EU and Democracy

Such examples (did someone just try to get back on topic? ) just show that a government sometimes needs to do more than govern from lofty heights; it needs to enact and enforce needed changes in order for the country as a whole to remain up to date with its neighbours. Or at least to ensure that those taught metric values aren't released into a world of imperial values and get lost.

If a government is only a kind of night watch then the country as a whole will run rampant with all the localized, temporary changes that the government refuses to either discourage or encourage. Certain essential things must definitely be put through by government interference, there is no other way. Of course I'm not talking about trivial things but sweeping changes such as new measurement systems or a new currency.

 

I have no objection to new measurement systems (I grew up on metric, well, started on Imperial, but going into science really reinforced the shift).
My point was, the UK is metricated, but we have vast numbers of pensioners who still think Imperial. Does it matter, on any level, that they buy their loose goods, from a small trader, in pounds and ounces. The trader still has the same stock levels at the end of the day, whether he's sold 0.45 kilos or the pensioner's 1 lb of brussel sprouts.
To my way of thinking it's an unnecessary intrusion into personal life for the sake of it.
If the trader was selling abroad I could see the point, although, as so many English people do, he'd probably tell his storeman to load up 2 cwt of spuds and then run to the calculator to fill in the books...
On the subject of metrication, I was taught millimetres and metres as units of measurement. AFAIK the US thinks in centimetres and metres (when it does think metric). Two years ago a 13-year-old joined our wargames club and during a game asked how far his tank could move.
When I told him that that particular tank could move 150 mm he gave me a blank look and said his tape measure only had centimetres on it. and "funny little marks" between the centimetres. He had no idea at all what a millimetre was -at 13 years old :cry:
Oli

 

i was and im 35!

so are my children who are at school right now

also our trainees at work have no understanding of imperial measures except miles..my children are taught there heights not in ft and ins but metres and cms.

also dont be surprised to see km being shown on road signs along side miles in the next 10-15 yrs!

 

Good grief, I'm 49 and was taught both, back in the sixties. By the time I got to sixth form college we were entirely metric. And in a nowhere place like Scunthorpe (never considered the cutting-edge of education)
Oli

 

It seems to be that EU and GB government are really trying to drag GB from 19th century to 21th century, atleast when it comes to metric values

 

I always understood that metric predated Imperial but anyway, the UK went over to Metric for the most part a long time before the EU so let's not give credit where it isn't due.

Imperial Measures do have advantages over Metric. For example if considering safety it is a lot easier to envisage, and I'm saying this from the point of view of someone reasonably conversant with both, 4 feet away from something than it is 121.92cm!

 

By gad, sir. Johnny foreigner will learn to do it our way, or else. Oops
Still stuck in the 19th :lol:
I think the biggest objection is that "it's being forced on us by foreigners".
Brits in general tend to xenophobia - witness our renowned capacity for communication when abroad :lol:
The first time I went to Prague I bought a Czech-English dictionary before I went, and was told by work colleagues (4 in one day) "There's no need to learn foreign. Just talk English slowly and loudly and they will understand". Is there any wonder that I was extremely proud to be mistaken for a German on my second day there?
Oli

 

Well, I think its easier to say: 1 meter away than 3 feet, 3 3/8 inch away!

 

OK how long is a chain then. :lol:

 

You're both wrong - holds hands apart - it's this far away :lol:

Actually, in the mid '70s I was at an air show talking to a bunch of guys who planning on building a replica WWI fighter (minus weapons I assume) - they'd got copies of the original drawings for a Bristol Fighter, and it was all metric.
Oli

 

This takes me back a few years.

http://www.johnowensmith.co.uk/histdate/measures.htm

And we used to rule the world on this. Must have been because people were still working it out while we invaded. :lol:

 

Reminds me of Terry Pratchett and Niel Gaiman's explanation of "real" money (ie old-style Brit) in the book Good Omens (which I won't give here assuming you've read it), or the teatime news programme, early 70 or 71, just as we were switching over to the new money. One pensioner interviewed suggested that the new money was too complicated and that the governement should wait until all the old people who were used to "proper" money had died :lol:
Oli

 

Oli: That "Good Omen" -book is one of the best book I've ever read. And I remember that money explanation in it.

GB:Agreed, those measures really confuse people who aren't used to them (and probably confuse some native users too ).
I believe some of those measures weren't used that much, atleast I haven't seen link, rod, chain, furlong, sq pole, rood, virgate, hide and peck being used that much...

 

Most of those units of measure have gone the way of the dodo, propellant is still specified in grains in a lot of books, and chain is used most summers here in the UK. 22 yards is the length from wicket to wicket on a cricket pitch. But I prefer metric, it's easier to use for what I do.
Oli

 

22yards, 20 meters or 1/80th of a mile! :lol:

 

Never ask someone who's suffered through an English school sports system how long a chain is - it gets drummed into the brain :lol:
Oli

 

In my case it's because Miles and Chains are the main units of distance on the Railway in the UK.

 

Sorry for the double post, my son got to the computer! :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

Yeah, and you know what happens when a country's development skips a century (Germany, Japan).

 

But skipping a century won't be a problem.
As far as most of the English are concerned the 20th century was something that happened abroad, and is therefore not worth worrying about :lol:
If it was a good idea we would have thought of it first!
Oli