Metric Culprits
Just who are the people who would have us all "go metric"? BWMA reveals some
of the answers in this rogues' gallery of busybodies, bureaucrats and
cowboys.
Kim Howells MP, Minister for Consumer Affairs at the Department of Trade
and Industry
Mr Howells and the DTI's Consumer Affairs unit are directly responsible for
government metric policy in Britain. They are also the government's chief
implementators of metric directives emantating from Brussels. To ensure the
metric gospel is heard as widely as possible, the DTI produces its leaflets
in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Turkish, Urdu,
Vietnamese and Welsh. Visit the DTI's internet pages for consumers,
businesses and the public sector, and send your views on metric to the
Consumer Affairs direct. Please keep complaints polite and sensible.
J Sainsbury Plc
Sainsbury's supermarket, in common with other supermarkets, is a supporter
of metric conversion because it can afford the conversion costs that its
smaller competitors cannot. Sainsburys is also a metric downsizer. Whereas a
pack of Sainsburys Four Rich Puddings used to weigh "4 x 4oz (113gr)", they
subsequently weighed "4 x 100gr" with no price reduction. This meant prices
had risen by 12% in real terms, despite signs in Sainsburys reading, "All
Christmas puddings at same price or cheaper than last year".
United States Metric Association
Formed in 1916 to turn the United States over to the metric system. Still
active, still trying. Well organised, seeks change by building networks with
pro-metric elements within the US government.
UK Metrication Association
The Metric Moriarties to BWMA's Sherlock Holmes, this group are determined
to turn Britain into a metric-only country. Close ties with its sister
organisation in the United States, and with Britain's National Federation of
Consumer Groups. The UKMA's supporters are prolific letter writers.
One Metre - the Canadian metric lobby
Canada's move to metrics ground to a halt in 1983 when the government issued
a Moratorium suspending compulsory metric conversion. Since then, it has
been Canada's policy not to enforce the country's Weights and Measures Act
requiring that metric be more prominent than traditional units. As a result,
retailers continue to price and sell fruit, vegetables, meat and other
weighed items in imperial units. Metric equivalents are offered only in tiny
print. The purpose of One Metre is reverse the Moratorium, thereby
compelling retailers to display metric units more prominently than imperial
units. One Metre notes, "Without enforcement, the completion of metric
conversion will never happen". Quite.
Sunderland City Council
Since January 1st, 2000, town and county councils have been vying to be the
country's most dedicated metric bureaucrats. The title was seized on July
4th, 2000, US Independence Day, by Sunderland officials who, backed up by
police officers, raided greengrocer Steve Thoburn and removed his lb/oz
weighing machines. On January 15th, 2001, they commenced a criminal
prosecution of Mr Thoburn - despite the fact that the 1985 Weights and
Measures Act states clearly that lb/oz are legal.
The Metrication Board 1969 - 1980
The Metrication Board with its staff of 67 was set up in 1969 to oversee
Britain's transition to metric. It had no powers as such and could only
advise and educate. The Metrication Board's 1977 and 1980 reports are worth
a read. Britain's Metrication Board had equivalents across the Commonwealth:
Metric Commission Canada (1971-1980), the Metric Conversion Board in
Australia (1970-1981), and the Metric Advisory Board in New Zealand
(1969-1981).
Herr Martin Bangemann
Born in Wanzleben, Germany, in 1934. A former lawyer and Member of the
European Parliament, Herr Bangemann became EC commissioner with
responsibility for industrial affairs and telecommunication technologies in
1993. He was to implement the EC's metric-only labelling policy on January
1st 2000 and reputedly went berserk when Washington informed him that the
United States was not yet ready to "go metric" in time for the EC's
deadline. Herr Bangemann resigned form the Commission under suspicion of
corruption in 1999. He recieves a �600,000 pension from the EC.
UK Weighing Federation
The UK Weighing Federation, like other organisations, was taken in by the
DTI's claim that metric conversion would be legally compulsory from January
2000. As a result, it advised its weighing machine members to make the
necessary changes to equipment ranges. In so doing, the UK Weighing
Federation has followed the pattern of many organisations in that, having
converted, it develops an interest in seeing the process followed through.
The UK Weighing Federation complains that traders who refuse to buy
metric-only weighing machines are making times hard for weighing machine
suppliers. There are currently some 25,000 metric machines lying in
warehouses unsold.
Metric Sense Campaign
This is a lobby that believes that the failure of metric to achieve common
acceptance in Britain lies in the choice of metric units used, rather than
opposition to metric units par se. The Metric Sense Campaign argues, for
instance, that too many metric units are based on thousandths (millimetres,
grams, millilitres) and that it would be better if they were based on
hundredths (ie centimetres, dekagrams, centilitres). The person who runs the
Metric Sense Campaign is also the Metrication spokeswoman for the National
Federation of Consumer Groups.
The European Engineering Industry
Are these the "hidden persuaders" of compulsory metric conversion? European
engineering representatives, including those of Britain, complain that the
USA uses inch-pound tools and specifications. US industry spans the globe,
building constructions such as oil platforms and other industrial
installations using inch-based spanners and screw threads. When the
Europeans turn up years later, nothing fits. Rather than showing initative
and getting there first, the European engineers want to ban the inch. Danger
rating: believed to be highly influential.
Earl Ferriers
The little known and best forgotton junior trade minister who signed the
1994 metric regulations, implementing EC directive 89/617 and compelling the
use of metric, in spite of the 1985 Weights and Measures Act that clearly
and expressly states people may use pounds and yards as alternatives to
kilograms and metres.
John
Keiner ist hoffnungsloser versklavt als derjenige, der irrt�mlich glaubt
frei zu sein.
There are none more hopelessly enslaved then those who falsely believe they
are free!
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
