MetricViews has come across an interesting letter in a newspaper published in Georgetown, Guyana.
Extracts are reprinted below (acknowledgements to Stabroek News http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_letters?id=56535420). The UK authorities could learn from the determined approach to metric conversion adopted by this former British colony.
This letter from an older correspondent speaks for itself:
The age of high speed rail finally reaches London on November 14th, when the final section of High Speed 1 - or HS1 to its friends - opens, to complete the link from London to Paris and Brussels. This will cut the travel time to just two and a quarter hours, and even less to Brussels, by allowing high speed operation on the final 39 km of route from near Gravesend in Kent into London. But why have the media missed the opportunity to use even more impressive big numbers?
Defenders of imperial units sometimes claim that using units from different systems simply contributes to the richness of our language and culture. People use whichever units are appropriate to the context (they argue). Two examples of this viewpoint were published in the Independent recently. However, the Independent declined to publish a response sent by the Chairman of UKMA. We therefore reproduce the correspondence here – together with further comment.
Today’s announcement by the European Commission that it is to propose that “supplementary indications” (such as lbs and oz) should be allowed indefinitely does NOT mean that traders can go back to weighing and pricing in imperial measures – so says the UK Metric Association (UKMA) In fact it will be business as usual. Just as they do now, traders will have to weigh or measure goods in metric units (kilograms, litres or metres) at the checkout and also display prices in metric units – with the option of a supplementary indication in non-metric units. [Press release issued on 11 September}
John Frewen-Lord has passed on a link which illustrates the UK’s increasing isolation from other Commonwealth countries in the matter of measurement. And if Toronto, facing New York State across Lake Ontario, can nevertheless escape US influence, then why can’t we?
In last night’s “University Challenge” (BBC2) between St Cross College, Oxford and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, the following question came up …
[Article by Martin Ward]
“Imperial measures. How many ounces in two and a half pounds?”
New research suggests that the principles of the metric system may have been outlined originally in England. The BBC launched this discovery on an unsuspecting British public during the Six o’clock News on 13 July. Here is the transcript of the broadcast (obtained by Robin Paice). (more…)
The UK Metric Association has accused the European Commission of “political cowardice” because it has caved in to American and European exporters - supported by the UK Government - and effectively abandoned the objective of a single, rational system of measurement throughout Europe.
The Commission has just published its response to the recent consultation on revising the Units of Measurement Directive. It is a badly written and illogical document, and UKMA has commented on it in the following press release:
On Wednesday, 9 May, the air waves and the prints were full of fanciful stories about Brussels caving in and allowing Britain to carry on using lbs, oz and other imperial units. The so-called “metric martyrs” * (Oh no, not them again!) declared a victory for their campaign. So what has really happened?
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