Imperial measurements are 'part of the UK language'

Spiked Online Editor Brendan O'Neill says the UK has been shifting from imperial to metric for a "very long period of time".

It comes as the UK government is considering dropping its ban on using imperial measurements in shops.

"The truth of the matter is lots of people in the UK still use imperial measurements every single day," Mr O'Neill told Sky News host Andrew Bolt.

"It is part of our language; the imperial measurements are part of our everyday language."

[sirbasilflapjack]

A victory for British common sense. I have been buying my crystal meth in imperial measurements since I can remember, and I won't let a Belgian stop me from losing the feeling in my teeth.

[OpEditorial]

You ever meet someone who describes their height in centimetres and your eyes glaze over like you've just been given maths homework before holidays starts 🙄

[gail]

Imperial is a part of the fabric of many older people. I was young when we moved to metric in Australia and I learnt it, but 50 years later I use imperial as much as metric in my day to day life as do many people I speak to my own age and older generally. I love pints, miles, lbs, inches and feet. So glad ive been able to do both. 😍

[arfurloin]

They should also bring back LSD. That's pounds, shillings and pence. They were much easier to calculate.
£1 = 20 shillings (20s).
1 shilling = 12 pence (12d).
Thus: £1 = 240 pence.

[QPRTokyo]

Here in Japan inches are used for size of a TV screen.

[JackBlack-iiip]

Britisher pals; when you do finally give it best and fly the coop, getting up to speed with metric measurement terms will form part of your steep learning curve. Unless you make Liberia, Myanmar or the United States your host country.
Jack, the Japan Alps Brit

[nampam]

Pounds, shillings, pence, calculating change in base 12 certainly improved your mental state. Then the rich used guineas, automatically included a 10% tip for the middle man who paid the vendor in pounds. A groat, a bushel, a hundred weight of cement, a league, a fathom. Lots of hidden beauty and rich texture to old imperial measures.

[Planet-Bertie]

So, I’m of an age… When I first started driving a ‘gallon’ of petrol cost 36 pence; now a ‘Litre’ of petrol is upwards of £1.35pence.
Question: How many ‘litres’ in a ‘gallon’?
Answer: 4.546 litres.
Conclusion: Decimalisation (15 February 1971) seriously ripped Britain off.
£1 = 240 pennies pre-decimalisation.
£1 = 100 pennies after decimalisation.
£1 should have been decimalised to 200 pennies making it two dollars to the pound at that time… but nope.
Yep, I’ve festered away with this bollox for decades. Thank you for your indulgence 🇵🇳🇬🇧🇺🇸👍
P.S. Mine’s a pint thanks!

[hannahtimson]

Australia has... 'I'm off for some tinnies' and UK has 'I'm off for a pint', not much else to know really came to UK 20yrs ago from Adelaide

[cornovii]

the people who do not like miles, pints, stone/ounces and inches are the same type of people who claim manual cars are bad because they don't know how to use a gearbox and clutch.

[alwayscensored]

Macron just rang Morrison, they want their Metric system back.

[johnbrereton]

We do still use miles in the UK, all our road signs, petrol consumption figures for cars and distances on maps are all in miles. And as said in the video, many British people still use imperial measurements in the daily lives, it's only the establishment that uses metric.
We now operate s sort of bastardised Imperial- Metric system where even the young who are only taught in metric yet still use imperial???? They use to say: 'Britain was going Metric inch by inch'
But now it's not even that much.
😂😂😂😂

[williamrgutrich]

"Stand me a 473 ml of beer, mate" just does not have the same ring to it. When I was at university from 1972--1976 I wrote a paper I called, "Moving towards a Metric America" in which I concluded imperial measurements would go the way on the buggy whip by 1980. Perhaps I was too enthusiastic in my predictions.

[johnschuring]

The only time i use metric is when i'm shooting (9mm) lmao

[mavrick]

Tyre size, Horse racing are just examples that most places still use imperial measurements.

[normonsta]

Why did bolt (in the next section ) cut off the footage of the police attacking and spraying z 70yo woman??? And his guest say the protesters were violent thugs, I watched the whole live stream of that protest....the police were determined to spark a confrontation and boxed in and maced the crowd....who then broke out of the box (whichwas the only example of the protesters instigating



NorMonsta
NorMonsta
52 minutes ago
Cafes and other businesses should post "police not welcome : Until justice is received for the 70yo lady" signs....probably not able to legally enforce no service BUT the message says not welcome, not no service. Ooo

[unbannablebob]

As a Yank, My British and Ozzy friends always get onto me for being OK with using the Imperial system. My response to them is always "At least I only use one system."😉

[serviusm]

Please do not change the metrics in important sectors. It makes trade easier when people use the same metric.

[tomobrien]

Started plumbing apprentiship 40 years ago.old boy said cut the pipe 750mm and 3/4 of an inch i was there for 2 days scrathing my head.the whole site was in on it.Great Days

[oldtimerlee]

Here in the US, I've been watching them try to take Imperial away from me for decades. Yes, I'll say 1 liter soda bottle, although I prefer a quart of milk or a gallon of iced tea. Yet, for almost everything else, it's inches, 16 ounces = 1 pound = 1 pint, a foot long hotdog is a treat, miles and miles to go, a 1/2 yard of fabric is enough, it's too hot when the temperature is 90 F, and freezing is 32F not zero! I despise plywood that is produced in metric while my router bits are Imperial. Same with the need to keep 2 sets of wrenches and hex keys. *Bravo for UK declaring freedom of choice measurements!*