[News] Johnson to bring back Imperial units to honour the queen

[dsr-burnley]

One system of weights and measures was developed by scientists using standardised units of tens and hundreds logically thought through to ensure simplicity.

The other system of weights and measures was developed by a one eyed loon high on mushrooms naked painted blue going by the name Ugg

The other

Yes, when measuring distances, it's far more logical to estimate them by how many millionths of the distance from the equator to the north pole than it is to estimate them by pacing out a yard to a pace.

The traditional UK weights and measures (which long predate the imperial age, incidentally, so the name is a misnomer) was developed by the people throughout centuries based on what was useful and helpful.

People who don't like it can still use metric.

 

[dsr-burnley]

Luckily maths including Imperial measurements comes fairly easy for me, I also find the whole thing kind of quaint eg old farming area units, acres, furlongs, strips etc.

But it’s so complex and illogical for gen’s of youngsters to learn, many of whom have the challenge of Dyscalculia. Metric simply makes sense.

I just missed out on pre-Decimalisation money, but remember the old coins hanging around for a while.

I shouldn't worry about children's ability to learn. They managed to learn it hundreds of years ago when they didn't go to school at all. I would have thought today's children would be better educated and therefore (hopefully) just as competent to learn?

I suspect most children can cope with shirt collar sizes being in inches and shoe sizes in barleycorns, for example. Learning what you need is pretty easy. And it's not as if they're going to need to calculate field sizes in acres anyway, if they're used to doing it in hectares.

 

[BadFish]

I shouldn't worry about children's ability to learn. They managed to learn it hundreds of years ago when they didn't go to school at all. I would have thought today's children would be better educated and therefore (hopefully) just as competent to learn?

I suspect most children can cope with shirt collar sizes being in inches and shoe sizes in barleycorns, for example. Learning what you need is pretty easy. And it's not as if they're going to need to calculate field sizes in acres anyway, if they're used to doing it in hectares.

I am not sure many kids actually understand either of these. Most kids get taken shopping by parents and try stuff on. Does anyone understand the barelycorn thing or do we just know our shirt sizes.

While I agree with the rest of your point i will say that as a teacher in Australia I like teaching the metric system as it makes sense across all kinds of measurements. Teaching all the other stuff would be confusing for some of the kids and take up valuable time that could be spent teaching something else.

To my mind it makes sense to fully embrace and stick with one system or other. Be that base 10 or Base 12. There are definite benefits to both but surely straddling the two is madness?

 

[BadFish]

I shouldn't worry about children's ability to learn. They managed to learn it hundreds of years ago when they didn't go to school at all. I would have thought today's children would be better educated and therefore (hopefully) just as competent to learn?

I suspect most children can cope with shirt collar sizes being in inches and shoe sizes in barleycorns, for example. Learning what you need is pretty easy. And it's not as if they're going to need to calculate field sizes in acres anyway, if they're used to doing it in hectares.

I am not sure many kids actually understand either of these. Most kids get taken shopping by parents and try stuff on. Does anyone understand the barelycorn thing or do we just know our shirt sizes.

While I agree with the rest of your point i will say that as a teacher in Australia I like teaching the metric system as it makes sense across all kinds of measurements. Teaching all the other stuff would be confusing for some of the kids and take up valuable time that could be spent teaching something else.

To my mind it makes sense to fully embrace and stick with one system or other. Be that base 10 or Base 12. There are definite benefits to both but surely straddling the two is madness?

 

[drew]

I shouldn't worry about children's ability to learn. They managed to learn it hundreds of years ago when they didn't go to school at all. I would have thought today's children would be better educated and therefore (hopefully) just as competent to learn?

I suspect most children can cope with shirt collar sizes being in inches and shoe sizes in barleycorns, for example. Learning what you need is pretty easy. And it's not as if they're going to need to calculate field sizes in acres anyway, if they're used to doing it in hectares.

Is Johnson going to fund all the new text books for the schools?

 

[clapham_gull]

There are definite benefits to both but surely straddling the two is madness?

Which is why we have weights and measures legislation.

The announcement was written on the back of a fag packet with the word "choice" dropped in to confuse the core vote that measuring things was controlled by the State/EU and much better handled by "the Market". That Market (of course) that enables competition based on unified weight, measures and standards.

Unpack that.....

This wasn't a post Brexit announcement, it was a satire of a post Brexit announcement.

Deliberate though and defines an administration that has run out of ideas and resorts to culture wars to shore up its support.

It's usefulness to them is defined by those who are against rather than for.

Christ they are going to be out of office for a very long time.

 

[Hugo Rune]

Which is why we have weights and measures legislation.

The announcement was written on the back of a fag packet with the word "choice" dropped in to confuse the core vote that measuring things was about to privatised and much better handled by the "market".

This wasn't a post Brexit announcement, it was a satire of a post Brexit announcement.

That was deliberate though and defines an administration that has run out of ideas and resorts to culture wars.

It's usefulness to them is defined by those who are against rather than for.

I want a choice when it comes to numbers. I’ve always found Roman numerals to be much more attractive than standard Arabic numerals (which come from you know where!).

In light of this, my business will be changing ALL of it’s displayed numbers to Roman numerals once this legislation comes in. This is the sort of thing I voted Brexit for, freedom from the Brussels tyranny! And if anyone doesn’t like it, they can **** off back to Italy or wherever they came from.

Mick Coaches
(Owner of Brighton buses)

 

[BadFish]

I want a choice when it comes to numbers. I’ve always found Roman numerals to be much more attractive than standard Arabic numerals (which come from you know where!).

In light of this, my business will be changing ALL of it’s displayed numbers to Roman numerals once this legislation comes in. This is the sort of thing I voted Brexit for, freedom from the Brussels tyranny! And if anyone doesn’t like it, they can **** off back to Italy or wherever they came from.

Mick Coaches
(Owner of Brighton buses)

Your choice but I will only be doing business with users of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Stick those on your buses or I will find a bus company that will. (although I can obviously use your numbers I, II and III buses - Depending on where you go with IIII/IV, I will make a decision.

Up yours Delors

 

[BadFish]

Which is why we have weights and measures legislation.

The announcement was written on the back of a fag packet with the word "choice" dropped in to confuse the core vote that measuring things was controlled by the State/EU and much better handled by "the Market". That Market (of course) that enables competition based on unified weight, measures and standards.

Unpack that.....

This wasn't a post Brexit announcement, it was a satire of a post Brexit announcement.

Deliberate though and defines an administration that has run out of ideas and resorts to culture wars to shore up its support.

It's usefulness to them is defined by those who are against rather than for.

Christ they are going to be out of office for a very long time.

Your government is a basket case!

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

I know many Brexiteers, many of whom were fine for money, it was and is also very much:
- a hate of unelected Brussels officials determining parts of UK life.
- EU criminals being allowed to remain here ad infinitum, similarly the ECJ overruling UK legal decisions on stuff like sentencing, detention or deportation of people wishing to do us harm.
- people didn’t like their small communities radically changing in such a short space of time.

I voted Remain and personally love the cosmopolitan mix of nationalities who’ve come to these shore to work. Others didn’t.

I agree with all your points - different people voted for BREXIT for a range of different reasons.

I share your Remain views, while at the other extreme some will have voted the other way for pure racist/xenophobic reasons.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Nope, sorry, I appreciate your faith makes you see the best in people, but I think there was a huge proportion of older and poorer people looking at young British graduates starting up businesses with Romanian or Ukrainian developers or becoming digital nomads or just travelling where they pleased for the sheer pleasure of it, and then saw immigrants from the EU coming here and somehow able to make a living and send money home when they don't have any, and voted out of pure vitriol, jealousy and despair.

Fair enough. I can see what you mean.

Different people voted for different reasons. I know one Conservative Remainer who actually voted for BREXIT because he wanted to “teach my leader a lesson” . That went well, then.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

The youngest people who remember using imperial weights and measure’s are well into their 70’s and 80’s

Oh no they’re not. I’m 68 and I remember lbs and ozs very well. My dad ran a corner shop and, although more modern equipment was used on a daily basis, we actually had one of those scales which came with little brass weights. I loved it.

 

[darkwolf666]

Oh no they’re not. I’m 68 and I remember lbs and ozs very well. My dad ran a corner shop and, although more modern equipment was used on a daily basis, we actually had one of those scales which came with little brass weights. I loved it.

62 here and I clearly remember pounds, ounces and stones as measurements of weight, and still use, in my head, when working something out.

 

[raymondo]

https://twitter.com/pippamusgrave1/status/1438562349909172232 (a long thread and I'm at work so can't pick out each tweet)


And more humourous
https://www.boredpanda.com/imperial-measurement-system-twitter-rant-innesmck/

And to cap it all off...an American pint is smaller (or is it larger?) than a British pint...so an American gallon (still 8 pints) is smaller than a British gallon...so it's quite hard to compare milk and fuel prices even metric to metric, cos there's British metric and there's US metric, but only on some measures, and only on weekdays...WTAF?!?!?

 

[mikeyjh]

I know many Brexiteers, many of whom were fine for money, it was and is also very much:
- a hate of unelected Brussels officials determining parts of UK life.
- EU criminals being allowed to remain here ad infinitum, similarly the ECJ overruling UK legal decisions on stuff like sentencing, detention or deportation of people wishing to do us harm.
- people didn’t like their small communities radically changing in such a short space of time.

I'd love to have a conversation with a brexiteer claiming the first 2, opening that conversation with "go on then, give me some examples"!!. I think variations of the latter are the core reason why a lot of people voted the way they did. That and being told that the ills of society are down to the EU and immigration.

 

[WATFORD zero]

I know many Brexiteers, many of whom were fine for money, it was and is also very much:
- a hate of unelected Brussels officials determining parts of UK life.
- EU criminals being allowed to remain here ad infinitum, similarly the ECJ overruling UK legal decisions on stuff like sentencing, detention or deportation of people wishing to do us harm.
- people didn’t like their small communities radically changing in such a short space of time.

I voted Remain and personally love the cosmopolitan mix of nationalities who’ve come to these shore to work. Others didn’t.

I'd love to have a conversation with a brexiteer claiming the first 2, opening that conversation with "go on then, give me some examples"!!. I think variations of the latter are the core reason why a lot of people voted the way they did. That and being told that the ills of society are down to the EU and immigration.

But to be fair, at least the third group who didn't like living in the late 20th or 21st century are getting what they voted for

 

[WATFORD zero]

Oh no they’re not. I’m 68 and I remember lbs and ozs very well. My dad ran a corner shop and, although more modern equipment was used on a daily basis, we actually had one of those scales which came with little brass weights. I loved it.

I'm a bit younger but I remember those little imperial scales with brass weights, they used to sell them here. I don't remember them being used for fruit and veg though



Person's Height, Weight, Speed, Milk, Beer Imperial, all other measurements and weights, Metric for me.

And I never ever got Fahrenheit, freezing is WHAT ? Boiling is WHAT ?

 

[Ooh it’s a corner]

Some very strange comments from a few on this thread imo.

I’m 65 and loved LSD - I mean £sd etc, cwt et al because like Weststander I was good at arithmetic. Having been a primary school teacher and HT for most of my career my view is that it would be a truly ridiculous move to try and reintroduce imperial measures when the metric system is so much EASIER. Just WHY would anyone think it’s a good idea? - total madness - so much so I’m convinced the idea can’t possibly be serious.

 

[darkwolf666]

Some very strange comments from a few on this thread imo.

I’m 65 and loved LSD - I mean £sd etc, cwt et al because like Weststander I was good at arithmetic. Having been a primary school teacher and HT for most of my career my view is that it would be a truly ridiculous move to try and reintroduce imperial measures when the metric system is so much EASIER. Just WHY would anyone think it’s a good idea? - total madness - so much so I’m convinced the idea can’t possibly be serious.

No one outside of Boris Johnson's head does think it's a good idea.

It's distraction of the highest order, pandering to a vocal minority who hanker for the good ol' days

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

I'm a bit younger but I remember those little imperial scales with brass weights, they used to sell them here. I don't remember them being used for fruit and veg though

View attachment 148544

Person's Height, Weight, Speed, Milk, Beer Imperial, all other measurements and weights, Metric for me.

And I never ever got Fahrenheit, freezing is WHAT ? Boiling is WHAT ?

I think when we had the scales with weights in the 1960s they were really a museum piece, and weren’t in use.

Mrs DiS and I still weigh ourselves in Stones and pounds, but are quite happy doing everything else for the most part in metric. If need be, though, I can generally work out roughly a conversion either way - an inch is 2.54cms. A foot is about 30cms.