'Imperial should be ditched in favor of metric in time for Olympics' (UK: old "lib" Tory)

Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 6:20AM BST 16 May 2012 | Tim Ross, Political Correspondent

[Olog-hai]

Miles, pints and ounces should be abandoned in favor of a fully metric system because visitors to the Olympics will think Britain is living in its “imperial past”, a former Tory chancellor has said.

Lord Howe of Aberavon, who served in Baroness Thatcher’s cabinet, called on ministers to end the “deeply confusing shambles” of using a mixture of metric and imperial measures.

He said the lack of any attempt by the Government to clarify the arrangements was the “most glaring omission” from the Queen’s Speech.

During debate on the speech in the House of Lords, he said: “Weights and measures are in a mess. Liters for petrol and fizzy drinks, pints for beer and milk, meters and kilometers for athletics and the Ordnance Survey, miles per gallon for cars, the metric system for school, still pounds and ounces for the market. …"…

Lord Howe said he was responsible for metrication as consumer affairs minister in the early 1970s, while as a “penny-saving chancellor of the exchequer” from 1979, he had readily accepted the abolition of the Metrication Board. …

[SunkenCiv]

Conversion of all song lyrics should be part of this, e.g., Bob Dylan’s Rainy Day Women #12 & 35:

“Well, they’ll 6.3 kilogram ya when you’re trying to be so good”

Thanks Olog-hai.

[Olog-hai]

“. . . like a complete unknown, like a rolling 6.35 kilos”??

[ScaniaBoy]

As for the “common currency”, its only purpose was (and still is) to subjugate.

One Currency to rule them all, One Currency to find them, One Currency to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

Absolutely, but very soon our "bien-pensant (lib con) leaders" will have to subjugate the peoples in the countries who use the Euro to keep it.

[AdmSmith]

The number 12 is especially important to British—and indeed Judeo-Christian—history. The number 10 is more closely associated with the Roman Empire (where did the word "decimate" come from, after all)

Actually the word twelve comes from twalif = "two left" (over ten), eleven = endleofan, = "one left" (over ten). It is is based on the decimal system that is much older than the Roman Empire.

[Olog-hai]

Well, that’s the word; I was speaking of the number. (Hebrew is “shenayim”.) The one time that the number ten has significance is in the Ten Commandments of course.

[MCSP2008]

Salve

Hey be nice O>K :}}}

Well 1 Mile is 1200 meters, on nautical Mile is 1600 meters, in science you use KN MN, KW MW,, so what’s the problem :}}}}}}}

Be nice O.K with responses :}}}}

Merci

[MCSP2008]

Salve

I am sorry to inform you but majority of the world use matrix system, Mexico is one of them, so is Canada and so is China and and…….

Cheers.

Merci.

[MCSP2008]

Salve

LOL - Can I have a fag please LOL, American person will have a heart attack, relax for all it is cigarette.

LOL

I have feeling this is just opening for some serious fun here.

Merci

[Winniesboy]

My personal yearning is for the return of rods, poles and perches. I once had a three-rod allotment.

[AdmSmith]

I guess that you are referring to shteim׳esrei (12), shenayin is two. They have the same system and this system indicates that originally people were counting to ten only. But, that is no surprise as it is the numbers of fingers.

[TexasRedeye]

We ain’t gonna play football in meters either.

Yeah, it still confuses me when I hear a Canadian football announcer say the ball was on the "53" yard line. Odd mix. Field in meters (100) - marked in yards (110)!

[Olog-hai]

. . . unless of course you have some sort of polydactyly and therefore a supernumerary amount of digits. But still and all, twelve sons of Jacob, twelve Apostles, twelve gates of pearl in the city of New Jerusalem, et cetera . . .

[Olog-hai]

Matrix system? A system based on the womb . . . ?

[AdmSmith]

As a number of items has to be a specific number, nothing significant should be attributed to a specific number,it is just what it is.

[matthew fuller]

I get a kick out of metric sockets, which are 1/2”, 3/8”, and 1/4” drive. What drive size are they in are in Europe? Inches or some metric size? I’ve never seen any socket wrench sets with anything but the three size drives that I mentioned.

[MCSP2008]

Salve

0 1 111 0111 0

Merci

[mitch5501]

Same here,don't mind either.

However,I buy a lot of guitar parts from America and they persist in giving measurements like 1.864 inches etc whereas 50mm (or whatever the hell 1.864 inches is!)would be far easier.

Every time I read the specs I have to have the steel rule under the magnifying glass trying to suss out what the hell 2.446x1.862 inches is in millimeters.It's a royal pain.

[gr8eman]

Sure...I get redfaced over 20 ounce pints!

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

“Sure...I get redfaced over 20 ounce pints!”

Ha, that comes from too many of ‘em! (’Cause their beer beats most of ours that are not much more than barley water. (Micro brews are an exception, in many cases, but most are not on tap).

[9YearLurker]

Yes, they certainly think we’re silly the way we use a singular verb with a plural group, such as a team or a company!