[Politics] It was 50 years ago today................

[RossyG]

It's strange that our distances and speeds haven't been decimalised. Yet our fuel has.

I was only taught metric at school, but still feel more comfortable with Imperial measurements. I know I’m six feet four inches tall, but in metric? Um, 1.9 metres?

I’m also happier with miles over kilometres. Imperial measurements sound nicer in metaphors and sayings too.

“Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile” sounds better than “Give them a centimetre and they’ll take a kilometre.”

Ditto, “They got their pound of flesh” over “They got their kilo of flesh.”

 

[studio150]

Donuts - 3p (7d)

Surely 50 years ago you could only buy doughnuts, rather than the imported American rubbish,
.

 

[studio150]

I was only taught metric at school, but still feel more comfortable with Imperial measurements. I know I’m six feet four inches tall, but in metric? Um, 1.9 metres?

I’m also happier with miles over kilometres. Imperial measurements sound nicer in metaphors and sayings too.

“Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile” sounds better than “Give them a centimetre and they’ll take a kilometre.”

Ditto, “They got their pound of flesh” over “They got their kilo of flesh.”

Just think of the carnage if we ever changed road signs to the metric system.

 

[smiler]

I went to Wards Irish House in Piccadilly Circus after work and had a pint of Guinness at a cost of 17 1/2p . Oh happy days . Anyone else remember Wards?

 

[Birdie Boy]

I was only taught metric at school, but still feel more comfortable with Imperial measurements. I know I’m six feet four inches tall, but in metric? Um, 1.9 metres?

I’m also happier with miles over kilometres. Imperial measurements sound nicer in metaphors and sayings too.

“Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile” sounds better than “Give them a centimetre and they’ll take a kilometre.”

Ditto, “They got their pound of flesh” over “They got their kilo of flesh.”

I'm 52 and was presumably taught the metric system but I also much prefer the imperial system. I say presumably as I can't remember any particular lesson with either...
Money wise, obviously only used the newer system as I was 2 at change over! [emoji854]

 

[Coldeanseagull]

It's probably why kids can't count past ten. A base 12 system makes sense to us, the older generation....in fact, no it doesn't, base 10 is easier.....but we weren't allowed to use calculators when I went to school. Feet and inches over centimetres and metres any day of the week.
Own up though, how many people use dual measurements? You know what I mean, two foot wide by 600mm long?

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

The UK went decimal. (Apologies to younger readers.)

Any memories? Does anyone still use pre-decimal terms - e.g. 'a few bob'?

I worked at an old style Sainsbury's (on the cheese counter as it happens). We had loads of training. My abiding memory is of the older customers (this was in Goring) simply handing over their purses and asking me to give them the right change. They were totally flummoxed and also rather angry. There was also the view that retailers used the change-over as an opportunity to mark-up prices.

I remember loads of people complaining about how difficult it would be, using a scale in tens and hundreds instead of 3 p a thruppeny bit, 6 p a tanner, 12 p a shilling, 2 bob a florin, 2 and 6 half a crown, and 144 pennies, or 20 shillings in a pound. People campaigned on the 'it will be so confusing' ticket. Bless.

 

[Brok]

Just think of the carnage if we ever changed road signs to the metric system.

I'd be behind it every inch of the way.

 

[GOM]

Thank god we got rid of such a stupid system. The whole thing is incomprehensible to anyone under 50

It was not incomprehensible at the time, just normal, it had been the norm for hundreds of years, like decimals are normal now, decimals were incomprehensible to anybody over 60 then.

It's only incomprehensible now because it has not been taught and is not in everyday usage.

Anyone under 40 probably struggles with feet and inches as well.

 

[dsr-burnley]

I'm sure this last week or so one of the commentators mentioned a forward with a head shaped like a threepenny bit, after a header had gone miles astray.

 

[Garry Nelson's teacher]

I remember loads of people complaining about how difficult it would be, using a scale in tens and hundreds instead of 3 p a thruppeny bit, 6 p a tanner, 12 p a shilling, 2 bob a florin, 2 and 6 half a crown, and 144 pennies, or 20 shillings in a pound. People campaigned on the 'it will be so confusing' ticket. Bless.

Not trying (too much) to make a political point, but I suspect that when half of Europe simply abandoned their domestic currencies for the euro, it went rather more smoothly than when we simply changed our own currency.

Just imagine the confusion had we gone from a decimal system to the imperial one!

 

[GT49er]

Not trying (too much) to make a political point, but I suspect that when half of Europe simply abandoned their domestic currencies for the euro, it went rather more smoothly than when we simply changed our own currency.

Presumably that's because most - if not all - the European currencies pre-the Euro were decimal anyway.

 

[Garry Nelson's teacher]

Presumably that's because most - if not all - the European currencies pre-the Euro were decimal anyway.

Agreed. But still a huge logistical task?

 

[Tom Bombadil]

It was not incomprehensible at the time, just normal, it had been the norm for hundreds of years, like decimals are normal now, decimals were incomprehensible to anybody over 60 then.

It's only incomprehensible now because it has not been taught and is not in everyday usage.

Anyone under 40 probably struggles with feet and inches as well.

Yeah they do because they were replaced by better systems

 

[GT49er]

Agreed. But still a huge logistical task?

Yes, but the point was how difficult - or not - ordinary people using the currency would find it. To the public it would be more like a devaluation - 100 whatsits would still make a thingamebob, jus that the thingamebob would be bigger - or smaller.

 

[Barrow Boy]

I was working for Keymarkets supermarkets in Shoreham when decimal currency started. At that time items were priced individually using ink stamps, not labels, so we all had to work over the weekend before 'D' Day replacing the old prices with the new decimal ones. The public were being told that prices wouldn't rise as they would be rounded down not up during the conversion, but that was bollox, we could see as we put the new prices on what was happening, very little went down most went up. Come Monday morning we had Radio Brighton waiting behind the checkouts to ask the first customers, clutching their currency converters, how their new decimal shopping experience had gone.

 

[Jack Straw]

Surely 50 years ago you could only buy doughnuts, rather than the imported American rubbish,
.

I can't spell duohgnuts!

 

[Jack Straw]

Bloody hell: I hope you didn't come up with this from memory! I wouldn't pay those prices even today.

I can remember some weird stuff from up to 60 years' ago. I can recite the register of pupils from my first year at secondary school, and when I came across a photo of my junior class when I was 10, I could name every one.

Back to the prices, I was paid 15p and hour (3 shillings). My first pay packet contained £ 1.20. I thought I'd won the pools!

 

[Jack Straw]

I'm sure this last week or so one of the commentators mentioned a forward with a head shaped like a threepenny bit, after a header had gone miles astray.

Probably because he was bald - Cockney rhyming slang. Thrupnee bits -!!!!

 

[Bakero]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cPeZLCVWTw