>>"was the main issue why was there ABSOLUTELY NOBODY suggesting that >>distance signs be converted to miles ?" > >I don't believe it formed part of the question.
In fairness, it didn't. However, despite frequent references in the last few years to the fact that our distance and speed units were different, *nobody* came up with the idea to change the distance signs to miles, in any of the letters, editorials or articles on the subject. >I've never heard of an Irish person not to know "the mile thing". It's pretty rare, but this poster said he "cut his teeth" on the continent, so he probably did most of his driving there, and was therefore unfamiliar with mile distances. > When I've regurlarly been there I've been told stuff like "its about 20 miles >from the airport" -or- "then you'll find the brewery a further 100yds on >the left". I've heard this too. I also hear increasing amounts of meters and kilometers. People's speech are among the last things to change. >Which makes me think the poster is some form of activist, which I also >would suspect commenter "c". Quite possibly, but this misses the point. You suggested that a significant amount of support for the change came from having two different sets of units in use. My argument to counter this was that of all the people who mentioned this fact, all but one indicated they would have supported a change to metric anyway (activists even more so). >How many people know what a rod is? It's a measure that evolved out of >imperial for not being necessary. I've never come across a rod in my life ... Completely true. Anyone familiar with imperial units here is remembering back to their primary school days (assuming they are old enough!), when we had to learn all about rods/poles, furlongs, yards, miles, feet & inches. Do you remember pounds, shillings and pence ? Does it not seem now like an unnecessarily complicated and clumsy invention ? That's how those of us who have made the change to metric regard inches, feet, yards and miles (even ignoring the intermediate units). Hats off to the Americans for inventing decimal currency. >I note that over the last, say, 5 years Ireland has gone from being (no >offence here) EU-servile to being progressively more and more >eurosceptic. A very heathy change, I'd have to say. The balanced position is to welcome initiatives that make sense, and oppose initiatives that don't, rather than reject everything that smacks of "coming from Brussels". Perhaps (no offense here) we are not as encumbered with outdated delusions of empire as some of your compatriots are. > ... a little bit like Mr Blair's wording for the up-coming question in >the EU-constitution referendum ;-) At the risk of going off topic, isn't this something along the lines of "Do you wish to ratify the European Constitution ?" ? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Tom Wade | EMail: tee dot wade at eurokom dot ie EuroKom | Tel: +353 (1) 296-9696 A2, Nutgrove Office Park | Fax: +353 (1) 296-9697 Rathfarnham | Disclaimer: This is not a disclaimer Dublin 14 | Tip: "Friends don't let friends do Unix !" Ireland
