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Imperial Measures

(332 Posts)
NotSpaghetti Sat 28-May-22 18:03:13

Just overheard someone say Johnson wants to re-introduce Imperial measurements. Surely not!

Anyone heard this too?

mokryna Sat 28-May-22 22:44:38

There were 41 in my class and only 5 girls but I still remember this furlong business.

StarDreamer Sat 28-May-22 22:45:02

Platinum Jubilee: Boris Johnson poised to mark celebrations with post-Brexit pledge to bring back pounds and ounces

news.sky.com/story/platinum-jubilee-boris-johnson-poised-to-mark-celebrations-with-post-brexit-pledge-to-bring-back-pounds-and-ounces-12623318

Callistemon21 Sat 28-May-22 22:49:09

mokryna

There were 41 in my class and only 5 girls but I still remember this furlong business.

Racing is still measured in furlongs, I think

JenniferEccles Sat 28-May-22 22:49:53

Good. I still think and measure in feet and inches.
Lots of market traders have never done away with ‘paaarns’ despite the pressure to use metric.

Justify out of interest, how many of you could say what your grandchildren’s weights were in metric? Not many I bet.

ixion Sat 28-May-22 22:50:10

StarDreamer

Platinum Jubilee: Boris Johnson poised to mark celebrations with post-Brexit pledge to bring back pounds and ounces

news.sky.com/story/platinum-jubilee-boris-johnson-poised-to-mark-celebrations-with-post-brexit-pledge-to-bring-back-pounds-and-ounces-12623318

Yup.
That's the premise for the thread .

StarDreamer Sat 28-May-22 22:51:22

Weights and Measures Acts (UK)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weights_and_Measures_Acts_(UK)

Honeysuckleberries Sat 28-May-22 22:56:16

How about temperatures? I think in degrees centigrade for weather and don’t understand Fahrenheit, but my sons think in Fahrenheit. Body temperature I understand Fahrenheit and they think in centigrade.
I’m mind boggled.

Callistemon21 Sat 28-May-22 22:58:52

Justify out of interest, how many of you could say what your grandchildren’s weights were in metric? Not many I bet

Yes, one was measured in metric ?
As far as I remember he was 4,785 grams!

Deedaa Sat 28-May-22 22:59:20

I have to admit that I've never bothered to learn metric weights when it comes to people and I still do heights in feet and inches, but if they really do this I will make a real effort to go totally metric.

I've got a couple of American cookery books and use American measuring cups when following the recipes. They aren't quite the same as British cups. For the people who have been asking a stick of butter is half the size of our 250 gm packs.

Callistemon21 Sat 28-May-22 23:00:46

For the people who have been asking a stick of butter is half the size of our 250 gm packs.

Thank you ?

Hymnbook Sat 28-May-22 23:14:26

I was dreadful at maths. My poor old dad used to tear his hair out trying to teach me. How many ha'penny in a shilling? It's so long ago I can't remember now ?

Callistemon21 Sat 28-May-22 23:16:02

Metric is so much simpler.

But not as fascinating ?

DaisyAnne Sat 28-May-22 23:41:00

These people are mad in the same way those in the gun lobby in the USA are mad. There is simply no logic in this - and the poor businesses. They have suffered enough from Brexit, do they really need more?

Who wants this? And who believes a Crown on a pint glass was banned. Another of the madman's myth.

StarDreamer Sat 28-May-22 23:41:37

Hymnbook

I was dreadful at maths. My poor old dad used to tear his hair out trying to teach me. How many ha'penny in a shilling? It's so long ago I can't remember now ?

24

Two halfpennies in a penny.

Twelve pennies in a shilling.

Twenty shillings in a pound.

I remember that at primary school that when we had textbooks that had questions about converting some number of pennies to pounds, shillings and pence, and vice versa that the speed at which I did them varied, because sometimes the printed instructions said Convert and sometimes said Express. {smile] about that now, but really did!

StarDreamer Sat 28-May-22 23:43:50

> Cheers Ma'am! Boris Johnson brings back the Crown symbol on our pint glasses for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee - 18 years after the EU ordered us to remove them

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10864245/Boris-Johnson-brings-Crown-symbol-pint-glasses-Queens-Platinum-Jubilee.html

volver Sat 28-May-22 23:50:58

This country's gone crazy.

Glorianny Sat 28-May-22 23:51:51

I was talking to my GD about old measures the other day and explaining pennies to shillings and to a pound, and feet and inches and yards. She looked at me, shook her head and said "It's mad." She's only 10 but she's absolutely right.

biglouis Sat 28-May-22 23:52:15

I still "think" in inches, feet and yards although I can convert in my head.

I deal with Americans on a daily basis so all the sizes for my products are first in imperial followed by metric in brackets. American currency is, of course, metric based with 100 cents to the dollar. However they still use miles, feet and inches for daily purposes.

Zonne Sat 28-May-22 23:54:32

Except, of course, the EU did no such thing, and clarified in 2007 that the requirement to have a CE mark, which they had mandated, did not prevent there being a crown as well.

DaisyAnne Sat 28-May-22 23:59:00

StarDreamer

> Cheers Ma'am! Boris Johnson brings back the Crown symbol on our pint glasses for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee - 18 years after the EU ordered us to remove them

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10864245/Boris-Johnson-brings-Crown-symbol-pint-glasses-Queens-Platinum-Jubilee.html

The did not order the Crown to be removed. Why do you believe these stories? Their had to be an additional stamp on the glass for it to conform to EU rules.

Mad, as I said about this, above your post.

DaisyAnne Sat 28-May-22 23:59:49

Sorry x post Zonne.

Zonne Sun 29-May-22 00:01:59

And because I’m feeling pernickety: the USA doesn’t use imperial measurements. They use American customary units.

In many STEM fields, in practice, they use metric either exclusively or alongside customary units.

NotSpaghetti Sun 29-May-22 00:10:26

Zonne, that was my point above, even American cup sizes are different.

StarDreamer Sun 29-May-22 00:18:11

DaisyAnne

StarDreamer

> Cheers Ma'am! Boris Johnson brings back the Crown symbol on our pint glasses for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee - 18 years after the EU ordered us to remove them

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10864245/Boris-Johnson-brings-Crown-symbol-pint-glasses-Queens-Platinum-Jubilee.html

The did not order the Crown to be removed. Why do you believe these stories? Their had to be an additional stamp on the glass for it to conform to EU rules.

Mad, as I said about this, above your post.

The article seems to contradict itself.

> A Government source said last night that the legal requirement to use the CE mark led to the effective removal of the Crown symbol because the UK ‘could not have two competing indications of conformity’.

But yes DaisyAnne you are right to ask Why do you believe these stories?

What happened was that the article was mentioned in the Sky News Press Preview so I looked it up, had a quick read through, then posted the link here, quoting the title.

OakDryad Sun 29-May-22 01:07:08

Just as Zonne and DaisyAnne say. Johnson is mistaken if he is claiming that leaving the EU is what allows this change:

In 2007, the EU commissioner Gunter Verheugen confirmed that the Crown stamp could be affixed to a glass provided it was done in such a way that it was not confused with the CE mark.

However, the reason the Crown symbol could not be placed on pint glasses which carried the CE mark was due to the UK’s own legislation: Regulation 21(2) of The Capacity Serving Measures (Intoxicating Liquor) Regulations 1988 which states:

No capacity serving measure shall be stamped if it bears any other mark which, in the opinion of the inspector, might reasonably be mistaken for the stamp or an expression of approval or guarantee of accuracy.

The British government could, at any time, have repealed or amended Regulation 21 and reintroduced the Crown mark without having to leave the EU to do it.

In other words, it’s another of those misleading taking back control, taking back our sovereignty claims; blaming the EU for something the UK always had control over.