Some Britons want to return to Imperial measurement units

[lpetrich]

Britain Signals Intent to Revert to the Imperial System - The New York Times

The British government said it was taking steps to return to its traditional system of imperial weights and measures, allowing shops and market stalls to sell fruits and vegetables labeled in pounds and ounces alone, rather than in the metric system’s grams and kilograms, a move it hailed as an example of the country’s new post-Brexit freedoms.

The plans, which David Frost, the minister overseeing Brexit, announced on Thursday, were cheered by Brexit supporters, many of whom had argued that the switch to the metric system over the decades was a sign of unwelcome European Union interference in daily life in Britain.

While the European Union currently requires members to use the metric system alone, it had allowed Britain, when it was a member, to label its produce in imperial units alongside metric units. There were also exceptions for traffic signs and beer.

Shops In The U.K. Could Ditch The Metric System Under A New Proposal : NPR

Down at the local pub, die-hard Brexiters will be raising a pint to news that the United Kingdom is eyeing the end of a European Union-inspired ban on selling products in only pounds and ounces. But many others view the move away from the world-standard metric system as pure rubbish.

...
Under the plan, it would be legal for market stalls, shops and supermarkets to sell their goods using only imperial measurements, with no requirement that metric equivalents be included.

...
"By 1999, fishmongers, grocers, butchers and supermarkets were required to start selling goods in metric. Imperial units could be listed as well, so long as they weren't more prominent than their metric equivalents," according to Wales Online.

Still, the ordinary Briton's life is peppered with plenty of imperial units — a fact that has prompted some on Twitter to suggest the proposed change is much ado about nothing: "Imperial measurements have never really gone away. I still buy my milk and beer in pints. Distance is still measured in miles and speed in miles per hour. And how do you ask for timber? - '5 metres of 4x2 please' Oh, and it's not really hot until it's 80 degrees."

 

[lpetrich]

•  Metrication
•  Metrication in the United Kingdom
•  Metrication in the United States
• Metrication Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) | NIST
• Metrication in other countries – US Metric Association

Britain started conversion to metric units in 1965, but some years later, that effort stalled.

The US started that in 1975, and that effort also soon stalled.

 

[lpetrich]

OPINION: Does the Government really want to bring back imperial measurements? | Warrington Guardian

SO, the government wants to bring back imperial measurements – pounds and ounces, feet and inches but hopefully not pounds shillings and pence. Really? Does the government really want to do this? Welcome to the world of ‘dead cat’ politics.

...
The idea is that when you find yourself in a particularly difficult political position, you throw a metaphorical dead cat on the dining room table.

Johnson is reported to have said of the tactic: “People will be outraged, alarmed, disgusted. That is true, but irrelevant. The key point is that everyone will shout, ‘Jeez, mate, there’s a dead cat on the table!’. In other words, they will be talking about the dead cat – the thing you want them to talk about – and they will not be talking about the issue that has been causing you so much grief.”

Sort of like "Wag the Dog", a movie about a US President who orders a military adventure to distract from troubles at home.

So step forward imperial weights and measures. Forget the 30,000 new Covid cases a day. Forget the 135,000 and rising Covid deaths. Forget the shortage of lorry drivers and disruption to the national supply chain. Forget the shortage of seasonal workers meaning crops are rotting in the fields.

Forget the devastation to the fishing industry, the border in the Irish sea or the fact the Tories are so short of political talent that Nadine Dorries is now the culture secretary.

So it's culture warring more than anything else.

 

[lpetrich]

Metrified – or Petrified? The Return of Imperial Measures is the Ghost of a Dead Cat – Byline Times
"Though it stands no chance of return, trading standards officer Pippa Musgrave explains why the nostalgia for imperial measures is a deflection from the problems of Brexit"

As a qualified Weights and Measures Inspector, I was closely involved with the final acts of metrication in 1999 and the subsequent ‘metric martyr’ court cases, and believed that the re-introduction of imperial units – a policy even Nigel Farage disowned as “drivel” in 2011 – had been consigned to the dustbin of history. Why?

Firstly, there is the cost of such a reintroduction. ...

And it isn’t just the cost to the enforcement community. There is a significant cost to the industry. ...

Then there is the need to re-educate the population as to how to use the imperial system. ...

Then there is the confusion of operating two systems simultaneously. ...

PM Boris Johnson wants to make the UK a world power again, much like what it was in the 19th and early 20th cys. "Global Britain" he calls it. But as Pippa Musgrave says, bringing back Imperial units is an isolationist move.

Johnson’s announcement was an attempt at deflection; a ‘dead cat’ thrown on the table to deflect from a record rise in inflation and continuing supply chain issues. However, he should remember that dead cats only bounce once. The fetid corpse of this particular feline has long since rotted.

For 25 years, Pippa Musgrave was a Trading Standards professional. She is a qualified Inspector of Weights and Measures, a qualified Food Standards Inspector and a Trading Standards Officer, and a full member of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute

 

[barbos]

You did not know Great Britain has solved all the world problems? this is all that's remaining.

 

[Keith&Co.]

The British government said it was taking steps to return to its traditional system of imperial weights and measures, ..., a move it hailed as an example of the country’s new post-Brexit freedoms..

I checked three times to see if Jimmy Higgins wrote this post.

Once to see if it was April 1st.

::sigh::

Once, when France wouldn't let us fly through French airspace to bomb Tripoli, our Congress 'retaliated' by renaming an item on the Congressional Cafeteria Menus (three cafeterias). "French Fries" became "Freedom Fries." They still sold French wines for diners, so not that much of a retaliation.

Soon after this, a local radio station announced that new legislation was outlawing all towns named with '-ville.' They left it up to locals, Gainesville could vote to become Gainestown, Gaineston, or use some other traditional suffix. The deadline for this change was July 4th, with all road signs and letterheads to be changed by the end of the year.

None of the TERRIBLY Irate people that called in noticed it was April 1st...
Well, maybe one. A guy suggested changing it from the French 'ville' to the Italian 'villa.' HE might have been hip to the joke...

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

You did not know Great Britain has solved all the world problems? this is all that's remaining.

Well this would solve the erectile dysfunction problem nationalists are suffering in Britain. With this change, it'll finally return England to the glory days of umm... when 36 inches equaling a yard was superior to 100 cm equaling a meter.

 

[Shadowy Man]

Thank god! Brexit was all worth it now, right?

 

[TomC]

I never understood what happened here in the U.S.

We were a forward thinking people. Eager to adopt such new and improved methods that increased efficiency. We've got a metric money system, why not weights and measures? I really don't understand that. The advantages to simple, intuitive, global system are so obvious.
Tom

ETA ~Well really I kinda do. Americans aren't as progressive as we like to think we are.~

 

[ideologyhunter]

Progressive? As in, one nation under god, in god we trust, guns guns 'n' yet more guns, Bible Bible Bible, Confederate flags, Toby Keith, Pat Robertson, the state of Mississippi, Mitch McConnell, MAGA, the state of Florida, the state of Texas, stop the steal, Cyber Ninjas, Proud Boys, the "beautiful" people of Jan. 6, oh, and guns?

 

[James Brown]

I never understood what happened here in the U.S.

We were a forward thinking people. Eager to adopt such new and improved methods that increased efficiency. We've got a metric money system, why not weights and measures? I really don't understand that. The advantages to simple, intuitive, global system are so obvious.
Tom

ETA ~Well really I kinda do. Americans aren't as progressive as we like to think we are.~

True. We managed to convert our soda bottles to liter measurements without causing the collapse of American democracy, but we can't do the same for milk and orange juice.

 

[Keith&Co.]

I never understood what happened here in the U.S.

We were a forward thinking people. Eager to adopt such new and improved methods that increased efficiency. We've got a metric money system, why not weights and measures? I really don't understand that. The advantages to simple, intuitive, global system are so obvious.
Tom

ETA ~Well really I kinda do. Americans aren't as progressive as we like to think we are.~

True. We managed to convert our soda bottles to liter measurements without causing the collapse of American democracy, but we can't do the same for milk and orange juice.

This IS the country where the consumers think that a 1/3rd-pound hamburger is smaller than a 1/4th-pound burger. If they go to IHOP and they options are 150 milliliters of orange juice or 500 ml of milk, they're going to need visual aids.

 

[laughing dog]

Any idiot can master the metric system - one only has to move a decimal point around. It takes real brains to master the Imperial system. Why do you think America leads the world in innovation?