EU gives up trying to confuse British children.

[Dartzap]

Beeb.

EU gives up on 'metric Britain'
European Union commissioners have ruled that Britain can carry on using imperial measurements such as pints, pounds and miles.

Europe's Industry Commissioner Gunter Verheugenas said: "There is not now and never will be any requirement to drop imperial measurements."

The decision will not affect current law on metric measurements, but means imperial equivalents can be used too.

It follows years of wrangling between London and Brussels over metrication.

Pint saved

The commission has kept extending the deadline for the UK to complete the full transition to the metric system, with the most recent deadline being 2010.

This would have meant setting a deadline for ending the traditional delivery of pints of milk - and the sale of pints of beer in the UK's pubs.

Every one of the UK's road signs would have had to be changed from miles to kilometres - a move which opponents warned would be both expensive and confusing.

But it was the move, begun in 2000, to make the UK's market traders sell their produce in kilograms rather than pounds and ounces which caused outrage among traditionalists.

Sunderland grocer Steve Thoburn inspired the "metric martyr" movement with his defiance of the order to abandon the imperial measurements.

In 2001, he was convicted for having weighing scales which had only imperial measurements.

He died unexpectedly from a heart attack three years ago and, while the campaign he founded failed to win traders the right to ignore metric weights altogether, it has brought some results

'No problem'

Under the plans which have now been scrapped, even displaying the price of fruit and vegetables in pounds and ounces would have become grounds for a criminal prosecution.

Mr Verheugen's role includes trying to improve the EU's reputation in member states - and in an interview with the BBC, he admitted the EU had been making itself unpopular on an issue that did not really matter.

"I organised a huge consultation, and the result was that industry told us there was no problem with the existing system.

"I want to bring to an end a bitter, bitter battle that has lasted for decades and which in my view is completely pointless. We're bringing this battle to an end."

'Extremely misleading'

However, campaigners on both sides of the debate have played down the significance of the announcement.

John Gardner, director of the pro-imperial British Weights and Measures Association, said: "I've seen the European Commission statement and what they're saying is it will be allowed to use imperial measurements as additional information.

"We think that the European Commission statement is extremely misleading. From our point of view the situation hasn't changed and the campaign goes on.

"If a trader tries to conduct his business in just imperial measurements that will be illegal."

'Business as usual'

The UK Metric Association said the statement does not mean that traders can go back to weighing and pricing in imperial measures, and it will be "business as usual".



Chairman Robin Paice said: "While we regret this proposal to prolong the current muddle of metric and imperial units, it will only delay but not stop the inevitable move toward all-metric shopping.

"Many of the big supermarkets have already stopped giving obsolete imperial prices, and we expect this trend to continue. There is no question of going backwards."

Science and Innovation Minister Ian Pearson said he welcomed the commission's proposal.

"This shows that the commission has listened to our views and recognised the strong arguments that we've made for maintaining dual metric and imperial labelling and the right for the UK to decide on the future use of pints and miles," he said.

"We know how important this is to the British people and are grateful for the commission's support for this use to continue."

The UK first mooted plans to convert to an all-metric system in 1965.

That led to generations of schoolchildren being promised that they would be the last ones who would have to learn two different systems.

You mean all those years of failing miserebly to understand two systems was a waste of bloody time?! ARGHHHH!! My poor brain cant deal with Imperimetrics. It just can't.....

[Masami von Weizegger]

Damn British stubbornness and, really, insecurity. Oh noes, if we lose the imperial system, we'll be ruled by Brussels B-Eurocrats! The imperial system worked great when horses were the main mode of transport and barter was the only way to get your goods. It's the 21st century now (and before that it was the 20th), Britain needs to shape up.

[Ma Deuce]

Wait. Somehow I was under the impression that Britain had converted to metric years ago: Tell me, are your road speeds measured in miles or kilometers per hour?

[CJvR]

Groan!

Still I suppose one have to be grateful that they at least have stopped using roman numerials.

[Bounty]

Wait. Somehow I was under the impression that Britain had converted to metric years ago: Tell me, are your road speeds measured in miles or kilometers per hour?

They use MPH. Everything else's in metric, though the airports used kilogram.

[TheDarkling]

Wait. Somehow I was under the impression that Britain had converted to metric years ago: Tell me, are your road speeds measured in miles or kilometers per hour?

Miles.

It seems most British people use a mixture, metric for small stuff (so many mm screw, a margin x amount of cm in length, a kg bag of sugar, so many litres of petrol) and imperial for larger stuff (height in feet, weight in stones, distance in miles etc)

[tim31]

That noise about beer pints is rubbish. We still order beer by the pint here(or 10oz, if you're soft).

[Dartzap]

Wait. Somehow I was under the impression that Britain had converted to metric years ago: Tell me, are your road speeds measured in miles or kilometers per hour?

Miles.

It seems most British people use a mixture, metric for small stuff (so many mm screw, a margin x amount of cm in length, a kg bag of sugar, so many litres of petrol) and imperial for larger stuff (height in feet, weight in stones, distance in miles etc)

Indeed. T'was the maths teachers bane trying to teach both.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I find it hilarious that the metric system, which was thought up by a Brit long before the French, is now the de facto manifestation of Eurofascism stamping out the good ol' British way of life.

[Dartzap]

It's such a stupid thing to moan about. But we do it so well, arguing about the smallest things.

Lets not, you know, moan about the welfare benefits system starting to fail miserebly whilst all the rich fuckers run around scottfree of anything resembling proper taxation.

[Starglider]

British children are taught the metric system and have been since the early 80s (I know this since I was a small child in Britain in the early 80s... and was taught the metric system exclusively). It's the British adults trying to confuse the children, not the Eurocrats. Though frankly given the high cost and marginal-to-zero benefits of changing all the road signs, I agree that we shouldn't bother. Most of the problem here is the government actually tried to make using imperial units /illegal/, which is fucking stupid. They'll die out on their own, the government just needs to encourage, not coerce. But of course the idiots in Brussels show their typical total isolation from the population they're supposed to serve and reality in general.

The one good thing about the imperial system staying around is that the UK can actually understand the US (except where the US use even sillier units of their own) easier than the rest of Europe can (as is the case in general of course).

[Admiral Valdemar]

The one good thing about the imperial system staying around is that the UK can actually understand the US (except where the US use even sillier units of their own) easier than the rest of Europe can (as is the case in general of course).

Heck naw, brutha! Ain't nobody 'stand those Yankee doodle dandys. They use some wacky shit, yo.

[Dartzap]

The one good thing about the imperial system staying around is that the UK can actually understand the US (except where the US use even sillier units of their own) easier than the rest of Europe can (as is the case in general of course).

Heck naw, brutha! Ain't nobody 'stand those Yankee doodle dandys. They use some wacky shit, yo.

Your meant to try the new drugs on the animals Vald, not yourself...

I think the reason behind the duel teaching of the two systems was due to "This is what you need for your exams, on the other hand, in the land known as reality, we have this system, which is even more confusing, and no one else uses. Hooray!"

[Sea Skimmer]

I can understand both systems just fine, and I don’t even fucking need to since I live in America, land of firearm defended primeval measurement. It’s really just not hard at all, especially in an era when most people have cell phones and every remotely recent cell phone has a calculator.

[NecronLord]

I was never confused. I just didn't learn Imperial (hell, I still couldn't tell you offhand how many ounces in a pound) measures at all. Pint, mile, inches, feet, pounds and stone (maybe) is about all you need in the UK these days. For anything else, I use metric.

[Admiral Valdemar]

The British public shows what fucktards they are for the most part.

[TithonusSyndrome]

Ironic that metric caught on over here in the colonies and not where it was invented, but this site has done quite a bit to open my eyes about the attitudes and aptitudes of average Britons.

[Netko]

Wait. Somehow I was under the impression that Britain had converted to metric years ago: Tell me, are your road speeds measured in miles or kilometers per hour?

They use MPH. Everything else's in metric, though the airports used kilogram.

Ironically, kilogram is a unit of the SI (metric) system.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I work in aerospace engineering, where both systems are adopted to useful effect.

The simplicity of the metric system is often used as a virtue for promoting it, but to be honest if you can't handle the simple mathematics of using imperial units in your head then you probably shouldn't be trusted with measuring anything anyway.

Besides, the true international system of measurment is based around S.I. units. Imperial and metric are just local systems employed by regions. To insist on the use of either is akin forcing everyone to speak the same language.

I had no idea, until now, that Liberals were so intolerant of other peoples' way of life.

Tiger Tiger, England, United Kingdom

Anyone want to tell me why I doubt he's an aerospace engineer or at least am now worried about UK aeroplanes now?

[Geodd]

I work in aerospace engineering, where both systems are adopted to useful effect.

The simplicity of the metric system is often used as a virtue for promoting it, but to be honest if you can't handle the simple mathematics of using imperial units in your head then you probably shouldn't be trusted with measuring anything anyway.

Besides, the true international system of measurment is based around S.I. units. Imperial and metric are just local systems employed by regions. To insist on the use of either is akin forcing everyone to speak the same language.

I had no idea, until now, that Liberals were so intolerant of other peoples' way of life.

Tiger Tiger, England, United Kingdom

*blinks*

Meters and kilograms and so on aren't SI units any more?

Why doesn't people tell me these things?!

[FSTargetDrone]

Anyone want to tell me why I doubt he's an aerospace engineer or at least am now worried about UK aeroplanes now?

Perhaps you are thinking of the mix-up of metric and Imperial units that resulted in the loss of a spacecraft back in 1999:

NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because a Lockheed Martin engineering team used English units of measurement while the agency's team used the more conventional metric system for a key spacecraft operation, according to a review finding released Thursday.

The units mismatch prevented navigation information from transferring between the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft team in at Lockheed Martin in Denver and the flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

...

The navigation mishap killed the mission on a day when engineers had expected to celebrate the craft's entry into Mars' orbit.

After a 286-day journey, the probe fired its engine on September 23 to push itself into orbit.

The engine fired but the spacecraft came within 60 km (36 miles) of the planet -- about 100 km closer than planned and about 25 km (15 miles) beneath the level at which the it could function properly, mission members said.

Metric is better. I'm in the US and the idea that we still use units of measure which are arbitrarily named as you go from miles to yards to feet to inches, instead of kilometers, meters and centimeters is stupefyingly absurd. 12 inches to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, 5280 feet in a mile? What the hell is that about? And don't get me started about grams, cups, pints, gallons, bushels and whatever the hell else there is in this inconsistent system of naming units and values per unit.

Metric is so much easier to use and remember. And it's not as if we don't already use some metric in the US. We have liters of soda, but gallons of milk? Eh, wot?

Metric should be the law of the land throughout the world in totality and scope and were I the Supreme Leader of All I would mandate its use in perpetuity throughout the universe.

I know how to get the US civilian world to use it... The milliary uses metric, right? Promote patriotism! Be like the military, use metric! Perhaps you British could do something similar.

[montypython]

Damn British stubbornness and, really, insecurity. Oh noes, if we lose the imperial system, we'll be ruled by Brussels B-Eurocrats! The imperial system worked great when horses were the main mode of transport and barter was the only way to get your goods. It's the 21st century now (and before that it was the 20th), Britain needs to shape up.

Seems Brits are more like Yanks than I had originally thought.

[FSTargetDrone]

And before someone calls me on the use of "gram" above, I accidentally left in there when I was going needlessly remind the board of how mass and liquid are measured in metric.

[Molyneux]

You know what? Non-S.I. units suck. Anytime I try to measure something, I have to remember bizarre conversions (how many feet in a mile?), set at completely counterintuitive intervals.

What's even worse is that I wasn't taught SI'til years after I had learned the Imperial system, so my brain still thinks in miles rather than meters.

[FSTargetDrone]

You know what? Non-S.I. units suck.

Quick, someone sig this!