1.  
   A. Non from London says:

   Sep 21, 22:49

   Ginola, better for our carbon footprint to keep our imperial measurements to ourselves rather than export them.
   
   Loris, hate to burst your bubble but we have 18ct, 22ct and 24ct available in the uk.
   
   Jen, for your own information, remember your height and weight in imperial but give out the same in metric because most people here, don't understand and they won't know how tall you are or if you are overweight!

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2.  
   jen from Bournemouth. says:

   Sep 21, 22:31

   Re: John from Coventry.
   Thankyou, John, for showing that there are intelligent people online. You post was most informative and has enlightened me as to my own misguided prejudice regarding metric. I will never be able to think of my weight in anything other than stones, or my height as anything but feet!

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3.  
   AJH from London says:

   Sep 21, 19:57

   John from Coventry
   Thank you for some good old Britsh common sense and for looking deeper into this than the Sun newspaper Titles.

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4.  
   paul scoble from plymouth says:

   Sep 21, 19:10

   Ditto

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5.  
   John from Coventry says:

   Sep 21, 18:16

   I'm 70,learned the metric system at school,and used it in science and math.Its so simple compared to imperial.
   For those of you banging on about Imperial,it only refers to the codifying of measures in 1824,when several old 'English' were abolished. Most of the 'Imperial'measures were adopted from other countries. The abbreviation for ounce is 'oz' because it is short for onza(Italian), the abbreviation for pound is lb because it is short for libbra(Italian).In fact our two non metric systems of weighing have their roots in France and Italy.Our common pounds and ounces system,called 'avoirdupois' (meaning 'goods of weight' in French!)was adopted from France by London merchants.The other system, troy weight, associated with precious metals,came from the French city of Troyes!
   The EU had nothing to do with the uk going metric.In fact thedecision to go metric was announced by parliament in 1965 at a time when the prospect of us joining the EU looked bleak due to French president De Gaulle's famous 'non!'veto to our membership applications.So we decided to go metric 7 years BEFORE our entry to the EU.No other country forced us togo decimal. We had been playing with it since Britaint signed the international Metre Convention in 1884, and since that time British scientists have contributed significantly to the development of the modern metric system.Just as telephone standards are subject to international agreement through the International Telecommunicastion Union, so metric standards are agreed through the Metre Convention. In fact, back in 1895, full adoption of the metric system was recommended by a parliamentary select committe,but the measure was narrowly defeated in 1904.
   As far as the rest of the world is concerned,ALL countries, including the United States,have adopted the metric sysem,though several, including ourselves,have retained part of older sytems for local use.In the USA, the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 designated the metric system as the preferred system of weights and measures for all US trade and commerce, and directed federal agencies to convert to the metric system to the extent feasable, including the use of metric in the construction of federal facilities.In fact the use of metric measurements has been authorised by law since the US Metric Act of 1866.A 1996 amendment to the Fair Trading and Packaging Act of 1996 made it compulsory to mark comsumer goods witc metric weighs, volumes etc as well as traditonal ones.Since that time, most states have authorised marking with metric measures only.US 'traditional' pound -ounce measures have been officially defined by their metric value since 1893.Today, more than 50% of US consumeable goods have metric markings, and the number is steadily increasing, and eventually the US will become a metric nation.In some areas they are already ahead of the uk. eg.American Jam comes in 500g, not 454g(1lb) like some of ours.
   Oh, and to those who commented about the beer,I've drank quite a few litres all over the world without missing pints, and so have the millions who go to Spain etc every year.I've drank plenty of cans too,all over the uk, and wasn't put off because they were metric!
   The answer is, metric is here to stay, because its easier and better. The old measures will gradually die out because no one will remember them.

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