The U.K. Left The EU, And Now It's Inching Away From The Metric System Too

Robert59

Robert59

Well-known Member
Location
Now I live in Tennesee. Did live in Michigan.
Down at the local pub, die-hard Brexiters will be raising a pint to news that the United Kingdom is eyeing the end of a European Union-inspired ban on selling products in only pounds and ounces. But many others view the move away from the world-standard metric system as pure rubbish.

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/17/1038258578/britain-eu-metric-imperial-measurements
 

The metric system is so much easier to use. I was in elementary school when the teacher told us the US would be moving to the metric system soon. I use it in cooking, baking, and for measuring all sorts of things when it is the better system for the job.
 
The US should move to the metric system. Liquor and soda have been metric for decades, and no drunks have complained. Like beverages it could be done on product lines. Goods can be packaged in metric sizes and labeled initially in both systems until people get used to it.

Interstate 19 between Tucson and the Mexican border is posted with metric signs and no one has a problem with it.

I have traveled in Mexico and Canada and never had a problem. A tank of gas doesn't care if it is measured in gallons or liters.

In a hotel in London the bathroom scale gave you your weight in either Kilos or Stones. That was not catastrophic.
 

WheatenLover said:
The metric system is so much easier to use. I was in elementary school when the teacher told us the US would be moving to the metric system soon. I use it in cooking, baking, and for measuring all sorts of things when it is the better system for the job.
Click to expand...
We used metric measurements in the Army too and that was back in the 1960s.
 
Down at the local pub, die-hard Brexiters will be raising a pint to news


Would that be a US pint or an imperial pint?

The non EU weights and measures system is known by the good old English term "avoirdupois"!
 
It's not true, we won't be returning to the imperial system, for one hardly anyone under 60 remembers how it worked... and we've have a decimal system with money since 1971 long before we joined the EU...

We have never, even after joining the EU..changed our road signs to KM's.. we have always continued to use MPH... we still ask for a Pint in our pubs.. that's never changed, no-one has ever asked for 1/2 litre or a litre of beer...

In fact many people older than me ( mid 60's )...still ask for a pound or a quarter of something in the butchers or at the Deli... although officially since joining the EU at the shops it's Kilo and grams.. and ready prepared food is sold in Metric

Contractors all work in metric , have done since 1975 and construction built since that time are measured in Metric...so it would cause Chaos to revert back...

I still think in Pounds shillings and pence sometimes.. ( I'll often think wow that apple just cost me the equivalent of 17 shillings )... and I always measure in feet and inches, and then have to convert it to Metres and centimetres.. it's instilled in me.. it's what I learned as a child.. and I was in my 3rd job working in a Jewellery shop before we changed to the Decimal system , and we had to change all the prices of everything, not even knowing exactly what the conversion was...

Anyway , we will not be reverting as a nation back to Imperial , what stores will be permitted to do however is sell in Imperial measures to customers if that's their preference... ( whereas while we were in the EU, sellers had to always market their goods in metric ) ...overall the metric system is much easier to learn... my generation and those before me were obviously just mathematical geniuses to be able to deal with Imperial measurements, especially in mental arithmetic:giggle:
 
Last edited:
Verisure said:
Yeah, 12 pence to a shilling and 20 shillings to a pound makes bartering much simpler and easy.
Click to expand...
Arrrrrr, but it made people better at arithmatic, and, as a kid, with an old penny (1.25" diameter or 31mm in todays lingo) in my hand, I felt rich, because I could swap it for 4 farthings. :)
 
hollydolly said:
It's not true, we won't be returning to the imperial system, for one hardly anyone under 60 remembers how it worked... and we've have a decimal system with money since 1971 long before we joined the EU...

We have never even after joining the EU..changed our road signs to KM's.. we have always continued to use MPH... we still ask for a Pint in our pubs.. that's never changed, no-one has ever asked for 1/2 litre or a litre of beer...

In fact many people older than me ( mid 60's )...still ask for a pound or a quarter of something in the butchers or at the Deli... although officially since joining the EU at the shops it's Kilo and grams.. and ready prepared food is sold in Metric

Contractors all work in metric , have done since 1975 and construction built since that time are measured in Metric...so it would cause Chaos to revert back...

I still think in Pounds shillings and pence sometimes.. ( I'll often think wow that apple just cost me the equivalent of 17 shillings )... and I always measure in feet and inches, and then have to convert it to Metres and centimetres.. it's instilled in me.. it's what I learned as a child.. and I was in my 3rd job working in a Jewellery shop before we changed to the Decimal system , and we had to change all the prices of everything, not even knowing exactly what the conversion was...

Anyway , we will not be reverting as a nation back to Imperial , what stores will be permitted to do however is sell in Imperial measures to customers if that's their preference... ( whereas while we were in the EU, sellers had to always market their goods in metric ) ...overall the metric system is much easier to learn... my generation and those before me were obviosuly just mathematical geniuses to be able to deal with Imperial measurements, especially in mental arithmetic
Click to expand...
I never could understand why would any country would want to make a change? Units of measure should be part of the autonomy of the country we are in, not to make measurements a universal thing.
 
hollydolly said:
It's not true, we won't be returning to the imperial system, for one hardly anyone under 60 remembers how it worked... and we've have a decimal system with money since 1971 long before we joined the EU...

We have never even after joining the EU..changed our road signs to KM's.. we have always continued to use MPH... we still ask for a Pint in our pubs.. that's never changed, no-one has ever asked for 1/2 litre or a litre of beer...
Click to expand...
Before we went currency metric we bought our fuel at the pump for five bob a gallon, that became twenty five pence a gallon.
Today we buy our fuel in litres, what a gift that is to the garage trade. There's 4.55 litres to a UK gallon. Imagine the price sign that instead of reading £1:35 (per litre) it read £6:14 (per gallon.) That is what we are paying.
Personally I have never filled up in litres or gallons. I just pump until the tank is full and I have never paid by any means other than cash.
 
horseless carriage said:
Before we went currency metric we bought our fuel at the pump for five bob a gallon, that became twenty five pence a gallon.
Today we buy our fuel in litres, what a gift that is to the garage trade. There's 4.55 litres to a UK gallon. Imagine the price sign that instead of reading £1:35 (per litre) it read £6:14 (per gallon.) That is what we are paying.
Personally I have never filled up in litres or gallons. I just pump until the tank is full and I have never paid by any means other than cash.
Click to expand...
You are paying about $8.44 per gallon? Really?
 
horseless carriage said:
Before we went currency metric we bought our fuel at the pump for five bob a gallon, that became twenty five pence a gallon.
Today we buy our fuel in litres, what a gift that is to the garage trade. There's 4.55 litres to a UK gallon. Imagine the price sign that instead of reading £1:35 (per litre) it read £6:14 (per gallon.) That is what we are paying.
Personally I have never filled up in litres or gallons. I just pump until the tank is full and I have never paid by any means other than cash.
Click to expand...
yes I do too, just fill the tank (i'm fortunate to be able to do that ) , juust shut my eyes to the idea of the enormous price we pay for fuel... but there's a lot of people still who can only afford to stick a fivers' worth in, and that's sometimes not even a Gallon...
 
oldman said:
You are paying about $8.44 per gallon? Really?
Click to expand...
Yep.... the cheapest place for fuel near me is a supermarket in the next town.. they charge currently £1.37 per litre ( and this changes very often on a weekly basis)... £6.23 per gallon which is equal to $8.55 US per gallon.... ... the next garage a mile further charges £1.41 per litre... and that's just for ordinary unleaded, not premium
 
hollydolly said:
Yep.... the cheapest place for fuel near me is a supermarket in the next town.. they charge currently £1.37 per litre ( and this changes very often on a weekly basis)... £6.23 per gallon which is equal to $8.55 US per gallon.... ... the next garage a mile further charges £1.41 per litre... and that's just for ordinary unleaded, not premium
Click to expand...
In Pennsylvania, we pay one of the highest prices in the U.S. for gas at about $3.30 per gallon.
 
oldman said:
In Pennsylvania, we pay one of the highest prices in the U.S. for gas at about $3.30 per gallon.
Click to expand...
I know OM believe me the people of the UK are all very well aware how much more we pay for Fuel in the UK compared to the USA... we always laugh when we read that the people of the USA are upset in the rise in prices.. when in essence you're all paying for a Gallon what we pay for just 2 litres.... In fairness most of you have to drive everywhere... we don't (unless like me we live in the Countryside)... but in the UK most people can take public tansport easily, or walk to the shops...but that aside, most people who work have to drive an average of 40 miles a day for work... so it's a big chunk out of an average or minimum wage salary for fuel ...
 
oldman said:
You are paying about $8.44 per gallon? Really?
Click to expand...
We actually pay $7 because the US gallon is smaller than the UK one.
UK Fuel duty is currently levied at a flat rate of 57.95p per litre for both petrol (gas) and diesel, while VAT (value added tax) at 20% is then charged on both the product price and the duty. The UK has both one of the cheapest and dearest fuel prices in Europe.
A whopping 72% of the total fuel price is tax. No wonder our politicians are getting concerned about the inroads that electric cars are making.
 
actually yes, good point HC... there are 3.79 litres in a US gallon....( 4.55 to a UK gallon)>..so in essence at £1.37 a litre at my local garage I'm paying the equivalent of $7.13 US per gallon..
 
horseless carriage said:
We actually pay $7 because the US gallon is smaller than the UK one.
UK Fuel duty is currently levied at a flat rate of 57.95p per litre for both petrol (gas) and diesel, while VAT (value added tax) at 20% is then charged on both the product price and the duty. The UK has both one of the cheapest and dearest fuel prices in Europe.
A whopping 72% of the total fuel price is tax. No wonder our politicians are getting concerned about the inroads that electric cars are making.
Click to expand...
yes and now they're talking of taxing us on them per mile to claw back any revenue they may lose in petrol, and diesel
 
I wonder if the Brits in the Forum believe the UK never really felt like part of Europe. To me, a non-Brit, I have an impression that some Brits feel they sold their soul out in exchange for economic rewards from the EU. Of course, that's my learned opinion- Okay, not so learned.
 
oldman said:
I never could understand why would any country would want to make a change? Units of measure should be part of the autonomy of the country we are in, not to make measurements a universal thing.
Click to expand...
And how would you know how far it is to the next town or if you are getting cheated at the petro pump or if your plane is about to smash into a mountain?
 
Manatee said:
The US should move to the metric system.
Click to expand...
I think we are, on the 500 year plan...

When I started college I was surprised and happy to find my science and engineering classes mostly in metric. However when I told my father I thought we were switching he laughed and said his college classes were mostly metric too... About all it has done is to make a lot of us in the US kind of "bilingual" we understand either, but still think in imperial. And when I go fishing we still mostly use nautical miles... and my water rights are in acre-ft.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top