On Thursday 01 Jul 2004 23:27, MightyChimp wrote: > The UK was given an opt out, that is why they are exempt.
The UK was not given an 'opt-out', nor is it 'exempt'. Both the UK and Ireland were given 'derogations' to permit certain units to be used for specific applications 'until a date to be set by the member states', i.e. not indefinitely, as is often widely mis-reported. I'm sure I read some time ago that it was actually Ireland who pressed for the continued use of acres, not the UK. Both countries could continue to use miles, yards, etc. for road traffic purposes. Ireland has chosen to move to metric. Nor were the derogations phrased to say that metric units could be forbidden for these purposes. -- Chris KEENAN UK Metric Assoc.: metric.org.uk
