Hello and thank you for being a DL contributor. We are changing the login scheme for contributors for simpler login and to better support using multiple devices. Please click here to update your account with a username and password.

Hello. Some features on this site require registration. Please click here to register for free.

Hello and thank you for registering. Please complete the process by verifying your email address. If you can't find the email you can resend it here.

Hello. Some features on this site require a subscription. Please click here to get full access and no ads for $1.99 or less per month.

Boris Johnson is to announce the return of imperial weights and measures

making it legal for market stalls, shops and supermarkets to sell their goods using only Britain’s traditional weighing system post-Brexit

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 85September 24, 2021 9:13 PM

Given how many stone he weighs it probably seems better to him than kilos.

by Anonymousreply 1September 18, 2021 12:06 AM

I don't hold with the metric system and all that E.E.C., Channel Tunnel nonsense.

by Anonymousreply 2September 18, 2021 12:09 AM

Anyone confused can just follow this:

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 3September 18, 2021 12:12 AM

It’s good for them to change to measurements that people can understand.

by Anonymousreply 4September 18, 2021 12:15 AM

I mean we never really left it. We've used some bizarre unhelpful to everyone mixed version for years. But given everyone normally just asks for say "I'll have £2 worth of bananas" rather than "6 hogsheads" of them or whatever this doesn't really matter and is so far the least troublesome part of Brexit.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 5September 18, 2021 12:17 AM

Permitting individual businesses to sell a quart instead of a liter isn't abandoning metrics.

by Anonymousreply 6September 18, 2021 12:18 AM

So penises be measured in inches again?

by Anonymousreply 7September 18, 2021 12:19 AM

But they still have to run/swim metres at the Olympics. Even the fat Americans still have to use the metric system in sporting events in their own country. Devastating!!!

by Anonymousreply 8September 18, 2021 12:22 AM

Dumb.

And the USA was supposed to go metric in the 70s. Well, we are somewhat, but the Imperial system still rules here.

More proof that Boris has his mouth on DJT's cock.

by Anonymousreply 9September 18, 2021 12:48 AM

That would be the metric system then, r4.

by Anonymousreply 10September 18, 2021 12:52 AM

[quote] More proof that Boris has his mouth on DJT's cock.

Trump really broke you poor cunts didn't he. "Please save us from the metric system" predates him by about 4 decades. Frankly I've always been amazed we managed to make decimalisation of the coinage stick as a country since enough people opposed that at the time as well.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 11September 18, 2021 12:54 AM

[quote] So penises be measured in inches again?

It’s tiresome when foreigners provide their height or dick size in metric units. I have to ask Google or Alexa to translate it into the real measurements.

by Anonymousreply 12September 18, 2021 1:04 AM

Funny how dick size has stayed imperial despite most of world going metric a long, long time ago.

No-one boasts about their 25cm cock.

by Anonymousreply 13September 18, 2021 1:13 AM

I think they do in other languages, r13.

by Anonymousreply 14September 18, 2021 1:15 AM

Yeah! Bout time..The first time my English husband went to Home Depot with me & saw an A.C. box marked w. BTU he couldn't believe it. Now our joke is always when we split wood for our wood boiler ah another BTU.

by Anonymousreply 15September 18, 2021 2:12 AM

This can only mean: We have to bring Tom Lehrer back.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 16September 18, 2021 2:43 AM

[quote]It’s good for them to change to measurements that people can understand.

The only ones who can't understand metric measures are Americans, and I'm not sure they truly count as people.

by Anonymousreply 17September 18, 2021 10:38 AM

What measurement does Boris use to measure his ego? Is there a unit large enough?

by Anonymousreply 18September 18, 2021 10:52 AM

When I was younger I kept hearing how the US was going metric, and then it never did. Metric measures makes more sense, but we remain stuck with the old imperial ways.

by Anonymousreply 19September 18, 2021 10:59 AM

When does BoJo go away?

by Anonymousreply 20September 18, 2021 11:05 AM

The metric system is logical, neat, and elegant. But it does't feed into American exceptionalism, so out it goes. As for Britain, I guess that, at a symbolical level, the imperial system works as a F U shout to the EU, so that's why it's being brought back again by the Tories.

by Anonymousreply 21September 18, 2021 11:05 AM

R2- It's pronounced BOO-KAY!

by Anonymousreply 22September 18, 2021 11:06 AM

[quote]And the USA was supposed to go metric in the 70s.

Yeah, WTF happened? I was a kid in the 70's hearing about it, ready to change but it never came. Oddly enough, my parents were for it because my mother being a registered nurse was already working in metric for all the medications and things like that. My father worked in Aerospace as an engineer and same deal, all in metric. The hardest thing for me now is trying to internalize what temp feels like in C vs F. I can look it up sure, but it just dose not stick. Gas in America is by the liter not gallon. Wine by the liter. Milk by the gallon. Cooking by the cup, baking by grams. It's so fucking confusing. Pick one America dammit!

by Anonymousreply 23September 18, 2021 11:08 AM

[quote]Gas in America is by the liter

Where?

by Anonymousreply 24September 18, 2021 11:10 AM

I am going to wright a sharply worded letter to the Metric Board.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 25September 18, 2021 11:11 AM

Fascinating stuff.

by Anonymousreply 26September 18, 2021 11:12 AM

R23- You can't be American. Gasoline is ONLY sold in American gallons.

by Anonymousreply 27September 18, 2021 11:12 AM

I started out in Imperial, switched to Metric when I started to travel/move around the world. Metric is so much simpler, easier to use. Completely forgotten the ounces, pounds, feet, pint, gallon nonsense.

by Anonymousreply 28September 18, 2021 11:18 AM

Using the easiness of the metric system as a reason to change is like saying that other languages are easier to learn and use than English (true), so we should transition away from using English in the U.S. That's not going to happen. "Ease of use" is not going to cut it as ground for change. Proponents of the metric system are going to need to do better.

by Anonymousreply 29September 18, 2021 11:29 AM

"No-one boasts about their 25cm cock. "

Not when it's easy to confuse it with mm. Everyone understands what a "10incher" is

by Anonymousreply 30September 18, 2021 11:31 AM

[quote]Using the easiness of the metric system as a reason to change is like saying that other languages are easier to learn and use than English

R29 Uh, no. The only countries in the world still mired in Imperial are the US, Liberia and Myanmar. . . and England if it returns to that basis of measurement. The rest of the world, all 192 countries of it, uses Metric. THAT'S the reason to change.

by Anonymousreply 31September 18, 2021 11:45 AM

[quote]The hardest thing for me now is trying to internalize what temp feels like in C vs F.

Same. I always have to mentally run through that rhyme "30 is hot, 20 is pleasing (etc)"

by Anonymousreply 32September 18, 2021 11:52 AM

What is that rhyme r32?

by Anonymousreply 33September 18, 2021 11:56 AM

R22 then it should be "Bouquet" not Bucket

by Anonymousreply 34September 18, 2021 12:20 PM

You have to be careful that businesses don't use this as a way to cheat their customers. I'm from the generation that understands both Imperial and Metric, I can instantly convert between them. Anyone under 45 probably can't, they only know the Metric system.

This is a huge step backwards, we'll have roads measured in Furlongs and rulers marked in Barleycorns next.

by Anonymousreply 35September 18, 2021 12:41 PM

My guess is "10 is cold and zero is freezing?"

by Anonymousreply 36September 18, 2021 12:50 PM

[quote] Gas in America is by the liter not gallon.

Not my experience at all, though a gallon is, essentially, four liters.

by Anonymousreply 37September 18, 2021 12:52 PM

The EU won't even notice this change r21, which isn't even a change, just an option in shops. Products will still be sold in grams and kilos in the UK and anything exported to the EU will have to be use the metric system regardless. Supermarkets will not bother with this and nor will most shops or market stalls. Only some old fogies in a smelly corner shop you'd never want to go into anyway are likely to try to sell stuff in pounds and ounces or gallons.

The only people this is an F U too are us Brits.

by Anonymousreply 38September 18, 2021 12:52 PM

Why did the UK only do a half-assed swtich to metric? They still use miles instead of KM on highways, and stone for weights.

by Anonymousreply 39September 18, 2021 12:54 PM

HM Revenue & Customs (VAT) will also demand measurements are converted back to Metric for accounting purposes.

by Anonymousreply 40September 18, 2021 12:57 PM

We do use kilos and metres for weight and height/length among younger generations r39, although the traditional stones and feet/inches are used too. Miles for distances would have been too complicated to change. I remember my mum being in the car of a relative in an EU country, completely freaking out when she saw the speedometer going up to 60, not realising that it was a speed of 60 kilometres an hour not 60 miles an hour!

On the whole, the metric system came in for commercial products, items that are bought and sold, exports and imports.

by Anonymousreply 41September 18, 2021 1:03 PM

So what do they call Quarter Pounders in the UK now?

by Anonymousreply 42September 18, 2021 1:05 PM

Only thing worse than stones, would be running across references to pre-decimal British money.

by Anonymousreply 43September 18, 2021 1:29 PM

R42 Still 'Quarter Pounders' but they weigh 113.3981g

by Anonymousreply 44September 18, 2021 1:29 PM

Reagan killed the metric system, along with action on solar power, support for unions and the Federal commitment to Civil Rights.

by Anonymousreply 45September 18, 2021 2:02 PM

I've been waiting over 40 years for the Decabet.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 46September 18, 2021 2:50 PM

Now if we could just get them to drive on the proper side of the road...just kidding.

by Anonymousreply 47September 18, 2021 2:53 PM

what a fucking asshole? These people do not solve real problems. They just cause chaos and create problems. Get rid of this ahole.

by Anonymousreply 48September 18, 2021 2:59 PM

I find it absolutely impossible to be outraged over this. It's not something I'm in favour of, but neither am I opposed. It's just something that's briefed to get people on Twitter worked up into a frenzy and feed an imaginary culture war.

Like most British people I use a mixture of both imperial and metric. Height and cock size will always be feet and inches, my weight will always be stones and lbs rather than kilos, and fluid will always be pints. But when it comes to cooking it will be kilos and grams. I see no reason why having both causes problems for anyone.

Despite being very much pro EU, the idea that someone should have been prosecuted for selling fruit with imperial signs is just batshit.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 49September 18, 2021 3:08 PM

This is meaningless to to anyone under a certain age. I’m in my fifties, and was taught metric measurements at school. However, this will play well to people who believe blue passports are important.

by Anonymousreply 50September 18, 2021 3:15 PM

R49, no one was prosecuted for using imperial signs, they simply had to label and sell products in metric measurements. He could have used imperial signs if he wanted but sold in metric - and that's a trading standards issue so that the UK government can know what is being brought and sold throughout the whole supply chain, it's not an "EU diktat".

There is a lie (probably more than one) in the article you link to. First, it claims "He was prosecuted for refusing to convert from traditional pounds and ounces to Euro-approved metric measures" and then it says "Steven strongly believed his customers should have the choice of whether their produce was measured in grams and kilograms or pounds and ounces." If Steven refused to use metric measures then he wasn't offering customers a choice between imperial and metric, he was forcing imperial on them.

You also forget - as do many Brexiters and "remainers" of the "I'm pro-EU but..." type - that each EU member state is responsible for the laws by which it introduces EU certain policies. It's not the EU that demanded anyone be prosecuted for not labelling products in metric and using imperial only. In any case, only about five anti-EU "imperial martyrs" were "prosecuted" for not using metric, this was hardly an issue. They were not giving their customers the choice to use metric.

This is just a dumb populist move. Only some typical Brexiter over-70s will want to use pounds and ounces, which is a ridiculous method of weighing, and switching to imperial will cause problems for any market stall operator or small shopkeeper as all their stock purchases will still be in metric and I strongly suspect their tax returns will have to be submitted using metric as well.

by Anonymousreply 51September 18, 2021 3:41 PM

Does no one remember the old school rhyme, “A chain is 66 feet, there are 100 links or 4 rods in a chain! There are 10 chains in a furlong, there are 80 chains or 8 furlongs in one statute mile!”? I mean. This was a popular method of teaching distance!

by Anonymousreply 52September 18, 2021 3:53 PM

[quote] The only countries in the world still mired in Imperial are the US, Liberia and Myanmar. . . and England if it returns to that basis of measurement. The rest of the world, all 192 countries of it, uses Metric.

Those 192 countries can continue to use metric if they wish. The U.S. doing what’s best for itself by not going metric doesn’t affect anyone else’s decision.

by Anonymousreply 53September 18, 2021 5:00 PM

Canada uses Imperial for some things. In supermarkets at the deli counter the cheese and meat is sold by the pound but is also listed in kilograms. Houses are measured in square feet.

by Anonymousreply 54September 18, 2021 5:30 PM
Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 55September 18, 2021 5:54 PM

The UK signed up to convert to a Metric system in 1856, Metric measurements have been legal since 1875.

They would also need to recalibrate and certify all of the weighing scales.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 56September 18, 2021 6:05 PM

The metric system is the best. Everything is divisible by 10.

by Anonymousreply 57September 21, 2021 2:43 PM

Hope they bring back Fahrenheit - or least have both. I can never get a handle on Centigrade.

by Anonymousreply 58September 21, 2021 3:10 PM

[quote]I can never get a handle on Centigrade.

Celsius is easier.

by Anonymousreply 59September 21, 2021 3:33 PM

[quote]The UK signed up to convert to a Metric system in 1856, Metric measurements have been legal since 1875. They would also need to recalibrate and certify all of the weighing scales.

Most scales in the UK have metric and imperial on them. When you by a jug it has metric and imperial on it.

The idea that NO ONE under the age of 40 knows what an imperial measurement is is crap. We still buy milk in pints not litres. We buy beer and lager in pints not litres.

Any changes will have minimum effect on the public and is just a chance for anti Brexit campaigners to wind themselves up into a frenzy over it.

by Anonymousreply 60September 21, 2021 3:37 PM

Cute.

Now four countries use the imperial system. How quaint!

by Anonymousreply 61September 21, 2021 3:42 PM

[quote] The metric system is the best. Everything is divisible by 10.

With the imperial system, you don’t need to divide everything by 10, so it’s better.

by Anonymousreply 62September 21, 2021 4:49 PM

Imperial is preferable in some ways like in cooking - tablespoon, teaspoon, cup, etc. It's easier to visualize.

by Anonymousreply 63September 21, 2021 5:14 PM

Only because I drink a liter of the stuff.

by Anonymousreply 64September 21, 2021 5:21 PM

It's for pro-brexiters I imagine. Look we are taking back the country! Of course someone says it will wind us up. Yes stupid things will tend to wind up smarter people

by Anonymousreply 65September 21, 2021 5:40 PM

[quote]Imperial is preferable in some ways like in cooking - tablespoon, teaspoon, cup, etc. It's easier to visualize.

I tried making bread today and some of the tiny measurements were in grams - my scales don't go that low. Had to convert to tsp.

by Anonymousreply 66September 21, 2021 5:43 PM

[quote]Celsius is easier.

I'm more of a Kelvin guy myself.

by Anonymousreply 67September 21, 2021 5:46 PM

There's a whole cottage industry of shysters and crooks who make money getting old English people angry about the EU. They term every suggestion, rule and idea A DIKTAT FROM HERR HIT-EU-LER.

Boris himself made his bones lying about what the EU was doing for the right-wing press in the UK for years. Reactionary old ladies gobbled it up since they all JUST KNEW that Brussels was full of lying, lazy foreigners!!!!

Some people have it too easy and create huge dramas out of nothing.

by Anonymousreply 68September 21, 2021 6:40 PM

Most people use metric with occasional forays into imperial for specific things.

My imperial measurements are cock size, height, distance, room sizes and body weight. Everything else is metric.

by Anonymousreply 69September 21, 2021 6:48 PM

R66 All digital scales sold in the UK measure in metric and imperial, they also generally cost less than $20.

Grams are much more accurate, which helps as baking cakes and bread is really chemistry not cooking.

by Anonymousreply 70September 21, 2021 10:00 PM

R28- I started out on Imperial- CHRYSLER IMPERIAL

by Anonymousreply 71September 22, 2021 1:31 AM

[quote] There's a whole cottage industry of shysters and crooks who make money getting old English people angry about the EU. They term every suggestion, rule and idea A DIKTAT FROM HERR HIT-EU-LER.

And there’s an even bigger cottage industry of shysters who are outraged by people angry about people angry about anything Boris Johnson or the Tories do.

There’s plenty to be angry about- they’re a bunch of incompetent and malevolent arseholes - but when you find yourself defending the Chinese government and trashing the AZ vaccine it’s time to get a grip.

The best example of this recently was James O’Brien’s response to the Afghanistan withdrawal being ‘Why were people so against the idea an EU army?’ He knows exactly why it would never work but got to get the likes in from the FBPE nutters.

by Anonymousreply 72September 22, 2021 6:21 AM

The whole feet and yards thing boggle the mind. But I do think Fahrenheit is more precise.

by Anonymousreply 73September 22, 2021 9:02 AM

[quote] What is that rhyme [R32]?

R33, the Celsius temperature rhyme I learned goes like this: “30 is hot, 20 is nice, 10 is cold, 0 is ice.”

by Anonymousreply 74September 22, 2021 1:08 PM

It doesn’t much matter when you’re running out of food to sell at all.

by Anonymousreply 75September 22, 2021 1:41 PM

Boris is currently boasting about his deal to sell Welsh Lamb to the US.

He'll be heartbroken when someone tells him that it's the least popular meat in the US and that Welsh farmers have problems fulfilling current demand from The Middle East and North Africa.

by Anonymousreply 76September 22, 2021 6:57 PM

I wonder why a metric calendar can’t be made. 10 months a year of 10 day weeks and 10 hour days and 100 minutes to an hour. It would be easy to calculate if someone would take the time to convert everything.

by Anonymousreply 77September 22, 2021 7:43 PM

R77 It's been done.

In 1793 The French Republican Calendar was adopted by the French Government after the Revolution, it somehow managed to last until 1805. Not sure that it was in common use by ordinary people though, it was really confusing.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 78September 22, 2021 8:05 PM

It was also largely ridiculed:

[BOLD] [ITALIC] "In Britain, a contemporary wit mocked the Republican Calendar by calling the months: Wheezy, Sneezy and Freezy; Slippy, Drippy and Nippy; Showery, Flowery and Bowery; Hoppy, Croppy and Poppy" [/ITALIC] [/BOLD]

by Anonymousreply 79September 22, 2021 8:13 PM

Base 12 measurement systems are far more useful and practical in everyday life.

by Anonymousreply 80September 22, 2021 9:08 PM

A metric calendar is much more difficult than it might seem as it needs to line up with the rotation of the earth as well as its orbit around the sun. Base 12 makes more sense when it comes to a spheroid object orbiting elliptically around another spheroid object.

by Anonymousreply 81September 22, 2021 10:50 PM

R81 It'd also be a pain in the arse to work birthdays out.

The change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1752 caused riots in the UK.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 82September 22, 2021 11:07 PM

Those Brits have never liked change, have they r82?

by Anonymousreply 83September 22, 2021 11:08 PM

R83 Barely a decade passes when there aren't serious riots about something, minor one's a few times a year.

The next serious riots are likely to begin soon, Boris Johnson is on very shaky ground.

by Anonymousreply 84September 22, 2021 11:14 PM

In the mid 90s soda companies came out with two-liter bottles of soda. And NOBODY made a big deal about it, either in the public or the media. So why the fuck can't they do that with all the other consumer foods and products? Coke bottles are proof that it's not as hard as people make it out to be.

by Anonymousreply 85September 24, 2021 9:13 PM
Loading
Need more help? Click Here.

Yes indeed, we too use "cookies." Take a look at our privacy/terms or if you just want to see the damn site without all this bureaucratic nonsense, click ACCEPT. Otherwise, you'll just have to find some other site for your pointless bitchery needs.

×

Become a contributor - post when you want with no ads!