The European Federation has finally caved in to pressure and abandoned its plans to outlaw imperial measurements.
If the EU had gone ahead with its forced metrication programme it would have made any expression of imperial measurments illegal, whether they were in an instruction book, a letter in a newspaper or the rough jottings of a carpenter in a notepad.
Schools no longer teach imperial measurements and some local authorities have started siting new road signs at metric distances from junctions with imperial measurements as it is currently illegal to have metric road signs. Signs such as the one here on the left which is featured on the BMWA website – 383 yards is equivalent to 350 metres.
Back in march I asked how can a pint conform to EU standards? This was in response to the EU’s attempt to ban the use of the crown mark on pint glasses. They have back-tracked on this plan as well following a public outcry and decided that dual marking will be acceptable – pint glasses can continue to bear the crown mark as long as they use the CE mark as well.
This is a small victory for common sense and anti-metric campaigners but it’s important to remember that there is still a long way to go. We still have to have foreign measurements on our goods and and until we leave the EU it won’t change. Our children are being brought up without the imperial measurements that have served us perfectly well for centuries in order to remove the main barrier to metrication which is that the vast majority of people in this country just don’t understand metric.
On a related note, the Metric Martyrs are campaigning for a posthumous royal pardon for Steve Thoburn, the metric martyr that died a criminal for selling bananas in pounds and ounces. Steve had both imperial and metric scales on his market stall but was prosecuted by the metrication nazi’s at Sunderland Trading Standards anyway. His martyrdom resulted in his early death at just 39 years old shortly after he learned that his appeal had been rejected by the European Court of Human Rights. You can sign the petition here.
The sooner nations of Europe arise and abolish EU the better.
What chances of that with the place stuffed with self-serving egotists like B’liar, only too willing to sign us up to a rejected European Constitution before leaving office? No mandate to do it, no discussion, nothing! Just a final ‘Up yours!’ to the British public before his mates reward him with all sorts of freebies, and no doubt an EU job as well.
We’ve been well and truly stuffed with the Common Market, no sorry, the European Economic Community, no sorry, the European Community, no sorry, the European Union, no sorry, the watch this space, since we were first conned into it by Euroward Heath.
sorry mate whereas im opposed to our membership of the European Union I am not opposed to metrication .I hope we come out of the EU that way people can properly campain for metrication which is the world standard 94% of the world now use metric including all our former colonies and the republic of ireland metric has been taught in schools since 1974 most people under my my age (42) were never taught imperial moreover they dont even know how many inches there are in a yard let alone feet in a mile or even pints in a gallon so is it wise to continue with imperial?when everything around us is now measured in metric! I work in the DIY industry and most products are sold in metric paint is sold in litres take away kitchens are metric so is timber and also flooring and carpets I think out of 28000 products I have only counted 26 products that have duel labelling for ten years now we have sold fuel in litres and weights in kilos and the universe has not imploded we have just got used to it… metric is the future and we will damage our future and our kids future by not finishing the job and going fully metric …stuff the E.U Im concerned about our country …which to compeat without the untransparent policies of the controll freaks in brusells needs to be modern and progressive if we go it alone ..which we can do.. we need to modernise our country