The EU or rather the European Parliament sitting in Strasbourg, France, voted yesterday to allow Britain and Ireland to keep using the mile, the pint and the pound (for weighing), etc.
But before the thing passed Britain and Ireland were required to set dates for scrapping these anachronisms in favor of kiolmeters, liters and kilograms next year.

But, in a sop to bleating British whatever the parliament also voted to allow shops to post imperial and metric measurements side by side so shoppers will be able to use which ever measure they prefer.

I wonder what will happen if i go into an English pub and ask for a 'liter of lager, please'?

(Above info from Agence France-Presse)

So what? We are supposedly all metric here in Canada, but most of us use a hybrid system. It will work itself out.

YOU might wonder why the governments of Freance and Germany wasted their time and political capital trying to force us to abandon imperial measurements. Especially when no bloody French jobsworth stops stallholders in French markets selling things by the 'livre'.

I mean if using damnfool measurements is such a lousy idea, you'd expect our continental "friends" to give us all the rope we wanted, the better to hang ourselves.

Turns out they seriously thought these quaint old measurements give us an unfair advantage selling to the North American market.

As a matter of interest, when's the dynamic, forward thinking, thrusting, New America of St Obama going to join the rest of the world? Or are inches and feet "anachronisms" only in the country that invented them?

<i>Especially when no bloody French jobsworth stops stallholders in French markets selling things by the 'livre'</i>

But the <i>livre</i> now stands for half a kilo. Is it the same for the English pound?

We had to abolish the &quot;Pfund&quot; almost 10 years ago. A long time before that, it became metric (o.5 kilos)

I did like the pound sign, it's not even on a german keyboard anymore and has been replaced by the &quot;§&quot;.

However, still noone here would buy 250g of butter.

It's still and always &quot;ein halbes Pfund Butter&quot;

In Italian markets you still see the &lt;Etto&gt; (sp/) as well.

A &quot;Mass Bier&quot; are 1.069 liters of beer.
Still people won't complain when they order a &quot;mass&quot; and only get one liter.

A &quot;Zollstock&quot; (=folding meter stick) still is a Zollstock (&quot;Zoll&quot; ist the german word for inch) And even though it is metric, the name &quot;Inch Stick&quot; remains.

I never understood why the EU insists on making this an issue. Imperial measures are standard and that is all one really needs out of a measurement system. And, really, in the modern era of computers, I think any benefits of the metric system are pretty much lost. Sure, it is easier to be able to divide by 10 in your head, but how often do you really need to do it?

If the populace is comfortable with imperial measures, it seems silly to make them switch.

<i>And, really, in the modern era of computers, I think any benefits of the metric system are pretty much lost.</i>

This is only true for &quot;public&quot; measures. When it comes to machine tools, the U.S. system is a pain and many items are now on the metric system even in the States.

I think we've accommodated the Papist decimalists enough by changing the size of <i>our</i> inch at their whim in 1958.

Maybe the British should return to &pound;sd.

Given 'em and inch, Robes, and they'll take a mile anyway.

It’s about reducing trade barriers. Take a look at a typical consumer product in Europe and you’ll find the ingredients listed in a dozen languages. The reason is that it’s the identical product sold in several countries in Europe. The producer might have one factory and one central warehouse from where it’s distributed to regional warehouses on demand.

But if a country isn’t using the common standard but its own, consumers demand the products in this unique standard. They don’t want to compare a product labelled in kilogram with a product labelled in pounds. If you change anything about the product, including the text on the wrapper, you have two different products. That means you have to keep different and thus safety stocks for packaging materials and finished goods and possibly you get shorter production runs. You increase costs for everybody, including the consumer, and in case of small companies they might not be able to enter a new market.

All this EU standardization people call ridiculous is actually extremely important from a production and logistics point of view. The companies with EU wide business have to follow one rule instead of 27 different rules. I've once worked in an industry where the EU isn't harmonized and it's pretty much a nightmare. If anyone believes that EU bureaucracy is bad, keep in mind that national bureaucracies aren't that phantastic either and as happy to regulate as the people in Brussels.

Hey PQ,

Where in all of the laws of God, Nature or Man does it say that the metric system is superior to any other system of measurement?

IIRC, in &quot;1984&quot; someone points out that the metric system is no damn good, because 35 dl is too little and 1/2 L is too much beer.

If the US does go completely metric, will we have to spell it &quot;litre&quot; or will &quot;liter&quot; be accepted?

One of the advantages of consistency is the avoidance of occasions like the 'Gimli Glider' a famous almost-accident in Canada. Because of confusion over whether the plane had been fuelled in metric or imperial measure, it literally ran out of gas over Manitoba. The pilot brought it down - gliding, onto the Gimli dragstrip, being used that day for 'Family day', full of cars and campers. The pilot managed to bring it down with no injuries to passengers or those on the runway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider

<i>Author: ira
Date: 12/18/2008, 06:40 am

IIRC, in &quot;1984&quot; someone points out that the metric system is no damn good, because 35 dl is too little and 1/2 L is too much beer.</i>

I would think 350 liters would be a little too much for most drinkers. Is this one of those &quot;odd number of sugars&quot; references?

(p.s. 50cl (~pint) isn't too much beer for any known purpose.)

<i>Author: Carlux
Date: 12/18/2008, 09:04 am

Because of confusion over whether the plane had been fuelled in metric or imperial measure, it literally ran out of gas over Manitoba. The pilot managed to bring it down with no injuries to passengers or those on the runway.</i>

Full marks for his piloting skill. Ten demerits for not checking his fuel quantity prior to takeoff. It IS on the checklist, you know.

Where in all of the laws of God, Nature or Man does it say that the metric system is superior to any other system of measurement?&gt;

Well i agree but if nearly all the rest of the world is one way then i'd say all countries should be that way.

U.S. has quietly gone metric IMO - most measurements it seems on cars and in science, etc. are now metric

only in the day to day world do folks use the old system and they always will - but if the instructions say use a 9 mm wrench they will buy a 9 mm wrench

meter is the American English way to spell it. It's liter not litre.