Today this gem was in the Irish Times, in an article about railways by one truly Imperial reporter from that paper, Tim O'Brien. I wonder, maybe he is a member of the BWMA and the IAML!
"In Europe huge resources are being put into expanding railway networks. Lines are being reopened, ranging from the major ?5 billion high-speed line from Cologne to Frankfurt (the **140-mile trip** will soon be done in just over an hour) to the reopening of secondary lines such as Grasse to Cannes, in the south of France." This is what I wrote: Sir, Re. your article about railways to-day Please do not pretend that mainland European nations are British colonies. The high speed line from Cologne to Frankfurt is not measured in miles and never will be; it is 230 km long. Germany and all other mainland nations (and almost all other nations in the world as well) use the metric system. We will never adopt Imperial units. The thought of us doing that would make me violently sick. Regards, H. Maenen The METRIC Netherlands Han Historian of Dutch Metrication, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
