Sounds like the way to fix that would be for HM Government to:
. Change the signs on the roads to metric only . Decide that beginning on a certain date cars are manufactured with metric speedometers . Redefine the "pint of beer" as 550 ml (or a bit above, but not so much as to force pubs to buy new glasses) . State that milk will be packaged in metric units only - for those wanting a "pint" bottle, they can get a 500 ml bottle (too bad the UK pint is bigger) . Disallow any non-metric units in signage or advertising, but - Make no law regarding how people can talk to each other. Example - my friend Barbara in Kenilworth goes to the deli counter at Waitrow's and asks for a "quarter" of salami. She is thinking of a quarter-pound, but she gets, and knows that she gets, 125 g. If someone wants a "pound" of bananas, he'll get 500 g (or as close as possible, given that bananas are something you count and not measure). If people want to continue to talk that way there should be nothing stopping them, but there should be an understanding of what they'll get. Over time the people who talk in imperial units will slowly decrease, as the young will never have been exposed to imperial except from their parents when speaking. A lot less work than we have over here in the USA. Carleton From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Charles Peyto Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2013 17:43 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:52160] Re: A Better Formulation of Our Cause by Paul Trusten Martin, you would have a credibility issue with that wording. The U.S. is <b>not</b> the only major nation that does not use the metric system as its everyday measurement standard. It is exactly the same in the UK. The "everyday measurement standard" there is, for Joe Public, the imperial system. Brits typically use: miles, yards, feet and inches, and even furlongs for length; miles per hour for speed; gallons and pints for some volumes and cubic yards, cubic feet and cubic inches (and cubic centimeters - cc :-) ) for others; miles per gallon for gas mileage; stones, pounds and ounces for weight and pounds per square inch for tire pressure. It is true that there are legal requirements in the UK to use metric units for selling by measure and for the drafting of legislation and for various other governmental administrative purposes, but even for those, the imperial equivalents can be shown with equal prominence, and customers can specify their requirements in imperial units if they wish. Even where regulations do apply, they are widely flouted by smaller businesses - especially those that survive and thrive on dealing face-to-face with their customers and talk the language that their customers want to hear. -- C. On 12 January 2013 20:19, <[email protected]> wrote: To follow up on my "Metrication of Yogurt and a New Metrication Theme," I have now seen Paul Trusten's formulation, which I think makes the point much better than the phraseology that I was given to believe was on the actual petition: "The U.S. is the only major nation that does not use the metric system as its everyday measurement standard, thus making America an island of inch-pound commercial isolation in a metric sea of ambitious competitors who are not saddled with our measurement restriction. "Each additional day that America waits to convert to the metric system means additional costs to the Nation in terms of lost trade, lost scientific development, lost academic prowess for our students, and lost cultural diversity." Martin Morrison USMA "Metric Training and Education" Columnist
