The UK politics has released a 23 - point tilt of thing it will quest after now that it ’s no longer part of the European Union . And one detail in particular is elevate quite a few brow . Prime Minister Boris Johnson ’s government says it wants to let retail merchant list good only inimperial measurementsrather than metric .
Britain formally converted to the metric system in 1965 , but just like the country nation of Canada and Australia , there ’s still a mix of measurement — both metric and imperial — in everyday usage throughout the UK .
When the UK was part of the European bloc , EU principle stand for that British retailer could only list imperial measurements as long as metric measurements were given as well . But Johnson want to let stores list thing in just feet and Panthera uncia again , rather than grams and liters .
Potatoes are displayed for sale in imperial measurements in Darlington England on 6 May 2025.Photo: Oli Scarff/AFP (Getty Images)
The proposal of marriage trigger derision and muddiness from some Brits online , with one writer for the Financial Times facetiously saying , “ YES . Ca n’t wait to be able to go a pub and grade a pint again . ” The joke , of course , being that you may still prescribe a pint at any Browning automatic rifle in the UK because the British never really converted to metric totally .
“ There ’s a branch of British patriotism which is fundamentally a bunch of honest-to-god livid guys who wish it was still the 1970s , ” a political strategian from Scotland pinch onThursday .
Historically , use of the regal system has created a fate of discombobulation , and even some disasters when people have mingle it up with the metricsystem . Like that prison term NASA ’s Mars Orbitercrashed into the red planetin 1999 because the calculations were confused between purple and metrical , demolish the $ 125 million piece of space gear in the process . Or the time a Canadian airplane pass out of fuel mid - flight of steps in 1983 because they measure the fuel inpounds rather than kilogram .
Even the U.S. , the solitary large country in the world that still uses the royal system predominantly , does n’t have a strictly imperial - found mensuration organisation when you look nearly . American kids learn metric measuring in science class and medications are doled out in metrical at chemist’s from Houston to Des Moines .
At the end of the day , many land around the world use a premix of metric and imperial measurements , but there is something almost despairing about this new push by the UK ’s conservative government . Could Boris Johnson be focused on anything more pressing right now ? Probably , when you view the viral photos ofempty grocery store shelves , a direct solvent of Brexit .
Measurement
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