Before I responded, I wanted to check out the site you listed below.
The first thing to jump out at me was the statement:
May 2005 marks exactly four decades since Parliament announced its plan for
Britain to adopt the metric system over a ten year period.
When the President of the Board of Trade stood up in the House of Commons on
24 May 1965 to announce that Britain would be going metric over the
following decade....
When I connect it with the first paragraph of the synopsis below I see an
important connection. Metrication was brought about not by government, but
by the request of industry to the government. The industries, according to
the synopsis did convert and most likely aren't experiencing any "mess".
The mess results when neither industry or government involved the population
in the form of training and working with the change, thus the population
still thinks in English units and not metric.
The education may be metric, but that is more to suit the needs of industry
then to create a metric attitude in the minds of the people. Without
education in metric industry would be responsible for the training at a cost
to them.
In viewing the site, I came across something of interest I thought must
create must errors and frustration. By going to the page on Kitchen
Planning, I can see where a big mess can result. Homes and Kitchens are
built to rounded metric sizes as are the appliances designed to fit into
certain spaces. Yet, when doing rennovating people use an inch tape
measure. Somehow measuring in units that don't relate to the way things are
made or designed to fit has to create errors that result in a cost to
someone. I would think it is the consumer who pays the cost for any errors.
That alone should be a reason for the public to adopt solely metric. Yet it
doesn't seem to bother the consumer that he must pay for his mistakes. The
store surely isn't. Maybe the store benefits when someone has to come back
and buy the correct size the second time. The mess may be a problem for
some but a profit for others. If the group that is most affected by the
mess doesn't seem to mind wasting money then what can really be done to
clean up the mess?
Those who don't want to lose money can save themselves any loss by using
metric completely and I'm sure some do.
What does the UKMA plan to do to correct what they see as a muddle? Do they
have a plan of action or are they all talk?
Dan
----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Potts
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Wednesday, 2005-05-25 04:26
Subject: [USMA:32896] Re: Metric in federal legislation
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.
Here's the synopsis from their website at http://ukma.org.uk.
Synopsis
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]
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