Thanks for this Pat. This is actually my neck of the woods (N E Lincolnshire) - I never realised we were so retarded! I have added my own comment, which should show up by now.
Cheers John F-L ----- Original Message ----- From: Pat Naughtin To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2011 9:04 PM Subject: [USMA:50548] Fwd: ASDA pound campaign Dear All, Another report of the same obfuscation, deceit, and plain straight out cheating from ASDA: http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/Supermarket-sells-strawberries-pound/story-12656150-detail/story.html Cheers, Pat Naughtin Geelong, Australia Begin forwarded message: From: Pat Naughtin <[email protected]> Date: 2011 June2 10:38:39 AM AEST To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:50543] ASDA pound campaign Reply-To: [email protected] Dear All, It would appear that the AIDA company has decided to grovel to the supporters of dishonest measures in the UK. See: http://your.asda.com/2011/5/27/pounds-or-kilos/comments/35834#comment-form I have responded as follows: Dear ASDA Chief Executive Officer, I don't suppose you consider yourself a liar, a cheat, a saboteur, and a traitor. In my opinion you are behaving as if you are all of these. You are a liar when you don't specify which pound you are using on every label, on every product, and on every shelf. I assume that you are using the pound as agreed among English speaking countries in 1959. As this pound is defined in terms of the metric system all of your 'pound' products should be labelled with the words "metric pound" and not with the single word 'pound' to give the illusion that you have reverted to one or other of the many old pre-metric pounds. To say pound on its own is simply a lie and a delusion. You are a cheat when you use many measures to describe your products. This method of cheating through obfuscation has been known for a long time; see Deuteronomy 25:14 and 25:15 where they say: "Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, … But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have." When Bishop John Wilkins invented the metric system in London in 1668, I am sure that he had quotations like this in the forefront of his mind. Unlike you appear to be doing, he was, after all, seeking honesty for all measurement when he devised the "universal measure" that became the decimal metric system. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/who-invented-the-metric-system.html You are a saboteur when you choose (through your pounds and ounces campaign) to provide an alternative measurement education for all children who attend your stores with their parents. Trying to promote dual measurement has been academically demonstrated in the USA to impose an extra cost of about 10 % to all mathematics education in that country. You seem determined to follow and to actively encourage this waste. You are a traitor when you promote your arch-conservative approach to measurement to create a community for the UK that has multiple measures. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) surveyed large companies in 1980 and noted that using metric system units (only) - as opposed the the multiple measures that you favour - cost the UK's largest companies 9 % of their gross turnover and reduced their net profits by 14 %. Your support for the the word 'pound' parallels the damage done to the UK culture by Margaret Thatcher when she said "We have saved the pint and the pound for Britain" which led to the metric muddle that the UK has still to suffer. Yours faithfully, Pat Naughtin Geelong, Australia Pat Naughtin LCAMS Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected] or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe. Pat Naughtin LCAMS Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected] or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
