People are not purposely choosing them in preference to metric they are
simply reacting to the environment in which they live and were brought up in
and the continued need to engage them because they persist and haven't
experienced an all metric world where they can see it working properly.
This may be true of the US where metric tends not to get a look-in.
In the UK metric is all around you - it is "available" - it just doesn't get "picked up". People refer to and think in imperial (most of the time).
With respect you're missing the point. It may be available but it isn't being used or understood properly. For example most people understand that a 'kilo' is a unit of weight, but how many realise the that 'kilo' is short for kilogram and that it means 1000 grams in the same way the a kilometre means 1000 metres? If they really understood how simple it all is they might pick it up and use it more but even then there are still barriers making it difficult for people to think metric.
For example go into any mens clothes shop in the UK. Most of the time you will find waiste sizes and chest sizes etc in inches. You are not allowed to think metric in a typical mens clothes store. I've seen metric supplementary indications sometimes but its the inch measures that hit you in the face. They hang on racks or in cubby holes sorted into inch sizes. How can you expect people to learn to think and use metric if they can't apply it to their own body size?
I agree that its bad practice to mix the two AT THE SAME TIME. Like 4 miles and 200 metres....
The UKMA see this as a "mess" - as if its an issue to the common Brit.
Look in catalogues and you'll typically find product dimensions sometimes being described in inches, sometimes cm, sometimes both. There is no consistency. I've heard a jewelry salesman describe a bracelet as 9 mm wide and 7 1/2 inches long!
There's a mess alright!
The latest tactic is for the state to tell us not to use metric. It still doesn't work. I don't know what the next tactic will be. One thing for sure though, in a month or two (or three) there will be a chance for the UK to change direction. Unfortunately though, when it gets to placing the cross expressions like "better the devil" will fill many people's minds.
If only the UK government actually had a policy on metrication at all! Unless you count 'do nothing' as a policy.
The only tactic that I've seen is this:
- Claim the credit for all popular legislation that implement EU directives as your own initiative selecting the best of European practice etc.
Anyting else blame it on the EU and claim that there's nothing you can do about it (that includes metrication).
Result - everybody in the UK things that metrication is an EU plot. Hence the merket traders rebellion we saw in the year 2000 onward.
However I reserve the right to pick and choose whatever measure I feel fit for the application I need it for for that point in time - whether that be litres, millimetres, inches or pints.
Of course you have the right to do that if you so wish. There are people who still think in � s d, that's their right. But members of BWMA don't have the right to pretend they are protecting peoples freedom of choice when what they really wan't is to stop metric becoming dominant and preserve old measures for the sake of it. Nor do they have the right to claim the majority of people are on their side on the basis of shallow surveys that don't examine the issue properly. Nor do they have the right to claim the embodiment of the "average Brit" on the basis of their own anecdotal evidence and personal perception.
UKMA and USMA are campaigning to bring about change by peacful means and are acting within the normal confines of respect for freedom and democracy. The issue they are campaigning for may not be a high priority with most people and the contention that things are in a mess will not necessarily occur to many, but that doesn't invalidate it. Part of the problem is to get it talked about so people do start to think about it.
In the end their respective campaigns will only succeed if people at all levels in society do ulimately go along with what they are trying to do and common sense prevails, as it usually does.
