A kilo of strawberries – or would you prefer a pound?

Chris, I’m not sure you can compare going LHD to going metric. Half the world drives on the left, we may be out of line with the rest of Europe but at the end of the day the difficulties even back then to switch would have been huge and although it makes sense for everyone to drive on the same side its not worth risking peoples lives for. Going metric on the other hand we are almost on our own and there is no reason to not go all the way.

It’s easy to convert between Imperial and metric, and cost comparison is easy to do provided you have *something* to compare. Produce in packs that don’t have the weight labelled, I routinely weigh and then compare against the price of loose. This isn’t rocket science. Asda’s just counting on lazy shoppers who won’t bother price-checking, or even notice that they’re getting 454g instead of 500g. This is evident in the number of times various supermarkets switch prices around so that the best value size frequently changes.

My gripe is that weights and measures are hard to find on many packages – it should be mandatory to be on the FRONT of the package, not tucked away in the fine print on the bottom. Use whatever system you like, or multiple ones, but make it obvious what the measure is. There’s plenty of room for it; there’s no excuse other than trying to pull the wool over shoppers’ eyes.

I agree with SJ that shopkeepers try to pull the wool over peoples eyes and that it should be mandatory for the weight to be shown in the most obvious place but that weight should always be metric because it is simpler and universal. I disagree that it is easy to convert between imperial and metric and I don’t see why the customer should have to go to the trouble of doing so because of stubborn traditionalists.

Dave D,
Quite a few other countries use metric? How about all other countries in the world other than the good old US of A which uses the US Customary unit system which is,as you say, different to the British system. Surely a good reason for the UK and the USA to fall into line with the rest of the world.
How sad that you, a maths teacher, should see nothing wrong with young men being so ignorant of measurement and think that the answer is to keep giving them the choice of mixing and matching whichever is easiest for them when it obviously doesn’t work. Would an English teacher see nothing wrong with young people using bad grammar because it’s part of everyday life? Running two systems of measurement is ridiculous. The sooner all imperial measurements are taught in history classes instead of maths classes the better.

Hi Dave

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry reading your comment. First of all, let me reiterate, no One sells sugar by the pound anymore. I have worked in retailing for 25 years so I knew that anyway. But having checked online at Tesco I can see that all 39 sugar products of Sugar are sold in rounded metric ie 1kg, 500g etc. So if you are using a bag of sugar as a reference then it will be either 500g or 1kg.

You mention clothes sizes – I can do either, although are you aware that all of Armed Forces kit is supplied in metric? It’s cheaper to source from overseas that way. And you mention gas and yes, you may be right about that too. But the Imperial system, like Latin, is essentially dead. No institute exists to monitor it’s implemenation and use, no new imperial units have been established for donkeys years. All new measurements are metric based. Even the Imperial measurements themselves are now based on metric – 1 inch is officially 2.54cm, 1lb is officially 454 g etc.
But my main concern is that you, as a Maths teacher, seem happy to send kids out into the world, with a total lack of understanding of either system. I was lucky enough to be taught metric properly, so I don’t need to understand bags of sugar – I know a litre of water weighs a kg. No other country in the world burdens it’s kids with two systems of measurement. There is a one size fits all solution. It’s the same solution that EVERY country that has changed it’s measurements system since 1850 has adopted including all former Commonwealth countries. It’s common sense, it’s metric!

Officially this country now uses metric weight measurement and the educational system teaches metric, so for a reversion to imperial is not beneficial. Although many people seem to prefer the imperial according to Asda’s survey, it would be very interesting to know the age ranges of the people who prefer it. The chances are that the older generations would prefer the reversion but the younger ones prefer the metric or did not have a preference.We need to be dealing with this as an on-going (metric) issue, not going back to an out dated system, unless the government changes its policy for the whole country, including education.

to The Master,
I was born in 1948 and taught only imperial at school. When I started work in 1970 I had to learn the metric system because the government said we would be completely metric in 5 years and that is what the office I worked in used. I have used metric measurements exclusively from that day. The metric system is elegantly simple and easy to use which is why the world uses it. Like the pounds, shillings and pence of my youth I find imperial units cumbersome and nonsensical and cannot believe that anyone would find them simpler. How many feet in a mile? Is it a sensible figure? How many inches? How big is an acre? Why different units for height (feet) and distance (miles and yards). Why have so many units for weight when one would suffice? The longer people resist changing over completely to metric the longer the confusion will last and this will affect the economy of the nation through loss in international respect and trade.

Good post Kurt. Of course some people like old measures. Its natural for people to be resistant to change. But the way we are going about it prolongs the difficulties. The world as a whole has decided to standardise on one system of weights and measures and the UK decided decades ago to do this as well. I appreciate that some people don’t agree with this decision, but its happened – many decades ago so what is the point in resisting? The refusal of our governments to be decisive and do away with the old measures has been very costly. People won’t gradually switch over to metric until the old measures are gone. Even with temperatures, which are now almost universally in Celsius, you still get occasional people quoting Fahrenheit in the summer because weather reports insist on STILL giving conversions. Conversions are a temporary measure to help people, not a permanent one to allow people to continue using the old! NO other country has dealt with metrication like this and its a great embarassment for the UK. While it will always get swept under the carpet because no-one wants to tackle it and there are always more important issues, metrication is costing us money and will cause us problems for many years to come.

Phil,
A few older rural French people might use ‘ un livre’ .About as many as older Brits who still speak of something being worth ‘half a crown.’ Are you suggesting that loose fruit and vegetables should be sold in crowns?

Metric is far better although it would be even better if we stopped using mass measurements for weight.

Using kilograms as a unit of weight is simply incorrect. You buy strawberries by mass not weight.

Yes Adele, imperial measurements are part of British culture and life, even though they were introduced by foreign invaders.The class system and the reluctance to speak foreign languages is also part of British culture and life so not all traditions are good traditions. All countries once used anthropomorphic measurements like Britain but one by one they replaced them with the universal metric system just as they replaced horses as beasts of burden with steam engines and internal combustion engines. It’s progress.There is no reason to remain stuck in an inefficient time warp because The USA remains in one.The USA will eventually go metric, it has started already, but that is their problem.
I see no reason to Anglicise the spelling of the units by changing re to er. We spell centre with an re rather than the American er. Despite what tabloid readers think, we are European too.
I agree 100% with you that the UK should go fully metric rather than pretend to be metric. It should have completed the process of changeover 25 years ago. The present hybrid system is worst than what it replaced. Too much confusion and nothing gained. Another example of a British tradition (compromise) being a bad one.
Nobody has any intention to ban expressions like inch by inch, miles away or gallons of water.We still use words such as fathom in our language but I don’t think we actually use it as a measurement any more.
An international system of measurement is out there and used by over 95% of the world. Britain should accept it with open arms or it will be left in a future dark age.