2001-01-07
>>>>>" Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the explorer, said he felt very strongly about
the issue, particularly as European officials objected to the imperial
system because it gave Britain a competitive advantage by being shared with
the United States. "You don't need to start >>>>>doing this in a forceful
fashion. You could let this part of the EU gradually phase itself out of the
imperial system," he said.
This is another bit of nonsense. Using imperial units in the American
market counts for nothing. Americans buy products mostly on price, other
factors are secondary. If its cheap, we buy it.
Like Americans, I don't think these people know, or have blinded themselves
to the fact that British industry is already metric. They are not going to
make a metric version of a product for the world and an FFU version for the
USA. It was British industry that started the drive to metric, not the EU.
Is there some reason the BWMA won't accept this fact? Other than to confuse
the public? It seems to me the BMWA will accept a type of conversion the
commonwealth countries decided not to do because it was impracticable. That
is have the industries convert and leave the public sector alone. The use
of metric in industry is mostly transparent to the public, as is in the USA.
In this manner, confusion would reign and the BWMA would hope the industries
would advocate a return to FFU and claim metric doesn't work.
As I said before, they are more vocal now, because the final phase of the
conversion is at hand. Once scale conversion is finished, what is left, but
highways? And if you thought the battle over scales was hot at times, wait
until the go ahead for roadsign conversion is given.
Glückliches Neues Jahr!
Happy New Year!
John
Keiner ist hoffnungsloser versklavt als derjenige, der irrtümlich glaubt
frei zu sein.
There are none more hopelessly enslaved then those who falsely believe they
are free!
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
