BWMA

BWMA's letter this week to 200 Trading Standards Offices, regarding the ineptly handed consultation by the Office for Product Safety & Standards, and Dept for Business & Trade, into "choice in measurement". @OfficeforSandS @biztradegovuk @CTSI_UK @ClarkeMicah @christopherhope

BWMA's Warwick Cairns was recently on the "More Jam Tomorrow" podcast, discussing decimalisation: why Britain went decimal on money in 1971 but kept miles, pints, and the imperial holdouts. Warwick joins from the 27-minute mark: morejamtomorrow.com/episode/decima…

Why the pint in a can is the value hit for home drinkers #Echobox=1771685406" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">thetimes.com/life-style/foo…

@DanielJHannan For the 50th anniversary, we published a booklet of rare material from the Anti-Decimal Association (formed 1967), which fought the change. bwma.org.uk/wp-content/upl…

Fifty-five years ago #OTD we sundered ourselves from our fathers, replacing our handsome and ancient coinage with a decimal system.

@YesterdaysBrit1 And full imperial quantities, unlike today. bwma.org.uk/metric-downsiz…

All good stuff!!!

@YesterdaysBrit1 Imperial units, too.

Me growing up meant this, and not butter. That's nostalgia, folks!

@PamLeigh9 @Jenny_1884 Yes, still widely used for garden allotments.

@Jenny_1884 Anyone heard of a rod pole and perch?

Does anyone else still use & prefer the old metric system of feet & inches & lbs & ounces?

@Macbeveridge @Jenny_1884 Here's a page on the Metric Martyrs: bwma.org.uk/who-are-the-me…

@Jenny_1884 Feet and hands inches for me. RIP #Sunderland metric martyr

@Jenny_1884 @LesleyJohn36444 In case you're not aware, the British Weights and Measures Association exists to restore the lawful retail use of imperial units; our website is bwma.org.uk

@LesleyJohn36444 Me too 🤣

@DesmondSwayne In 2023, the Supreme Court dismissed the idea of a Hierarchy of Acts, thereby re-asserting Parliament's authority - but not before allowing a 20-year period of constitutional uncertainty. 2/2

@DesmondSwayne In the "Metric Martyrs" judgment (Feb 2002), the High Court refused to apply the Weights & Measures Act 1985. Its stated justification was the invention of a Hierarchy of Acts, which subordinated later law to the European Communities Act 1972. 1/2

Starmer is wrong: only Parliament can strike down an Act of Parliament, and not the courts. A lawyer ought to know that.

A shout-out to @Crumpton_Oaks for their cider pint can, and thanks to Stephen Dixon for the photograph.

Christopher Hope (Daily Telegraph) reports on the Commonwealth Games replacing the 1500m with the mile.

Christopher Hope in last month's Daily Telegraph:

@chrisgreybrexit >"One myth .. is that metrication was imposed on the UK by the EU"< Before the EC, metric conversion was voluntary. The compulsory element came via an EC Directive in 1971. Imperial units were deauthorised by UK in 1995 & 2000 to meet Directive deadlines. bwma.org.uk/wp-content/upl…

The Brexit self-punishment machine. New post on my Brexit & Beyond Blog. The apparently trivial 'champagne pints' announcement tells us something about Brexit in itself, and much more about the confusions and fantasies of post-Brexit regulatory policy: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-br…

@BylineTimes @Kit_Yates_Maths 3/ The consultation did not affect the existing legal status of metric, and there's no basis for the belief that the government intended "large-scale increased use of the imperial system", since the consultation did not offer any actual proposal.

@BylineTimes @Kit_Yates_Maths 2/ Your article's claim that it has "never been illegal to sell products in imperial" is incorrect. Use of imperial units for trade is a criminal offence, there have been numerous convictions. Trade *must* be in metric, imperial shown alongside is merely additional information.

🔴Imperial Measurements: the Spurious Brexit Dividend that Failed to Divide A public consultation proved that nobody supported an attack on the metric system as the Brexit culture wars suffer another defeat, explains @Kit_Yates_Maths bylinetimes.com/2024/01/18/imp…

@Jacobbe79601492 Britain's domestic metric conversion of 1965 was voluntary. The compulsory aspect came in because of EC Directive in 1971: bwma.org.uk/wp-content/upl… Imperial units were unlawed in Britain in 1995 and 2000 to meet deadlines specified by the Directive.

@Enlightenmentor @LeighQuilter The government consultation of June 2022 was not a weighted survey and had no more credibility than a twitter poll, which it effectively was. A survey by Yougov, held the month before, gives the accurate picture: 47% in favour of shops being allowed to use lb/oz, 32% against.

@LeighQuilter Your bluster does not match the realité

We have to smash the narrative that the public don’t want imperial measures back. This is not necessarily true at all. The actual public are probably indifferent. Even those who are more fond of imperial probably don’t rank it too highly in their order of priorities. But I suspect if asked directly most people would settle on the “pro choice” side of things. The responses to an obscure government consultation do not necessarily reflect public opinion. They will have been made up largely by people with a strong settled opinion and likely dominated by business interests (which likes status quo), metric zealots (who are intolerant of imperial’s anachronisms) and anti-Brexit types (who love anything foreign and loathe anything traditional and particular) If Brexit had been decided by a poorly advertised government consultation we would never have got the result we did. These things are a poor barometer of what the real public really thinks. In my experience many people of all ages are still fond of imperial and use both imperial and metric interchangeably depending on the situation. Many do not even realise we have a muddled mix of two systems. Nobody I know would announce a newborn’s weight in kilograms, or order a 568ml glass of beer in a pub. Few people outside the very young would talk of their height in metres and centimetres. Nobody would order a 30cm pizza or a 450g T-bone steak. English Imperial units are part of who we are. Bringing them back would have been a harmless, low cost and straightforwardly patriotic thing to do. We be sure that Labour will never do anything as patriotic. The @Conservatives should press ahead and recommit to this policy instead of hiding behind this dubious consultation as an excuse for doing nothing. #ImperialMeasurements #imperialmeasures #imperial #PintOfWine @BWMAonline @toadmeister @ClarkeMicah @Jacob_Rees_Mogg @BorisJohnson