I really don't see how you interpret the desire to retain the units we grew up with as arrogance. It's not a case of trying to force our system on the rest of the world and refusing to accept that other systems and practices are valid.
(Although I admit that in the past Britain has displayed some extreme arrogance, e.g. banning Gaelic in Irish schools during English rule.)
Market traders are not being turned into criminals for not using metric.
Sorry, but I beg to differ.
Those who have been charged have been charged for using non-legal scales. It is not legal under the WMA as of 2000-01-01 for a trading standards inspector to renew the validation certificate for a scale not calibrated in kilograms (or grams).
What you say is true in its strict legal sense. But when the authorities refuse to certify scales that aren't calibrated in metric, it amounts to the same thing. Saying that traders aren't being turned into criminals for not using metric is just an argument in semantics. The government is effectively saying "You will sell in metric, or you are an outlaw."
The Weights & Measures acts do indeed have a long history in this country, but their purpose was to protect buyers against unscrupulous traders giving short measure.
To remove archaic units which are
obsolete and largely unused from the statute books is one thing, but inches, feet, yards, miles, pounds, ounces, pints & gallons are units which are still used every day by millions of people in Britain. To outlaw their use is ridiculous.
On another point, whether a general change is good or bad, a "cold turkey" swap to a new system doesn't work easily with some things. I submit the IEE's own Wiring Regulations as an example of how
not to execute a changeover.
When metric cables were introduced in Britain, the IEE revised our code by changing
everything in the book over to metric in one go. No English units were left at all (some measurements were adjusted up or down slightly in the process, e.g. the 6' rule became 2m).
That make-or-nreak change included all the cable rating tables, so the new code books included tables for
only the new metric cables, ignoring the fact that existing cables would be in service for many years to come and electricians would need to look up their ratings.
The only way a modern-day electrician can check the ratings of those cables is to refer back to a pre-1970 edition of the code.
[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 09-01-2003).]
