I don’t see a problem with selling by the bowl, provided the bowl size is required to be described in rounded litres. But then that would defeat their purpose of trying to avoid one metric unit if they have to use another.

At the deli counter, I estimate that 70% of the public ask for “two pieces of ham” or “half of that piece of cheese” etc, about 25% use metric units and only 5% use imperial units.

On the other hand, market traders in Hackney (where Colin Hunt, one of the so-called “Metric Martyrs” had a stall) claim that their clientele, especially the Afro-Caribbean community, prefer to use imperial units. When reading how the various ethnic communities perform at school, I can’t help but notice that the Afro-Caribbean community has the highest proportion of under-achievers, particularly amongst the boys. Furthermore, Hackney is one of the poorest areas in the United Kingdom.

This suggests to me that the voluntary use of metric is dictated to a degree by class with those in the better-off socio-economic groups being more willing to use metric units.

Let’s say a British person goes to America and wants to buy a courgette. He might see some in a green grocer. They may be labeled up as zucchini but he may still ask for X number of courgettes. Of course the American grocer would not know what he was talking about which differs from the situation in a British supermarket where someone might ask for a ‘pound of ham’ and the assistant will know how to weigh that up in the metric equivalent due to training. I hope my example makes sense.

(Sean)

The TNS WorldPanel grocery market survey for the 12 weeks up to 7 October 2007 shows the share of Great Britain total spend at grocers, excluding petrol, as follows:

Multiples        92.9% (of which Tesco alone accounts for 31.8%)
Co-ops           4.4%
Independents  2.7% (’Symbols’ 1.0%. Other independents 1.7%)

The survey does not indicate the proportion of total grocery spend in each group that relates to ‘goods sold loose from bulk’ (fruit, veg, delicatessen, etc). It also excludes specialist butchers and fishmongers, member-only wholesalers, such as Costco, and sales from market stalls. These are likely to have a turnover in total not greatly different from the independent grocers.

At the Multiples and Co-ops, pricing and weighing of ‘loose goods’ at the point of sale is metric, and customers are accustomed, eight years after the changeover, to see their apples, carrots, salami and prawns priced and weighed in kilos and grams at the point of sale. Multiples and Co-ops account for 97.3% of grocery spend, excluding member-only wholesalers and market stalls.

What about the Independents, who are included in the survey totals, and the butchers and fishmongers, who are not? Metric Views believes that most price and weigh in metric, but has little evidence either way, and notes that their turnover can only be a very small proportion of that of the Multiples.

You can view the TNS survey by following this link:

 http://www.acs.org.uk/en/news/details/index.cfm/obj_id/1DB104A4-4684-471D-8E9C910495A4F845

It would be good if you could point us to a poll, survey, etc that shows that 90% of British people now only use kilos. This would show that a collosal swing against imperial in a very very short time.

“The Assize of Bread and Ale (Latin: Assisa panis et cervisiæ) was a 13th-century statute in late medieval English law that set standards of quality, measurement, and pricing for bakers and brewers. This statute is usually attributed to act 51 Hen. III, occurring about 1266-1267. It was the first law in British history to regulate the production and sale of food. At the local level, this resulted in regulatory licensing systems, with arbitrary reoccurring fees, and fines and punishments for lawbreakers. In rural areas, the statute was enforced by manorial lords, who held tri-weekly court sessions.”

Although this was repealed in 1863, other laws were already in place regarding both short measure and a definition of which units of measure were legal. For example, Article XVII of the Act of Union 1707 states:

“THAT from and after the Union, the same Weights and Measures shall be used throughout the United Kingdom, as are now established in England, and Standards of Weights and Measures shall be kept by those Burghs in Scotland, to whom the keeping the Standards of Weights and Measures, now in Use there, does of special Right belong: All which Standards shall be sent down to such respective Burghs, from the Standards kept in the Exchequer at Westminster, subject nevertheless to such Regulations as the Parliament of Great Britain shall think fit.”

Thus, the laws that regulate our shops and street markets owe much more to history than might be deduced from the latest controversy.

* Imperial measures are not historically British. Many units are imported from European countries.

* A number of metric units are named after British scientists.

* The international body that develops and maintains metric standards is headed by a British Scientist.

* Britain has been using metric for well over a century for a variety of purposes and is well established in our industry and system of education.

* It has recently been discovered that an Englishman Bishop John Wilkins was the first person to propose a system of measurement very like the metric system that we know today.

So, there is nothing unpatriotic about using metric and giving it the legal status it deserves. Imperial measures oddly enough have a weaker British pedigree than metric.

However, it is clear that BNP and Christopher Booker (the author of the Sunday Telegraph and Daily Mail articles) share an antipathy for the European Union. Many - but not all - anti-EU campaigners have hoped that with British governments having had no sensible measurement unit policy for decades that metrication would be a convenient peg for their anti-EU agenda.

The EU angle is largely irrelevant. As a consumer I want to be able to compare like with like in a fair market; a principle established in every major ancient civilisation as well as the Magna Carta. Mixing measures just confuses things and opens the door to unethical and unfair trading.

However, what the Sunday Telegraph and Daily Mail seem not to have grasped is that cooking in metric is well established. Look at any modern British cookbook or watch Gordon, Nigella or Hugh on TV and you will only get sensible metric quantities.