Whether or not you BWMA blokes discuss for hours on this message board about the future of the imperial system, the metric system will make it anyway !

So, spend your time in a better way, discussing useful things. Your discussion is too late to be of any use.

Remember: it's too late to lock the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Yu know, I appreciate strong views and ideologies, but I am somewhat dismayed by unhelpful posts like this. If this is all you have to say, perhaps you could spend your tme more effectively.

He has a point though:
Since the UK decided to go metric in the 1970's it has gained a lot of momentum on its own.

According to Mr. Bennett there are metric road signs appearing all over the country and the woman at Transco told him that "the UK went metric in the 70's", which reflects the mindset people have.

So, in your quest against metrication, you fight against the industry, 20 years of school education with the metric system as the primary one and the mindset of people that the UK is heading full steam for metric.

Ralf

Mr. Parry,
be serious for a moment. It's very unlikely that the goverment will repeal the law that prohibits -from 2009 onward- the use of imperial units in economic transactions. So why are you discussing for God's sake? You can't do anything about it!
And by 2009, the road signs in the UK will probably have been metricated as well.

I would say:
The King is dead. Long live the King !

The pro-metric brigade always forget BWMA's trump card - public opinion. Beween 26 and 28 April this year, independent pollsters ICM found that out of 1,001 people surveyed, only 4% normally thought in metric first and 86% preferred road signs to stay in miles and yards, compared with only 8% preferring kilometres and metres (the proportions were identical for 18 to 24-year-olds).

This in line with a raft of other indepenent surveys over the past few years, covering pounds and ounces etc. as well as miles and yards.

The wish for road signs to be compulsorily in kilometres and metres as well as banning shopkeepers on pain of criminal penalties from even displaying the letters 'lb.' or 'oz.' in a shop is that of the political elite - and those anti-democratic types who wish to impose their minority preference for metric on the overwhelming majority of the rest of us.

It would be nice to see at least some acknowledgement from the metricists that they have public opinion running strongly against them

T Bennett

The UK government first indicated its desire for the country to metric in 1965. Metric conversion based on consent was successfully applied until about 1975 when all those sectors of industry that wanted to go metric had done so.

Metric conversion then dried up because those industries that remained were happy to remain with imperial units. From about 1976-77, the government tried to force wider metric conversion by means of statutory orders. These, however, were never applied and withdrawn during 1978-1979.

Further metric conversion is highly likely without the use of compulsion which is where, of course, the current regulations come in.

With regards to the 2009 deadline, prohibiting the use of imperial as additional information to metric, we do not believe that this happen for two reasons:

i) to prevent the use of non-metric information constitutes an infringment of free speech (we assume that free speech will still be with us in 2009)

ii) the US/EU export industry will lobby very hard to retain the option to use non-metric alongside metric.

If I may comment on this poll:

Since this poll was conducted on 18+ years old individuals, that almost completely excludes the ones that got taught metric in school.

It would be interesting to know the demographics of that poll, i.e. what the age distribution was. Since the poll was done by telephone, one can expect there is a bias towards older people who of course want everything to stay the way it has always been.

Much more interesting is the question: "Do you oppose the conversion to metric in the UK ?" since that is your assumption: If people think in imperial, they will also oppose a change from that.

Ralf

I don't think the US/EU export traders will lobby in favour of using the two systems together, because other countries (like for example Japan) start to forbid the use of the two systems together too.

Ralf: Children have been "taught metric" in schools for at least thirty years, which puts many of them in their forties. The National Curriculum is younger, but still covers people in their twenties. And they still think in imperial.

To Yardsuck.

I wonder if you really meant to conclude, "The king is dead, long live the king"?

I think you've just scored an own goal. The meaning of that phrase is that there can never be a an end to the thing you're talking about. The monarch is an ongoing institution, just as the imperial system of measurement.

Rgds

I would like to add a comment that infuriates the metricists.

It's about the "education" argument (ref: the false argument of under 18's and the "we've been taught metric for 30 yrs now" claim).

Yes, imperial was completely dropped from education 30yrs ago, and being educated in the 80's I can confirm that the only imperial measures spoken were in the playground and never in the classroom.

*BUT*

In the 90s the national curriculum included this:

"Children to be taught imperial measures that are in common use today, and to be comfortable with them" which included the ability to convert those measures "from metric to imperial or imperial to metric".

So I got no imperial education, but today's "ankle snappers" get the works!

Ah well, I also remember stupid arguments like "the word 'manhole' is sexist" in the 80's!!!

P.S. It was also made compulsory, in the national curriculum, for kids in Wales to be taught Welsh - something that was not in place before.