Metrication

Neither metric measures nor decimalisation were imposed on Britain by Brussels.

The decision to introduce metrication in Britain was taken byParliament many years before we joined Europe, under the Weights and Measures Act of 1963.

Further legislation followed the call from the Federation of British Industries (now the CBI) in 1965 for the Government to implement atimetable for full metrication.

The reason the sovereign British Parliament took resolved to supersede the Imperial with the metric system was the same reason it decided to supersede the Guinea and the Groat with the decimal pound: ease of use. The Decimal Currency Act of 1969 was enacted before the Heath government that took Britain into Europe was even in office.

What is the point of using measures like the cubit, the hundredweight (112lb not 100) and the fathom that nobody has been taught to use for over thirty years.

The legislation that has just come into force, agreed in 1994, does NOT ban use of imperial weights and measures. It merely means that traders in goods sold loose by weight (eg meat and fish, fruit andvegetables) must indicate their prices per kilogram and use metric weightsas well. Consumers can still ask in pounds and ounces.

It is ludicrous for Angela Browning to announce that the next Conservative Government would amend the Units of measurement Directive to bring back the imperial system (not just the ounce and the pound when it was the last Conservative Government (in the shape of Mr Maude) who agreed the Directive that the Party is now committed to amending. Neither UKIP nor Conservative MEPs tried to amend the directive when the Parliament considered amendments to it last year.

The idea that the pound (lb) is uniquely British is just silly. The French used to use it too (livre).

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