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Original poster

So it turns out most people prefer Metric measurements after all. And they will stay

115 replies

cakeorwine · 27/12/2023 07:05

Metric measurement rules to stay after Brexit review - BBC News

The rules were initially copied over after Brexit, but Boris Johnson's government subsequently announced they would be reviewed as part of a plans to "capitalise on the benefits of Brexit".
The then-prime minister pledged to change the rules ahead of the 2019 election, calling imperial measurements an "ancient liberty" and adding he saw "no reason why people should be prosecuted" for using them.
But the government has now said it will not change the rules, after 98.7% of respondents to a consultation favoured using metric as the main measurement unit for sales, as now, or as the only unit.

We will however be able to buy wine in pint sized bottles so I guess that will be the headline elsewhere.

Pints of wine will soon hit Britain's shelves in post-Brexit win | Politics | News | Express.co.uk

I am glad that metric is going to stay as the main measurement.

Woman buying vegetables at a market

Metric measurement rules to stay after Brexit review

But the government has announced it will move away from EU-era rules on wine bottle sizes in shops.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67795075

OP posts:
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5
daffodilandtulip · 27/12/2023 09:24

I see myself in feet and stone but when measuring a floor or a table I like to use metric!

BitOutOfPractice · 27/12/2023 09:29

Clawdy · 27/12/2023 07:43

I always say pint of milk, walking two miles, baby weighs seven pounds, someone is six feet tall.....just me?

That’s what keeping the status quo means. We will keep on saying pints and stones etc colloquially but the official way things are measured will be in metric. Which is what 81% of people voted for.

TurquoiseSeasAndSilverSand · 27/12/2023 09:54

HeraSyndulla · 27/12/2023 07:54

We still use imperial measurements, just look at the Speedo on your car or any street sign plus you can buy milk in pints and beer is served in a pint jug. Ppl’s height and weight are frequently quoted in Imperial, I don’t know anybody who says they are 1.83 metres tall. Personally I use both and Fahrenheit.

Really you use Fahrenheit? Water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees? I didn't think anyone still measured temp in Fahrenheit, even my elderly parents don't.

FeelingVeryDisturbed · 27/12/2023 09:55

I'm 55 and this how I do it

So it turns out most people prefer Metric measurements after all. And they will stay
BogRollBOGOF · 27/12/2023 10:02

My 80s/ 90s education was metric and home life was imperial.

Imperial works well for humans. If a baby is 6lb you coo, if baby is 10lb, you wince sympathetically. Babies in metric is just random digits. I only know that 4kg is getting somewhat hefty because DS1 was 3.9 and did enough damage. No idea what is actually big/ small/ middling is though.
Being a small woman, any heights/ weights are either "bigger than me" or very occasionally "oh that's actually smaller". Stones and feet break it up into an understandable context. American lb loses me more than kg.

Running has made me more ambidextrous on interchanging miles and km. I still like the substance of miles, and because the road network is miles, people generally grasp a 10 mile run better than 16km.

Generally I use metric though. A decimal system works better in an age of technology, and it makes sense to retain metric as standard measurements with the majority of the world. The small number of people who seriously care about imperial measurements tend to be long past retirement age now that we're 50 years past decimalisation. It was a folly to pretend that we ever would go back to the early 1970s.

StragglyTinsel · 27/12/2023 10:02

AnImaginaryCat · 27/12/2023 08:58

It would be interesting to know if this is unusual or standard for your age group. I'm late 40s and clueless about height in cm and weight in kg.

I know my children (late teens anf early 20s) don't get feet and inches or stones but not cor across anyone my age (or close to it) that doesn't.

Show quote history

I’m in my early 40s and I don’t really understand stones. I think in metric and would need to use Google to convert into stones. I don’t really know if 11 stone 2 is heavy or not. Even worse if it’s delivered American style in pounds.

Height I can work in either. I measure and think in cm - I know I’m 165cm tall. But I know whether 5’8 is tall or not without converting to cm.

If I’m baking or buying meat or anything - metric all the way. Volume only makes any sense in litres. I actually have absolutely no idea how much a gallon is. It’s one of those totally antiquated measures like hands or furlongs that mean nothing at all
to me but you hear occasionally in specific circumstances.

Distances in metric unless it’s a driving distance. And that’s only because our road signs and speedometers are in miles/mph. I don’t really have a proper sense of how long a mile is though. I know how long a km is and what that means tangibly. A mile is just this vague unit that’s common but fuzzy in my head. Yards and such like are more or less meaningless to me.

Kendodd · 27/12/2023 10:03

How much money was spent on this site, I'd like to know? I bet it was over a million and lest face it, its just a vanity project for Ress-Mogg and Johnson. If anything sums up the stupidity of Brexit, then a pint of wine is it.

BogRollBOGOF · 27/12/2023 10:03

FeelingVeryDisturbed · 27/12/2023 09:55

I'm 55 and this how I do it

That's bang on 😂

StragglyTinsel · 27/12/2023 10:04

Oh babies. I know my children’s birth weights in kg. I’m not really sure what they are in imperial and it doesn’t mean much to me.

StillWantingADog · 27/12/2023 10:05

PieAndLattes · 27/12/2023 07:45

Who the fuck wants a pint of British wine? Every other country in the world uses 750ml bottles. Are British wineries hoping to export pints for the novelty value?

No they won’t be allowed to as nowhere else allows sales in pints.
so will be for the domestic market only. Ridiculous! I’d be surprised if they bother.

StragglyTinsel · 27/12/2023 10:07

British vineyards won’t bother with pint sized bottles of wine.

If they did, people wouldn’t be applauding the wonders of brexit. They’d be complaining about shrinkflation.

No one wants wine in pints. Not even the brexitiest of brexiters wanted to measure wine in pints.

mumda · 27/12/2023 10:10

The price of glass went up massively due to energy costs. how many companies are going to invest in an additional bottle size?

And will someone make a pint wine glass?

BreakfastAtMilliways · 27/12/2023 10:11

PuttingDownRoots · 27/12/2023 08:07

I do bake cakes in imperial... simply because my grandmother taught me a ratio of eggs to flour etc for a sponge and its nonsense in metric.

It’s not nonsense; ratios are still the same whatever system you use for the weights. But I do agree that if you’re making a white sauce, 1 oz of butter and 1 oz of flour to half a pint of milk is a lot easier to work with than whatever the metric equivalent is.

PuttingDownRoots · 27/12/2023 10:13

BreakfastAtMilliways · 27/12/2023 10:11

It’s not nonsense; ratios are still the same whatever system you use for the weights. But I do agree that if you’re making a white sauce, 1 oz of butter and 1 oz of flour to half a pint of milk is a lot easier to work with than whatever the metric equivalent is.

Show quote history

Maybe illogical would be better way to frame it... 1oz in a ratio makes more sense than 28g. Obviously the ratio is still the same

AvengedQuince · 27/12/2023 10:14

mumda · 27/12/2023 10:10

The price of glass went up massively due to energy costs. how many companies are going to invest in an additional bottle size?

And will someone make a pint wine glass?

I assume it would be drunk by the quarter or third pint, not the lot in one go!

lavenderlou · 27/12/2023 10:16

I agree - one cannot take any proof from a consultation which was only partaken by to the very very small number who were consulted - or consulted via facebook!

Over 100,000 people participated in the consultation. That's much larger than the standard sample size for quantative research.

I'm mid-40s and use stones for my weight and feet/inches for my height but I measure my children on metric because that's what has always been used in medical appointments etc. For things like height and weight for child car sears, it's all metric. I use metric for baking and cooking, temperature etc. Would use miles for distance but we also drive a lot in Europe and switch to km for distances when driving there, not sure why!

whatsappdoc · 27/12/2023 10:16

I quite like the sound of a gallon of wine🍷

waterdusky · 27/12/2023 11:42

People are so busy arguing about whether they understand the imperial system that they are overlooking the bigger question...why is the government spending man hours and money on this? How is this progress? What is the benefit to our society?
As we get closer to the election, we will see politicians do lots of 'quick wins'. These are tiny changes that make it look like they are doing things, listening to people, taking action, but actually if we answer those three aforementioned questions, we will see it's all smoke and mirrors.

SinnerBoy · 27/12/2023 12:07

Silverbirchtwo · Today 08:17

I was taught imperial in school, had to use imperial and metric in University doing sciences, that was a nightmare the imperial scientific measurements poundals, pound force, tons, then tonnes, newton...

I went to high school in 1981 and it was metric. I did get hold of an old chemistry text book, which had things in w/w & w/v in drachms per fl oz.

MushMonster · 27/12/2023 12:09

Yes!
I am a foreigner and I have not yet got the grasp of other systems, plus 100% of the weights and volumes in my work recipies and equipment are in g, kg, L and mL. So it would take forever to change it....

SinnerBoy · 27/12/2023 12:15

Silverbirchtwo · Today 08:21

Mind you one of those is the US, although their imperial is slightly different from ours!

Yes, they have 16 fl oz to the pint, so a US gallon is 4/5 of a real one. They also have US Survey Feet, which are a bit short; you may have come across Decimal Inches, which are a division of USSF. The American Army Survey Corp came up with that and the USSF is shorter than a foot.

I was on a seabed survey for a pipeline between Alabama and Florida and it caused a lot of problems when we crossed map projection zones, as well as seeming being out at waypoints.

We had to get software patches, with the new units and lost working time, as a result.

Americans also don't seem to like large units, like tons. They quote millions of lb of concrete in a building, or feet of rebar. They don't say the distance to the moon in inches, though!

LoobyDop · 27/12/2023 12:37

Where are these pints of wine going to come from? European countries will have to stick to the EU requirement to sell in units of 750ml. I can’t see that, as hard as we try, the UK is a big enough market for any other country to add a whole new bottle size to their production line just for us. And English wine producers won’t want to rule themselves out of the European market.

newnamethanks · 27/12/2023 12:50

Hurrah for the pint and the pound. Personally I've been disappointed that Mr Farage didn't campaign for dispensing with both electricity and the motor car. New fangled foreign nonsense. Candles and horses please.

SinnerBoy · 27/12/2023 13:05

😂

LlynTegid · 27/12/2023 13:58

I was going to ask if the hangman's noose would be measured in metric or imperial, for those in the Tory party who want to restore the death penalty.

Though for clarity I have opposed the death penalty all my life.