Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 3rd Mar 2013 13:48 UTC
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It's an island, they have an island mentality.
They drive on the left side of the road and still have their own currency.
If they switch to the metric system they will be the last to do so.
The metric system is the better system, but it will be very hard to switch for people personally. I know how much a mile, feet and inch are in the metric system, but I have no feeling with them. If something is 32 inches I have to mentally convert it to centimeters, while someone who is used to work with feet 'n' inches can guess the length by feeling.
Isn't UK switching to it as part of EU?
No longer. Until last decade there was a formal (albeit ignored) commitment to switch, recognised by both the UK and the EU. However since then various Uk governments have shut down the various bodies intended to complete the process, and the EU has formally announced that it no longer considers the UK's commitment to go full metric as relevant.
There was a ruling a few years ago that stated that merchants could list prices exclusively in imperial, so long as they were weighed and sold on metric scales.
Its actually still illegal to put up road signs in km, or serve draught beer in litres. People get raided by the police for the later.
Its generally seen as a bad state of affairs, which confused me. Nations like the Netherlands which are taught two languages are seen as linguistically progressive. Why is knowing two measurement systems not seen as mathematically progressive?





Member since:
2010-06-08
Isn't UK switching to it as part of EU?