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Category Archives: General
DfT guilty of making unfounded claims
Yesterday, the National Audit Office (NAO) criticised the UK Department for Transport (DfT) for its unfounded claims about the benefits of the proposed high speed rail project HS2. In this article, Ronnie Cohen identifies another unfounded claim by the DfT … Continue reading
Posted in General, Myths, Road signs, Transport
Tagged claim, confusion, Department for Transport, DfT, drivers, evidence, Freedom of Information, metric, metrication, Road signs
5 Comments
A statement from UKIP
UKIP’s recent electoral successes have resulted, quite rightly, in increased scrutiny of its policies. Here, we take a look at a recent statement by the Party’s Trade spokesman on the subject of measurement units.
Posted in Consumer affairs, General, History, Myths
Tagged measurement units, progress, UKIP, weights and measures
3 Comments
It’s trade or bust for Britain
This is the title of a recent article by Robert Peston, the BBC’s Business Editor. Clearly, successive UK governments over the years have failed to steer the country away from the latter and towards the former. We suggest a simple … Continue reading
Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, General, Road signs
Tagged current account trade deficit, exports, metric, metric road signs, metrication, skilled workforce, trade
11 Comments
Familiar with imperial? Do you know that…?
Miles, yards, feet and inches, pints, pounds and stones. Yes, fifty years after the UK embarked on the metric transition, we still need to be familiar with some of those old units. In this article, Ronnie Cohen looks at some … Continue reading
Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, General, History, Law, Science
Tagged imperial measures, metric, weights and measures
2 Comments
The Grand National’s unhelpful measurements
The race has been run. Pictures and commentary have been broadcast around the world, and millions will have formed an impression of Britain in 2013. Ronnie Cohen asks if more could have been made of this opportunity to publicise UK … Continue reading
Posted in General, Sport, Views from abroad
Tagged horse racing, imperial measures, The Grand National
13 Comments
Why is it important to weigh ourselves in kg?
The measurement mess in Britain is in itself reason enough for the discontinued use of stones and pounds for personal body mass (commonly weight), but is there a case for using kilograms that goes beyond this? This article proposes that … Continue reading
The 1895 Select Committee on weights and measures
This article looks back to the findings and recommendations of the 1895 Parliamentary Select Committee on weights and measures.
Posted in Education, General, History, Law, Transport
Tagged imperial measures, measurement units, metric, metrication, UK Parliament, UKMA, weights and measures
26 Comments
How US labelling requirements undermine honest labelling in the UK
On EU product labels, metric units are mandatory whereas non-metric units are optional. On US product labels, both metric and US customary (USC) units are mandatory for most products. So a company that wants to sell a product in the EU … Continue reading
Posted in Consumer affairs, General
Tagged descriptions, EU, fluid ounce, gallon, imperial, labels, pint, products, US, USC, volume
4 Comments
Will EU-US trade agreement bring in metric-only labelling in the US?
A key point of President Obama’s State of the Union address on 13 February was the proposed EU-US trade agreement, which has been under preliminary discussion for the past year. (See http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/13/state-of-the-union-free-trade-europe). As this agreement is supposed to remove regulatory … Continue reading
Posted in Consumer affairs, General, Law, Views from abroad
Tagged dual-unit, FPLA, measurement units, USC
22 Comments
Myths, misinformation and fallacies (1) – Are imperial units “natural”?
The claim is often made by last-ditch defenders of miles, feet, pints and acres that “Imperial units are natural whereas metric units are artificial”. In the first of an occasional series of articles on “myths, misinformation and fallacies” used by … Continue reading
Posted in General, Myths, Technical
Tagged measurement units, metric, metrication, weights and measures
14 Comments