And UK culture has changed and developed. Some time ago, people stopped burning witches, slavery and the slave trade were abolished, the law was changed so men could no longer beat their wives and the Julian calendar was superseded by the more accurate Gregorian calendar. Other changes have included the adoption of the motor car, the typewriter, the aeroplane, the computer and the internet.

Now what about this new-fangled metric measure? Actually, some parts of it are older than some Imperial measures. The litre is actually an older measure than the Imperial Gallon! Imperial measures for electricity don’t even exist – all the measures are metric! If UK culture can survive all these changes, adopting metric measures are hardly likely to affect it adversely.

But why change? Because the metric system is better, and even if you don’t like it, it’s taking over everywhere, just like those British impositions, the industrial revolution, parliamentary democracy and time zones based on the Greenwich Meridian.

You claim that the ‘UK is done for’. No doubt your comments are based on what you read in the depressing British tabloid press who love putting us all on a downer and blaming it on others.

First of all, if you think that the old Imperial system was exclusively British then dream on. The mile? Roman! Pounds and ounces? French! So not much to be proud of there then. The metric system? Devised by the Royal Society of London, prototype units made in London, and with the names of some of our most illustrious scientists and engineers commemorated in names of units eg Newton, Watt, Joule, Faraday & Kelvin. Furthermore, Margaret Thatcher herself decreed that only metric measurements should be taught in our schools.

That was in 1974, and thanks to our adoption of the metric system we have been able to take advantage of massive inward investment. Do you think Honda, Toyora, Nissan/Renault and Airbus would have invested in the UK if we had insisted that we keep the old Imperial measurements in commerce?

Britain is a country we can be proud of. Airbus wings are all designed here. Rolls Royce jets are world leaders. If you don’t feel the same then you can ways emigrate to Australia or New Zealand. But of course the 1st thing you will need to learn is the metric system. Both countries went metric a long time ago.

It seems that the majority of posters to this forum are men and they seem to be mostly if not all pro-metric. The one or two women who post here are all anti-metric.

Industries that employ mostly men are all metric, such as engineering and the sciences, yet those that tend to employ mostly women are lagging, such as the clothing industry.

Most shopping is done by women and as the result the metrication of the market place has not been smooth.

Anyone agree or disagree with this observation?

“Road condition surveys paint contrasting pictures

Britain’s roads are either improving fast or getting ever worse according to two new, contrasting reports on the state of the network.

A survey of 17 500 AA members says road surfaces are in a worse state than they were 10 years ago, while new statistics from the Department for Transport (DfT) show that the condition of local roads is improving.

In the AA/Populus Panel survey published last week (early June 2008), 40% of respondents said the condition of the road network was much worse than 10 years ago, while only 2% thought road conditions had improved. …

The DfT report on local roads says that condition of the network has improved every year since 2000 when funding started to improve again.

Principal roads have improved from a defects index of 121.2 in 2000 to 71.3 in built up areas and 91.5 to 70.9 in non built up areas. …�

When UKMA published its report “Metric signs ahead� in 2006, a similar poll of 500 civil engineers (who design and construct the roads in metric then sign them in imperial) had 42% in favour of metric signs and 56% against. That, for me, was a surprise.

The AA Populus poll says that 8% are in favour – about 3 million people if the poll is representative of the adult population. This is also a surprise when you realise that:

* The Department for Transport has opposed the project since 1970, and in 2006 published a grossly inflated estimate of the cost.
* Successive governments since 1970 have never given public support.
* For many years, the tabloids had campaigned vigorously against all things European, including metric road signs.

Only on TV has there been any semblance of a balanced debate.

Still, it is reassuring to know that there are probably more than three million independent thinkers out there.

However, this isn’t actually very useful information for most drivers. They know how far they want to travel and want to calculate how much fuel they’ll need and how much that will cost.

The 1/x relationship (graph at http://www.mathsnet.net/graphs/curb2.html for those who’ve forgotten what it looks like) means that an increase of 10mpg may halve the amount of fuel used, or may only reduce it by less than 20% – it depends whether you’re currently getting 10mpg or 50mpg. Measuring as fuel volume divided by distance means you can directly calculate how much money you’re saving. Also, CO2 emissions correlate very closely to the amount of fuel burnt, something completely unintelligible to those who insist on using mpg.