Britain wins war on metric system

[SenoraPostrophe]

Has anyone else seen this [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6988521.stm] ?

The UK has used all of its formidable political power in Europe, and has no doubt plied diplomat after diplomat with lashings (litres even) of the finest ginger beer in order that we may buy our ale in pints rather than half liters forever.

hurrah for the British spirit! How could we possibly change to that nasty modern metric system? It's not even 200 years old yet is it?

just one question though: aren't there more important things for our diplomats to worry about? I'm a pro-European, but I can think of several bits of legislation we should be more worried about.

bugger news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6988521.stm

It is not the European legislation, but the insane gold plating of it in the UK that is usually the problem!

It's nuts... I still get confused now converting between two measuring systems. In somethings I measure miles, but in other distances I measure metres. I work in fl oz for liquids but grams for weights. I can NEVER remember how to convert between kg and stones. Hurt my brain converting between inches and centimetres because clothing seems to be all mixed.

And we're going to carry on confusing our kids too. Because it's traditional.

Oh good.

I know my weight in kg now, and all the baby weights (have lived in Spain). It is annoying. But at least it gives me something to work out on long journeys.

There have been a couple of threads on this (not that I'm grumbling because I started one of them or anything, has been a funny old week on MN).

FWIW, I'm all in favour of leaving everyone alone. Far too much standardisation. (Could be because I work in imperial, of course.)

anyway. was expecting to be flamed by anti eu-ers. how refreshing that i haven't been.

has there edam? I did check, honest. but then I'm tired.

Can't work in imperial- a metric girl through and through

I wish they'd make a decision, either way. people will cope, they always do.

they have. they're going to keep metric for road signs and pubs, and everything else will be kilos / litres etc, but with an equivalent in imperial. that's a decision of sorts.

It's nto a real decision its a namby pamby decision

one way or t'other, have the bollocks to say, as my Yorkshire born neighbour likes to say

what is this strange 'metric' that you speak of?

I'm the same as Rubberduck. It's odd that, despite having been only taught metric at school I now tend to use imperial measurements. Not sure why but I find them easier to judge... I absolutely can't convert.

I agree there are certainly more important things for them to be spending their time fighting for, not to mention using our tax payers' money to do so.

I think there's a generation of us, gibberish. The confused generation - because we did maths in metric but our parents and the rest of the world used imperial IRL. Every time we saw a roadsign, brought in the milk, were weighed... Even my youngest sister (24) works in imperial for everyday stuff.

I'm with Peachy! I hate the imperial system. In Ireland we recently had all our road signs changed to km and it was a little confusing for a while but we're used to it now. I'm a "beauty in simplicity" kind of girl!

Yes, I think that explains it Edam. I imagine my children will be the same and eventually start using imperial since I do and they see it all around them... will the confusion never end! To be honest, I can't understand why schools don't teach both since so many things are still based on the imperial system.