Imperial Weights and Measures - Another fantastic Brexit Bonus!

WindyNook said:
When talking about this I always ask "What's a mile?"
I rarely get a correct answer even from old fogies like me!
Ask them "What's a kilometre" and the majority answer correctly.
If I was to suggest all road signs should be in kilometres l would be run out of the country.
Follow up question is "How many pounds in a hundred weight "
See even my tablet wouldn't let me type hundredweight.
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1.6km
 
The whole world doesn't use metric anyway. The USA doesn't.
Metric works well when the headline measure resonates on a scale.
Kilograms doesn't for me. If someone says they are 75 kilos I have no idea.
Kilometres don't either.
Litres of fuel, 1.68metres tall?
They don't have meaningful benchmarks for me.

Separately, we still drive on the left, as do an awful lot of countries, but not the majority.
 
SmogontheMarsh said:
1.6km
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1760 yds 5280 ft 63360 in
Taught this in lesson one to science pupils in British measures v Foreign muck. By the end of the lesson always 100% vote for foreign muck.
The answer of 112lb in a cwt (pounds in a hundredweight) always had them on the floor laughing
Get rid of miles today in a short while you would miss them as much as lsd.
For a bit of fun try doing some sums in pounds shilling and pence with some teenagers and look at their faces when you do something simple like 10d + 9d= 1s 7d
 
They've missed one thing off the Brexit reform list which I'd have on and that's returning to proper colour coding of fire extinguishers. Making them all red was really daft.
 
Maybe it's just the cynic in me but when a story is as irrelevant and unnecessary as this then I can't help but wonder what it's deflecting from, I suspect that it's a device to hide price rises onto the public under the guise of re-calibration and has nothing to do with any real desire to return Imperial measure as the default system....I'm always a bit concerned when Government's offer to take back control of something that's already under their remit to control, and would much prefer the options of freedom and choice over restriction and obligation.
 
American_Mary said:
Maybe it's just the cynic in me but when a story is as irrelevant and unnecessary as this then I can't help but wonder what it's deflecting from, I suspect that it's a device to hide price rises onto the public under the guise of re-calibration and has nothing to do with any real desire to return Imperial measure as the default system....I'm always a bit concerned when Government's offer to take back control of something that's already under their remit to control, and would much prefer the options of freedom and choice over restriction and obligation.
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It's more a function of our media and their inability to scrutinise what's happening properly. The government have released a document with 23 possible reforms listed. The media have picked the 1 that makes a good headline/argument/click bait and then framed it to be more controversial than it really is.
 
I'm now starting to come around to the idea of this, as it's a practical certain vote loser for the tories, not that we needed many more considering their latest approval ratings.

Anyone under 50 should absolutely hate the imperial "system", and would be another good reason to ditch the tories, if they were leant a vote. Anyone imperial/ old/ old fashioned is probably already voting tory anyway, no matter what.

Also, in real life it won't make a blind bit of difference, as cars are still mph, pints are still pints, golf is yards, so is football, and engineering and construction will never move away from metric, currency will remain as it is etc.
 
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I cant see supermarkets using imperial measures, and lest me honest thats where the vast majority of people shop now.

the reality is that we have had the both imperial and metric for the past 50 years.

Im not sure what is more ridiculous though, trying to bring back the imperial system or the outrage of people who think it will actually return in any meaningful way!
 
indeedido said:
The whole world doesn't use metric anyway. The USA doesn't.
Metric works well when the headline measure resonates on a scale.
Kilograms doesn't for me. If someone says they are 75 kilos I have no idea.
Kilometres don't either.
Litres of fuel, 1.68metres tall?
They don't have meaningful benchmarks for me.

Separately, we still drive on the left, as do an awful lot of countries, but not the majority.
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Not sure what your point is? You name one single country that uses (it's own version) of imperial.

So that's:
USA (modified Imperial)
Liberia
Myanmar

That use the imperial system. You want us to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world and align with a system used in only 2 other countries?

I get it, old people brought up on imperial are too stubborn to convert. I understand that and do it myself with miles (well, I don't conversion is use but I USE miles).

That doesn't mean we should make our kids more isolated from the rest of the world.
 
Ironops said:
I cant see supermarkets using imperial measures, and lest me honest thats where the vast majority of people shop now.

the reality is that we have had the both imperial and metric for the past 50 years.
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Yes, we do shop in supermarkets, but they'll sell what people want to buy. There's plenty of stuff sold in 454g packs.

No matter what way you dress it up, Imperial measurements are useful and convenient for every day life, like shopping or how far is it to Dundee. Metric measurements are fine for precision stuff, or lab work but they aren't as instantly useful as Imperial. I see dimensions quoted in mm and the numbers can be huge. I have to convert them to Imperial just to get a rough idea of how big something is.
 
SmallTown said:
Not sure what your point is? You name one single country that uses (it's own version) of imperial.

So that's:
USA (modified Imperial)
Liberia
Myanmar

That use the imperial system. You want us to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world and align with a system used in only 2 other countries?

I get it, old people brought up on imperial are too stubborn to convert. I understand that and do it myself with miles (well, I don't conversion is use but I USE miles).

That doesn't mean we should make our kids more isolated from the rest of the world.
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Plenty of countries still use Imperial measurements although officially, they don't. Try talking to a Canadian plumber about a metre of pipe and you won't get far.
 
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