sunday 27th March, in case anyone has forgotten), and the census forms have been distributed – and there is a convenient option to fill in the census forms online. And I had almost forgotten this controversy until I saw a report at the BBC website that a Coventry “peace worker” has burnt her census form

in protest at a weapons firm helping to run the Office for National Statistics’s (ONS) census. … She faces a fine for failing to return her census form and said she was prepared to go to prison for the sake of her conscience.

So how widespread is this boycott campaign? Wikipedia reports that the Christian thinktank Ekklesia has called for a boycott, but there is nothing at their website to suggest this – only an article reporting that the Green Party has decided against a boycott. Wikipedia also names Stop the War Coalition as calling for a boycott, but the article on their website this month, while urging rather too late that Lockheed Martin’s contract be cancelled, falls short of a call for a boycott. Time to edit the Wikipedia article, I think.

So it seems that there are no organised groups calling for a boycott of the census. It rather looks as if Ms Walker of Coventry will be one of a small band of individuals who refuse to fill in their forms because of the Lockheed Martin connection – probably far fewer than refuse simply to be difficult.

And that is for the best. Although I do not support Lockheed Martin’s arms trade activities, I agree with the Green Party’s position as quoted by Ekklesia, that “the census is extremely important and needs to be accurate”. So, whatever our reservations, let’s all do our duty to our country by filling in our forms, accurately and on time.