Weigh up the pros of metric
http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=804942004
AS a northern lass who was lucky enough to grow up in Australia, it was embarrassing
to read in the Evening News the ludicrous article by Craig Brown ("If the world went
metric", News, July 9).
What an insult to the intelligence of us all! When signs and weights change to metric,
as happened in all our Commonwealth nations and now even Ireland, there are no such
things as 112.65418km/h speed limits.
Signs are rounded up or down to the nearest sensible amount, as we all see when
driving abroad, like Australia�s national limit of 110km/h. London will be just a
round figure 650km away (not 650.174976km away). Furthermore, there is no issue with
companies rounding DOWN sizes either.
Most companies rounded the old pound (454g) to 500g amounts and advertised the "no
extra charge" accordingly. The pint never disappeared in Australia, either. It is
still called a pint, but rounded up to 600ml from the little English one of 568ml.
You�d enjoy it a lot more if we were allowed the litre!
Please don�t be silly, Mr Brown. You merely play into the hands of nasty-minded
"Little Englander" types who would have us back in shillings, groats, bushels and
hogsheads and perpetually at war with our good neighbours!
Riane Martin, Campden Houses, Peel St, London
