People can stop panicking about this Imperial measurements thing!

[Echobelly]

The proposal to reintroduce Imperial measurements is a fucking stupid idea and waste of time but Lordy, my social media is alight with people going 'OMG, they're going to force everyone to learn Imperial and it's ageist and ableist and will wreck trade and it'll be so expensive to recalibrate all out scales' etc etc.

I mean, hold your horses folks - they're allowing people to use imperial which wasn't allowed under the EU, just so they can say we can now do something we couldn't do under the EU. It's not being mandated. It's totally empty symbolism.

A handful of red-faced market stall holders will use it to make a point, no one else will care, nothing else will happen. I mean, I hate this bloody government and this ridiculous, retrograde idea but please be better than those people who don't read beyond the headlines.

Sorry, just the inaccuracy of response to this is bugging me!

I want an 8oz steak and to know how many miles to the gallon or a pint of cider.

Both this and the blue passport thing just completely baffle me - I just can't imagine how anyone could actually care.

I'm off an age where I easily go from imperial to metric or the other way. DC can easily flip the other way

Used it all my life and still do.

So smug.

I'm a mismatch
I use inches and metres. Feet mean nothing to me
I use grammes but not kilos
There isn't much I like from the US but cups I could embrace

@Hardbackwriter

Both this and the blue passport thing just completely baffle me - I just can't imagine how anyone could actually care.

Same. Plus the “British values television” nonsense from earlier. Who actually gives a crap? Their lives must be empty.

Over a generation, it will change to what is taught in schools

Will it? Schools have been teaching exclusively metric for fifty years. And yet people who never learned imperial measures in school, and whose parents never learned imperial measures in school are merrily weighing themselves in stones.

I don’t understand imperial never have. It’s illogical and makes no sense.

Agree OP.

It really is a mountain made out of molehill.

It is such a deflection tactic and people eat it up. I wonder what they’re really up to when stuff like this is announced.

Besides, most things are computerised anyway. Fruit and veg in a supermarket you pop onto a scale and it gives you the price, meat already has price written on it and you can tell a butcher how much money’s worth you want anyway.

The faux outrage over this is ridiculous.

@LusciousLondoner

It'll be handy for old people (over 60) but they'll all be dead soon 🤷‍♀️

I'm 60, no plans of dying any time soon. The unit I use the most is the ångstrom... I don't think there's any convenient imperial alternative for that oddly enough.

It'll be handy for old people (over 60) but they'll all be dead soon

WTF! I am 59, so almost your definition of "old". I think we started using metric measurements for things when I was still in the infants class. I am perfectly happy to shop and cook in grams, though I am also comfortable in pounds and ounces. If you asked me my height I would no doubt say 5 foot 5 (obviously) but would be relatively unphased if you wanted it in metres.

The metric system is much more sensible and I suspect the majority of people whining on about preferring imperial would be utterly thrown if they were expected to do any serious calculations in those measurements.

@Babdoc

Some of us never stopped using them, OP! I do all my cooking in ounces, weigh myself in stones and pounds, all British road signs are still in miles, I measure people’s heights in feet and inches, and drink beer in half pints.

A lot of us do, everyone I know does all those things.

Everyone is still using them🙄

It's a pita for us metric people😂

My children were born in 1996 and 1998 I was told their weight as 6lb 13oz(they were both the same weight). No idea what it would be in kg. My weight is 9 stone 3lbs and I am 5 foot 4. Husband is 6 foot 2. Metric is fine especially when accuracy is imperative - mm are precise and fractions of inches difficult but in our heads we still use imperial for certain stuff. Mixture is fine. I use both/a mix as do my children in their 20s.

A quarter of humbugs for me please!

It'll be handy for old people (over 60) but they'll all be dead soon 🤷‍♀️

Please remember you wrote this when you hit 60.

I'm sure most people can switch easily between imperial and metric, both have been used interchangeably here for as long as I can remember. Although I do find the little signs beside the meat in the butchers confusing when they're in metric. I don't really know how many grams of mince I need and what does a kilo of sausages look like? Sounds massive.

@ErrolTheDragon I'm 60, no plans of dying any time soon. The unit I use the most is the ångstrom... I don't think there's any convenient imperial alternative for that oddly enough

Interesting - how come you don't use nm?

I took my son to the GP two years ago and told her his temperature had been 100-104°F for a week. She looked at me like I had two heads and said she'd never heard someone use Fahrenheit before. I'm only 43!

@dootball

The return the imperial measurements should make things lots easier.

Er OK...

There is a reason hardly anywhere uses imperial/US customary measurements and that even in the US science and engineering is done in metric now.

@SmellyOldOwls

I'm sure most people can switch easily between imperial and metric, both have been used interchangeably here for as long as I can remember. Although I do find the little signs beside the meat in the butchers confusing when they're in metric. I don't really know how many grams of mince I need and what does a kilo of sausages look like? Sounds massive.

Imperial has not been taught in schools for 40+ years, it has not been in mainstream use for the lives of more than two thirds of the population.

[quote Svalberg]**@ErrolTheDragon* I'm 60, no plans of dying any time soon. The unit I use the most is the ångstrom... I don't think there's any convenient imperial alternative for that oddly enough*

Interesting - how come you don't use nm?[/quote]
Because that's order of magnitude for bond lengths in molecules.

We're having a new fence fitted and every tradesman who quoted did so in feet, so allowing industries to where it's already common practice seems fairly unremarkable.. Also my fence panels are 6ft x 5ft that's much easier to remember than 182.8 x 162.4cm , also they are clearly still being made in feet or they'd be 200 x 150 cm for simplicity

Can't believe all these unpatriotic people wanting to use American units, the UK has been metric for 50 years. Such a shame some people don't care about their countries heritage and culture these days.

The whole point of having a standardised system in the shops is so that you can compare prices. I really don't want to have to convert imperial to metric and back again to find out which apples are cheapest.

We always could have both measurements, it's just you had to show metric.

Yes here in the UK we've always used a mismatch but officially going back to imperial will be a backwards step since everywhere else is metric.