Daniel Jackson wrote:
What is the UKMA and what do they mean by "A Very
British Mess"?
What kind of mess is Britain in?
A simple Google
search would reveal it for you. However, it's United Kingdom Metric
Association.
British weights and measures are in a mess. This is because although many aspects of national life are metric (including most industry and building, school mathematics and science, athletics, rugby union and Ordnance Survey maps), many imperial relics remain (e.g. in road signs, football commentaries, estate agents� advertisements and most non-specialist media). The result is a confusing muddle.
This half metric, half imperial muddle matters. It matters because it increases costs (dual pricing and marking of packages), prevents fair comparisons in shops, requires constant conversions, leads to misunderstandings, wastes our children�s metric education, confuses overseas visitors, and, not least, frustrates one of the great advantages of metric units - that they constitute a proper coherent system in which all units are interrelated and easy to calculate in.
We are in this mess because successive British governments lacked the commitment and political courage to carry through a necessary reform in a decisive and co-ordinated manner. Instead they have lapsed into a piecemeal, �voluntary/gradual� approach without attempting to explain the reasons for change or to win hearts and minds. The result has been that opponents of change have been able to exploit fears of the unknown and misrepresent metrication as though it were a foreign imposition. The reform has therefore stalled.
UK Metric Association (UKMA) contends that there is a way out of this mess.
The purpose of this report by the UKMA is to persuade responsible opinion formers that the UK should complete the changeover to exclusive use of the international metric system as soon as practicable. The UK is the only significant country in the world (apart from the USA) which has begun and then failed to carry through a metric conversion programme. UKMA calls upon the Government to demonstrate its commitment by announcing early completion dates for all remaining areas of national life, including retailing and road signs
Bill Potts, CMS
Roseville,
CA
http://metric1.org [SI
Navigator]
