On Thu, 3 Jan 2002 00:22:53 +0100, you wrote: >Dear Mrs Bell, > >I am surprised that a progressive newspaper like the Guardian, even its >European edition, uses nothing but British Imperial units in its covering of >mainland European news. I know, for instance, that until a few years ago the >weather forecasts in the European edition were in degrees Fahrenheit, >although that scale is not used in mainland Europe. Maps of metric nations >have scales in miles only; the covering of the Tour de France is in Imperial >units every year.Tour de France and Imperial units are a totally >inappropriate combination.
Han: Unfortunately a message I sent earlier does not appear to have got through. I was an avid Guardian reader from my school days up until a few years ago. I had been thinking of switching to the Independent for some time, and was finally persuaded by the Independent's use of metric: not thorough by any means, but alone among the UK press. The Guardian was not an Establishment paper, but conservative in its own way. However, the Guardian has moved very far in recent months, and has now overtaken the Independent in its metric usage. You should have searched their Web site more before sending off your letter. I recommend today's front-page story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,626946,00.html Also, Ms Bell is the editor in chief of Guardian Unlimited, which is the Web site, not the main paper. Chris -- UK Metric Association: http://www.metric.org.uk/
