First of all, how are imperial units used in the United Kingdom? Almost everything in the United Kingdom is done using metric units, apart from road signs (the specification for manufacturing and placement of roads signs is done using metric units), the serving of draught beer and cider in pubs (but beer and sider that is sold in bottles or cans have their sizes in millilitres while wine and spirits are sold in miliilitre sized units), newspapers usually quote personal weights and heights in imperial units, but the medical profession uses metic units, grandma's hand-me-dowm recipes are usually in imperial units, but recipes in newspapers and magazines aer in metric units (A British recipe will quote "250 grams of flour" rather than "2 cups of flour"), milk in the supermarket is usually (but not always) sold in 1, 2, 4 or 6 pint containers, but farmers are paid by the litre.
Last Friday a story appeared to have been "leaked" to The Times regarding possible "watering down" of rules regarding metrication. None of the other quality papers (The Daily Telegraph, the Guardian and The Independent) appeared to carry the story. The Times editorial that day was scathing about the proposal. The following day two letters were printed on the letters page, neither of which gave any support to the Government on the issue and today a cartoon appeared in the Sunday Times, again ridiculing both the prime minister and the possibility of reverting to imperial units (See https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetimes.co.uk%2Farticle%2Fmorten-morland-sunday-times-cartoon-september-19-2021-sb9kw0f8z&data=04%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C906d53e82bcb4d54b17708d97b5b5935%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637676454530428364%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=4ilXVOvOywmLeukILln2HVZI%2Bp5f0rb%2BRxX%2FGWTVM1I%3D&reserved=0). For the record, The Times often prints two reader's letters on any one topic - one in support of the topic and one against. Furthermore, in the run-up to an election, The Times columnists offer a variety of rules while the editor keeps silent until the last day before polling. Of the other papers, the Daily Mail and the Daily Express are populist one-sided right-wing papers that cannot be taken seriously while the biggest attraction in The Sun is the size of the Page 3 girl's breasts. The story is, I hope, a bit of sabre-rattling by a small minority. -----Original Message----- From: USMA <[email protected]> On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: 19 September 2021 02:46 To: USMA List Server <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA 1797] No, the UK isn't leaving the metric system From Reddit: There's been a couple articles (well, headlines) posted about the UK moving away from metric, and while yeah that seems to be true (and I'm not too happy about it), it's only subtly. The actual proposal is to repeal EU rules that meant that all products must be sold in metric, allowing people to sell in imperial units if they choose. This is mostly about market stalls and stuff, some of which might want to (and yeah, it's a silly nationalist flag-waving thing), but there is no way that any larger retailers, supermarkets, chain shops or anything of the sort would stop using metric. I mean I have no idea how pounds, ounces, gallons etc. work, and apart from the few things we still do use here (like feet and inches for height, miles for road signs and speed), everyone under 30 uses the metric system. Do I think this is a stupid step backwards only designed to appeal to a subset of older patriotic Brits? Yep, absolutely, and it's an utter waste of time policy. Are we leaving the metric system and returning to the imperial one? Nope, that'd be ludicrous, it's not happening. _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list [email protected] https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list [email protected] https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
