GOING METRIC
(Comments: tony.papard@btinternet.com)
EU Commissioner, Neil Kinnock, and others have said that Britain should further metrification by switching over from miles to kilometers. I am all in favor of a federal Europe and developing common standards thruout the Union, but this cannot be done in a short time-span.
Apparently it will become illegal, under EU legislation, to display imperial measures in shops after 2010. This is taking things too far. What we must remember is that there are two generations in the UK at the moment. There are the younger generation who grew up with the metric system in school, and there are those of us in the older generation who still think in feet and inches and who have little idea what a meter or centimeter is, likewise with pounds and ounces/kilos and kilograms, gallons and pints/liters and for that matter Fahrenheit and Centigrade/Celcius. When I get weighed I want to know how heavy I am in Stones and Pounds, not kilos. I still need to convert Celcius to Fahrenheit before I get any idea how hot or cold the weather is going to be. You will never, ever change us - we are too long in the tooth. We are the generation which had to cope with metrification of our currency system - that is quite enough to learn in one lifetime.
Yes, by all means introduce metrification, even a common language thruout the EU, but this has to be done gradually. For a period of 50 years, yes it will take that long, we must have both imperial and metric systems running side by side. Not until the older imperial measures generation has all died out can we go completely metric, it is as simple as that.
As to converting to kilometers, this will be extremely expensive as it involves changing all our road signs and also all our car speedometers. It doesn't make sense to do this unless at the same time we switch from driving on the left to the right to conform with most of the EU, and indeed most of the rest of the world. Even when we do make the switch, we will need to have dual signs which give both miles and kilometers for at least 50 years.
So let's not rush into things. In 50 years we'll be completely Metric and all speaking a common EU language, as well as our own national language. Rome wasn't built in a day.