In uk.transport, Doug wrote:
>Mr Herron - who led the campaign to stop the prosecution of British
>shopkeepers still using imperial measurements -

ISTR that the campaign was actually to stop the prosecution of British
shopkeepers who refused to use metric measurements. I'm glad it failed,
because I prefer metric units. Occasionally I still see goods priced by
the ounce/pound, but it's important to note that Mr Herron's efforts had
nothing to do with that.

-- 
Mike Barnes

Mike Barnes wrote:
> In uk.transport, Doug wrote:
>> Mr Herron - who led the campaign to stop the prosecution of British
>> shopkeepers still using imperial measurements -
>
> ISTR that the campaign was actually to stop the prosecution of British
> shopkeepers who refused to use metric measurements. I'm glad it
> failed, because I prefer metric units

Same here. I was born in 1973. I was never taught any imperial stuff at 
school. Metric is far easier for me, and most of the people I know.

Mike P

Mike P wrote:
> Mike Barnes wrote:
>> In uk.transport, Doug wrote:
>>> Mr Herron - who led the campaign to stop the prosecution of British
>>> shopkeepers still using imperial measurements -
>> ISTR that the campaign was actually to stop the prosecution of British
>> shopkeepers who refused to use metric measurements. I'm glad it
>> failed, because I prefer metric units
> 
> Same here. I was born in 1973. I was never taught any imperial stuff at 
> school. Metric is far easier for me, and most of the people I know.

Maybe we should switch over to kph on the roadsigns then?

-- 
Abo

Abo wrote:
> Mike P wrote:
>> Mike Barnes wrote:
>>> In uk.transport, Doug wrote:
>>>> Mr Herron - who led the campaign to stop the prosecution of British
>>>> shopkeepers still using imperial measurements -
>>> ISTR that the campaign was actually to stop the prosecution of
>>> British shopkeepers who refused to use metric measurements. I'm
>>> glad it failed, because I prefer metric units
>>
>> Same here. I was born in 1973. I was never taught any imperial stuff
>> at school. Metric is far easier for me, and most of the people I
>> know.
>
> Maybe we should switch over to kph on the roadsigns then?

heh, they're just numbers though aren't they. Miles I can manage ;-) Though, 
when I drive in Europe, I do like the way the kilometres come down faster on 
a long journey :-)

Mike P

"Mike P"  wrote in message
news:6k17acF5gqlfU1@mid.individual.net...
> Mike Barnes wrote:
>> In uk.transport, Doug wrote:
>>> Mr Herron - who led the campaign to stop the prosecution of British
>>> shopkeepers still using imperial measurements -
>>
>> ISTR that the campaign was actually to stop the prosecution of British
>> shopkeepers who refused to use metric measurements. I'm glad it
>> failed, because I prefer metric units
>
> Same here. I was born in 1973. I was never taught any imperial stuff at
> school. Metric is far easier for me, and most of the people I know.

I was born in 1963 so I was taught a mixture of imperial and metric -
imperial at home (parents, grandparents etc) and maybe at primary school,
but metric at secondary school.

I tend to estimate in imperial units (I know my height and weight in
imperial but nor metric) but if I have to measure something I always use
metric units because the calculations are trivially easy.

It's a shame that although pre-packed items have to be marked in metric
units (and maybe imperial as well) supermarkets are *still* allowed to sell
loose, weighed-on-demand items such as cheese and boiled ham on delicatessen
counters in ounces.

It is difficult to take any measuring system seriously if it uses a base 
other than ten (eg ounces in a pound, inches in a foot) and if there isn't 
an integer relationship between linear and volumetric units: there are 
277.419547 cubic inches in a (UK) gallon - not even 278, never mind rounder 
numbers like 280 or 300!

The only thing wrong with the metric system is the names of the units:
"inch" is a shorter word than "centimetre", "pound" is shorter than 
"kilogramme" etc.

"Mike P"  wrote in message
news:6k1ainF5jorpU1@mid.individual.net...
>> Maybe we should switch over to kph on the roadsigns then?
>
> heh, they're just numbers though aren't they. Miles I can manage ;-)
> Though, when I drive in Europe, I do like the way the kilometres come down
> faster on a long journey :-)

When I was in Ireland on business about 10 years ago, I noticed that
distance signs were in kilometres but speed limits and car speedometers were
in mph. It made it very difficult to calculate how long it would take to do
57 km at 60 mph - you need to be adept at applying a 1.6 (*) conversion
factor!

I don't know whether the distance/speed issue has been resolved since then - 
maybe now they have cars which are RHD but fitted with km/hr and km 
speedometers and odometers.


(approximately)

Mortimer wrote:
> "Mike P"  wrote in message
> news:6k17acF5gqlfU1@mid.individual.net...
>> Mike Barnes wrote:
>>> In uk.transport, Doug wrote:
>>>> Mr Herron - who led the campaign to stop the prosecution of British
>>>> shopkeepers still using imperial measurements -
>>>
>>> ISTR that the campaign was actually to stop the prosecution of
>>> British shopkeepers who refused to use metric measurements. I'm
>>> glad it failed, because I prefer metric units
>>
>> Same here. I was born in 1973. I was never taught any imperial stuff
>> at school. Metric is far easier for me, and most of the people I
>> know.
>
> I was born in 1963 so I was taught a mixture of imperial and metric -
> imperial at home (parents, grandparents etc) and maybe at primary
> school, but metric at secondary school.
>
> I tend to estimate in imperial units (I know my height and weight in
> imperial but nor metric) but if I have to measure something I always
> use metric units because the calculations are trivially easy.
>
> It's a shame that although pre-packed items have to be marked in
> metric units (and maybe imperial as well) supermarkets are *still*
> allowed to sell loose, weighed-on-demand items such as cheese and
> boiled ham on delicatessen counters in ounces.
>
> It is difficult to take any measuring system seriously if it uses a
> base other than ten (eg ounces in a pound, inches in a foot) and if
> there isn't an integer relationship between linear and volumetric
> units: there are 277.419547 cubic inches in a (UK) gallon - not even
> 278, never mind rounder numbers like 280 or 300!
>
> The only thing wrong with the metric system is the names of the units:
> "inch" is a shorter word than "centimetre", "pound" is shorter than
> "kilogramme" etc.

A clear case of "measure snobbery". :-)

"Adrian"  wrote in message 
news:6k1bhiF5f0bbU6@mid.individual.net...
> "Mortimer"  gurgled happily, sounding much like they were
> saying:
>
>> When I was in Ireland on business about 10 years ago, I noticed that
>> distance signs were in kilometres but speed limits and car speedometers
>> were in mph. It made it very difficult to calculate how long it would
>> take to do 57 km at 60 mph - you need to be adept at applying a 1.6 (*)
>> conversion factor!
>
> HTF do you cope when you're driving on the continent, then?
> Come to that, HTF do I cope, driving LHD/kph cars in the UK?

The situation has never arisen: whenever I've driven abroad (which is only 
once or twice), it's always been in a locally-hired car which has the 
steering wheel on the correct side and has km/hr and km speedo (Germany) or 
likewise LHD and mph speedo (America).

As a matter of interest, how easy is it to overtake in an LHD car on RHD 
road or vice versa when you're on your own and haven't got a passenger to 
act as your eyes? Especially when you are pulling out on a 
single-carriageway road and can't see whether there's oncoming traffic until 
the "wrong" side of your car is in the middle of the road.

Mortimer wrote:
> "Adrian"  wrote in message
> news:6k1bhiF5f0bbU6@mid.individual.net...
>> "Mortimer"  gurgled happily, sounding much like they
>> were saying:
>>
>>> When I was in Ireland on business about 10 years ago, I noticed that
>>> distance signs were in kilometres but speed limits and car
>>> speedometers were in mph. It made it very difficult to calculate
>>> how long it would take to do 57 km at 60 mph - you need to be adept
>>> at applying a 1.6 (*) conversion factor!
>>
>> HTF do you cope when you're driving on the continent, then?
>> Come to that, HTF do I cope, driving LHD/kph cars in the UK?
>
> The situation has never arisen: whenever I've driven abroad (which is
> only once or twice), it's always been in a locally-hired car which
> has the steering wheel on the correct side and has km/hr and km
> speedo (Germany) or likewise LHD and mph speedo (America).
>
> As a matter of interest, how easy is it to overtake in an LHD car on
> RHD road or vice versa when you're on your own and haven't got a
> passenger to act as your eyes? Especially when you are pulling out on
> a single-carriageway road and can't see whether there's oncoming
> traffic until the "wrong" side of your car is in the middle of the
> road.

I generally find that if you leave a sensible gap to the car in front, as 
you should when driving either in UK or abroad,  visibility isn't really 
affected.

Mike P

Adrian wrote:
> "Mortimer"  gurgled happily, sounding much like they
> were saying:
>
>> As a matter of interest, how easy is it to overtake in an LHD car on
>> RHD road or vice versa
>
> Since my cack-handers are 2cvs, the question is academic. <grin>

Really? I find part of the fun of 2cving *is* overtaking unsuspecting people 
;-)

Mike P

Mike P wrote:
> Mike Barnes wrote:
>> In uk.transport, Doug wrote:
>>> Mr Herron - who led the campaign to stop the prosecution of British
>>> shopkeepers still using imperial measurements -
>> ISTR that the campaign was actually to stop the prosecution of British
>> shopkeepers who refused to use metric measurements. I'm glad it
>> failed, because I prefer metric units
> 
> Same here. I was born in 1973. I was never taught any imperial stuff at 
> school. Metric is far easier for me, and most of the people I know.
> 
> Mike P 
> 
> 
How do you measure your petrol consumption?

-- 
Tony the Dragon

Tony Dragon wrote:
> Mike P wrote:
>> Mike Barnes wrote:
>>> In uk.transport, Doug wrote:
>>>> Mr Herron - who led the campaign to stop the prosecution of British
>>>> shopkeepers still using imperial measurements -
>>> ISTR that the campaign was actually to stop the prosecution of
>>> British shopkeepers who refused to use metric measurements. I'm
>>> glad it failed, because I prefer metric units
>>
>> Same here. I was born in 1973. I was never taught any imperial stuff
>> at school. Metric is far easier for me, and most of the people I
>> know. Mike P
>>
>>
> How do you measure your petrol consumption?

It depends. I can deal with miles and gallons as of course, that's what I 
was taught by my dad and Grandad. I still work it out in mpg, even if I'm 
driving something abroad that has km/h clocks and I only put litres in.

It's more the imperial weight system that I can't get my head round. 
Possibly simply because I know what 250g of ham looks like, but if you asked 
me to go and buy 1/2 lb of it, I'd struggle. if it wasn't marked as 250g as 
well.  It's probably just brain fade on my part...

Mike P

Mike P wrote:
> Mike Barnes wrote:
>> In uk.transport, Doug wrote:
>>> Mr Herron - who led the campaign to stop the prosecution of British
>>> shopkeepers still using imperial measurements -
>> ISTR that the campaign was actually to stop the prosecution of British
>> shopkeepers who refused to use metric measurements. I'm glad it
>> failed, because I prefer metric units
> 
> Same here. I was born in 1973. I was never taught any imperial stuff at 
> school. Metric is far easier for me, and most of the people I know.

I remember Shirley Williams (no less) sometime in the late 1970s (but 
before 1979 for obvious reasons) taking someone to task for not teaching 
children in school the metric system, and employers in general for not 
making better use of it. As she said "what do you expect us to do?"

-- 
John Wright

"What would happen if you eliminated the autism genes from the gene pool?

You would have a bunch of people standing around in a cave, chatting and
socialising and not getting anything done!" - Professor Temple Grandin

Mike P wrote:
> Abo wrote:
>> Mike P wrote:
>>> Mike Barnes wrote:
>>>> In uk.transport, Doug wrote:
>>>>> Mr Herron - who led the campaign to stop the prosecution of British
>>>>> shopkeepers still using imperial measurements -
>>>> ISTR that the campaign was actually to stop the prosecution of
>>>> British shopkeepers who refused to use metric measurements. I'm
>>>> glad it failed, because I prefer metric units
>>> Same here. I was born in 1973. I was never taught any imperial stuff
>>> at school. Metric is far easier for me, and most of the people I
>>> know.
>> Maybe we should switch over to kph on the roadsigns then?
> 
> heh, they're just numbers though aren't they. 

They are. As one pilot I knew said (and I'm sure the women of the Air 
Transport Auxiliary would concur) all aircraft are the same, its only 
the numbers that differ. The same goes for roads.

-- 
John Wright

"What would happen if you eliminated the autism genes from the gene pool?

You would have a bunch of people standing around in a cave, chatting and
socialising and not getting anything done!" - Professor Temple Grandin

Tony Dragon wrote:
> Mike P wrote:
>> Mike Barnes wrote:
>>> In uk.transport, Doug wrote:
>>>> Mr Herron - who led the campaign to stop the prosecution of British
>>>> shopkeepers still using imperial measurements -
>>> ISTR that the campaign was actually to stop the prosecution of British
>>> shopkeepers who refused to use metric measurements. I'm glad it
>>> failed, because I prefer metric units
>>
>> Same here. I was born in 1973. I was never taught any imperial stuff 
>> at school. Metric is far easier for me, and most of the people I know.
>>
>> Mike P
>>
> How do you measure your petrol consumption?

I get called a pedant since I use an (open office) spreadsheet which 
calculates in both mpg and l/100km. Have done for years, probably since 
Duhg was a lad.

-- 
John Wright

"What would happen if you eliminated the autism genes from the gene pool?

You would have a bunch of people standing around in a cave, chatting and
socialising and not getting anything done!" - Professor Temple Grandin

"John Wright"  wrote in message 
news:yaqdnUTUReUVh0HVnZ2dneKdnZydnZ2d@pipex.net...
>> How do you measure your petrol consumption?
>
> I get called a pedant since I use an (open office) spreadsheet which 
> calculates in both mpg and l/100km. Have done for years, probably since 
> Duhg was a lad.

If you're a pedant, then so am I because I too have always kept consumption 
figures on a spreadsheet for all my various cars! It helps to check that my 
consumption isn't worsening as the car gets older.

"Since Duhg was a lad"? Was that back in the days of non-synchromesh crash 
gearboxes, vacuum-operated wipers and heaters as an optional extra ? ;-)

"Mike Barnes"  wrote in message 
news:ubpNEj$YUI3IFwn0@g52lk5g23lkgk3lk345g.invalid...
> In uk.transport, John Wright wrote:
>>Mike P wrote:
>>> Mike Barnes wrote:
>>>> In uk.transport, Doug wrote:
>>>>> Mr Herron - who led the campaign to stop the prosecution of British
>>>>> shopkeepers still using imperial measurements -
>>>> ISTR that the campaign was actually to stop the prosecution of British
>>>> shopkeepers who refused to use metric measurements. I'm glad it
>>>> failed, because I prefer metric units
>>>  Same here. I was born in 1973. I was never taught any imperial stuff
>>>at  school. Metric is far easier for me, and most of the people I
>>>know.
>>
>>I remember Shirley Williams (no less) sometime in the late 1970s (but
>>before 1979 for obvious reasons) taking someone to task for not
>>teaching children in school the metric system, and employers in general
>>for not making better use of it. As she said "what do you expect us to
>>do?"
>
> How about allowing pubs to serve beer in metric measures? And changing
> the road signs to km and km/h?

With the will, they could do this over 20 years. Given that signs are 
replaced about every 10 years, they could start now by replacing end-of-life 
signs with dual-standard ones, miles and km. After 10 years, all signs (more 
or less) would be in both. Then over the following 10 years, they would be 
replaced with km-only signs. Job done, and a nice lo-o-o-ng time for 
everyone to get used to it.

> Of course while they're messing with the
> signs we could switch to driving on the other side of the road. To
> further improve things they could ban the use of Fahrenheit by the
> media.
I'd go along with that one.

> Then they could change our mains plugs to match those used on the
> other side of the channel. Oh, and adopt the euro. Did I leave anything
> out?

Speaking French or German?

More seriously, aligning our tax year to the calendar year. This would have 
to happen if/when we went into the Euro (as the Irish had to). Makes sorting 
out dual taxation with other countries (who all use the calendar year) so 
much easier.

Graculus wrote:

> More seriously, aligning our tax year to the calendar year. This
> would have to happen if/when we went into the Euro (as the Irish had
> to). Makes sorting out dual taxation with other countries (who all
> use the calendar year) so much easier.

The tax year does use the calender year (just not the current one).  :-)

Brimstone wrote:
> Graculus wrote:
>
>> More seriously, aligning our tax year to the calendar year. This
>> would have to happen if/when we went into the Euro (as the Irish had
>> to). Makes sorting out dual taxation with other countries (who all
>> use the calendar year) so much easier.
>
> The tax year does use the calender year (just not the current one). :-)

Additional.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/faqs/general.htm#7

Quote:-
"Why does the tax year start on April 6?

The reason for the tax year running from 6 April to 5 April is primarily 
historical and has its origin in the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian 
calendar in 1752.

It had been calculated in the 16th Century that the Julian calendar had lost 
9 days since its introduction in 46 BC. Most of Europe changed to the new, 
more accurate, Gregorian calendar in 1582, but this country continued with 
the old one until September 1752 by which time the error had increased to 11 
days.

These 11 days were 'caught up' by being removed from the calendar 
altogether - 2 September was followed by 14 September. In order not to lose 
11 days' tax revenue in that tax year, though, the authorities decided to 
tack the missing days on at the end, which meant moving the beginning of the 
tax year from the 25 March, Lady Day, (which since the Middle Ages has been 
regarded as the beginning of the legal year) to 6 April.

The dates were adopted for income tax on its re-imposition in 1842 and have 
not changed since."

Mortimer wrote:
> "John Wright"  wrote in message 
> news:yaqdnUTUReUVh0HVnZ2dneKdnZydnZ2d@pipex.net...
>>> How do you measure your petrol consumption?
>> I get called a pedant since I use an (open office) spreadsheet which 
>> calculates in both mpg and l/100km. Have done for years, probably since 
>> Duhg was a lad.
> 
> If you're a pedant, then so am I because I too have always kept consumption 
> figures on a spreadsheet for all my various cars! It helps to check that my 
> consumption isn't worsening as the car gets older.
> 
> "Since Duhg was a lad"? Was that back in the days of non-synchromesh crash 
> gearboxes, vacuum-operated wipers and heaters as an optional extra ? ;-) 

No, I was thinking of the very early days of Japanese motorbikes... I 
wonder if Duhg would even know what a crash box was. I've seen vacuum 
operated wipers, and heaters as optional extras though.
-- 
John Wright

"What would happen if you eliminated the autism genes from the gene pool?

You would have a bunch of people standing around in a cave, chatting and
socialising and not getting anything done!" - Professor Temple Grandin

"Mike Barnes"  wrote in message 
news:ubpNEj$YUI3IFwn0@g52lk5g23lkgk3lk345g.invalid...
> In uk.transport, John Wright wrote:
>>Mike P wrote:
>>> Mike Barnes wrote:
>>>> In uk.transport, Doug wrote:
>>>>> Mr Herron - who led the campaign to stop the prosecution of British
>>>>> shopkeepers still using imperial measurements -
>>>> ISTR that the campaign was actually to stop the prosecution of British
>>>> shopkeepers who refused to use metric measurements. I'm glad it
>>>> failed, because I prefer metric units
>>>  Same here. I was born in 1973. I was never taught any imperial stuff
>>>at  school. Metric is far easier for me, and most of the people I
>>>know.
>>
>>I remember Shirley Williams (no less) sometime in the late 1970s (but
>>before 1979 for obvious reasons) taking someone to task for not
>>teaching children in school the metric system, and employers in general
>>for not making better use of it. As she said "what do you expect us to
>>do?"
>
> How about allowing pubs to serve beer in metric measures? And changing
> the road signs to km and km/h? Of course while they're messing with the
> signs we could switch to driving on the other side of the road. To
> further improve things they could ban the use of Fahrenheit by the
> media. Then they could change our mains plugs to match those used on the
> other side of the channel. Oh, and adopt the euro. Did I leave anything
> out?


Yes.

Our women will no longer be allowed to be shaved (armpits etc); and all men 
will have to have their dicks replaced with standard french small ones.