A Word To The Wise

I tend to run through my blogroll alphabetically on my aggregator of a morning. So I pick up Brian's Brief Encounters - an unofficial Metropolitan Police fanzine, brought to you from a small corner of the throbbing metropolis - shortly after Another Constable, life through the eyes of a brand new british bobby.

I've blogged about Another Constable's post on case files already this morning so it was interesting to read this piece in Brian's Brief Encounters as I think it explains why the Home Office change the MG Forms every year. It is because they are always collecting different statistics.

When he says ...

Yes, I realise that you may consider yourself to be British but not ‘white’. Like I said, this isn’t one of our questions and you’re only allowed to describe yourself as British if you also describe yourself as ‘white’ because the Home Office says so. Even if your ancestors have been in Britain for multiple generations or you’ve passed the citizenship test.

... he's talking about a taxonomy called '16 Point Self-Determined Ethnic Classification System'. He's right as well. I'd never thought of it that way before.

Here it is in all its glory.

White
British
Irish
Any other White background
Mixed
White and Black Caribbean
White and Black African
White and Asian
Any other mixed background
Asian or Asian British
Indian
Pakistani
Bangladeshi
Any other Asian background
Black or Black British
Caribbean
African
Any other Black background
Chinese or other ethnic group
Chinese
Any other ethnic group