'Imperial should be ditched in favor of metric in time for Olympics' (UK: old "lib" Tory)

Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 6:20AM BST 16 May 2012 | Tim Ross, Political Correspondent

[Olog-hai]

Miles, pints and ounces should be abandoned in favor of a fully metric system because visitors to the Olympics will think Britain is living in its “imperial past”, a former Tory chancellor has said.

Lord Howe of Aberavon, who served in Baroness Thatcher’s cabinet, called on ministers to end the “deeply confusing shambles” of using a mixture of metric and imperial measures.

He said the lack of any attempt by the Government to clarify the arrangements was the “most glaring omission” from the Queen’s Speech.

During debate on the speech in the House of Lords, he said: “Weights and measures are in a mess. Liters for petrol and fizzy drinks, pints for beer and milk, meters and kilometers for athletics and the Ordnance Survey, miles per gallon for cars, the metric system for school, still pounds and ounces for the market. …"…

Lord Howe said he was responsible for metrication as consumer affairs minister in the early 1970s, while as a “penny-saving chancellor of the exchequer” from 1979, he had readily accepted the abolition of the Metrication Board. …

[moose07]

I get a kick out of metric sockets, which are 1/2”, 3/8”, and 1/4” drive. What drive size are they in are in Europe?

As mentioned above, no change.
We also have TORX heads.
4x2 is sold in 3meter lengths ,upon which you nail or glue 8’/4’ sheets of 12mm plywood.
Food is sold by the gram, then placed in pound jars.
Fuel is sold by the litre , the economy of the litre sized engine then worked out in MPG.
The litre sized engine has an output measured in BHP.
Cloth is sold by the yard, any tape to go with it, by the Meter.
Ale is sold by the Millilitre in 1 pint bottles.
Gas efficiency measured in BTU, sold by the kilowatt hour.
Temperature is Centigrade below freezing and up to about 20C then the discomfort is referred to in F.
It all works just fine. :)

[BfloGuy]

It seems a mismatch of singular/plural subjects and verb conjugations.

And it's a recent phenomenon. When I lived there in the late nineties, I never heard this collective singular. The Brits do like to play games with the language, though.

[Myrddin]

My father and another American naval officer were dining in a British club. My father’s friend asked his female server for a napkin. She looked horrified and departed the table. What he ahould have requested was a serviette. Napkins are found in the ladies room.

[mamelukesabre]

You mean you don’t have a set of 3/4” drive sockets or 1” drive sockets?

that’s too bad

[mamelukesabre]

not entirely

[Oztrich Boy]

But don’t you ever get confused whether “nm.” means “nanometre” or “nautical mile”?

[MCSP2008]

Salve

I know, LOL, it is funny.

As in my language, you go from one City to other City or country side, and dialect changes.

Just normal life.

Merci

[MCSP2008]

Salve

Every product that is exported to United States of Great Britain will have two: in Matric and British/American matrix.

That is because of the way matric works in those countries.

If you go to Italian delicatessen or food store in Roma, and say I want one pound of ham, watch the reaction. :}}}}}}}}

Merci

[dfwgator]

The bigger problem will be getting people to drive on the left side of the road.

[Myrddin]

I took my first visit to the UK starting from Mons, Belgium. A drive to Calais, France and I was on the ferry to Dover. In the morning, I walked to Kennings to "hire" a car. Of course it was a manual shift. Fine. Now I'm sitting on the right front seat, shifting with my left hand and driving on the left side of the road. Lot's of "adjustment" necessary. It didn't occur to me initially that the "fast" lane is on the right :-( After driving 345 miles to Aberystwyth, I was feeling more confident.

The return trip back to Dover went smoothly. I rode the ferry to Calais. After unlocking the normal drivers side door and sitting down, I reached for the shift know with my LEFT hand. Smack! Oh, I'm back in a regular car again :-(

The drive back to Mons was even more eventful. I took a wrong turn and found myself cruising down a toll road with no French francs and no map. I switched to my internal "autopilot" and found my way back to the Belgian border. From there, it was easy to get back to Mons.

[mamelukesabre]

They still use english units for certain things in mexico and canada...and I bet lots of other places in the americas also.

[Myrddin]

I find the same dialect issues in German and Welsh. My German customers could tell I learned German from a teacher in Karlruhe. Most of my Welsh experience is via music from the mid-valleys. I did that on purpose as that is where my family originated. The northern and southern dialects differ from the mid-valleys. Differences are more pronounced in colloquial usage. The formal, modern written form of Welsh is pretty standard...but nobody speaks in that manner.

[Olog-hai]

I have no doubt that the EU would eventually try to force Britain and Ireland (which they're trying to get them to call the “Atlantic Archipelago“ instead of the “British Isles”) to drive on the right side of the road like the rest of the continent; they’ll probably push it by pointing out how Sweden converted from left side to right side in 1967, and against the will of the people, coincidentally the same year they introduced speed limits in Sweden. The railroads, not so much—after all, they let France run their trains left-handed, like in Britain and Ireland and even on the former Chicago & Northwestern today.

[MCSP2008]

Salve

Yes, friend is like, if New Yorker will stop in Boston, they will know he’s from NYC, or if Bostonian stops in Austin TX they will know who he or she is. This is normal.

In language though, rules of grammar are in effect.

Same with matric system. Try to drive to gas station in Rio and say I would like 5 gallons for super - response will be like Que?

Now if you say I want 16 liters of regular, you will get gas and save yourself from headache.

All soldiers are learned in 00:00:00 hundred clock, as 14:00 automatically you will know is 2 P.M in American standard, but that is not use, only sometimes. So is with dialects, but language structure is same.

Merci

[MCSP2008]

Salve

Not wreally friend. If you will call English person European or Irish person as well, you will have different conversation, if you will call me I am Russian, or Polish person Ukraine, you will found yourself in serious unconstructive debate.

Reason English metric system is in use, is because of trade agreements that must be fulfilled, though if you go to these country, if you are native, you use metric system totally. Either you like, you have metric system on your products as well, there is reason for that.

Merci.

[Reeses]

people who think in metric have real problems with fractions.

The inch is natural, is divided by 2, then 2, then 2, like everything in the universe. Metric is based on 10 little pigglies. It's ridiculous and works poorly when measuring materials or meet-you-half-way haggling on price.

[SoothingDave]

Say what?

The Canadian football field is 110 yards long. Nothing metric about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_football

**************************

Canadian football is a form of gridiron football played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play 110 yards (101 m) long and 65 yards (59 m) wide[1] attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team’s scoring area (end zone). In Canada, the term football usually refers to Canadian football and American football collectively, or either sport specifically, depending on the context. The two sports have shared origins and are closely related, but have significant differences—in particular, 12 players on the field per team in Canadian football rather than 11, and three downs per possession rather than four. The smaller number of downs in Canadian football results in less offensive rushing than in the American game.

[ladyjane]

American football fields used to be longer than 100 yards. The stadium that McKim Mead and White (Stanford White) designed for Harvard was too small to fit the larger field so the size was reduced to 100 yards.