Category Archives: Law

Twother or twaddle?

One area where metric units have been banned in the UK is draught beer and cider. This is despite the fact that bottled or canned beer and cider is mainly available in round metric quantities. Compared with most countries the … Continue reading

Posted in Consumer affairs, Health, Law | 13 Comments

Imaginative media spin on a non-event?

Supporters of consumer protection have been alarmed at reports suggesting that the Government is to tell local councils not to enforce aspects of weights and measures law.  Can this really be true?

Posted in Consumer affairs, General, Law, Media | 9 Comments

Police and Network Rail call for metric signs

An incident on 17 June, in which a foreign lorry struck a low bridge near Cannock, the third such incident since April, has prompted the police and Network Rail to call for metric signs to be shown on all bridges … Continue reading

Posted in Law, Road signs, Transport | 19 Comments

LACORS confirms imperial units illegal for office floorspace – Government advice misleading

LACORS (the Local Authority Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services) has confirmed its earlier advice that, where office floorspace is let per unit of floorspace, that unit must be metric. In doing so, it implicitly says that previous Government advice on this … Continue reading

Posted in Consumer affairs, Law | 6 Comments

UK pays the cost of failure to implement the Vienna Convention

The Department for Transport (DfT) continues to ignore the clear advantages of the adoption of the international norms for road signage, namely the use of metric units, while potentially preventable accidents occur on our roads.

Posted in Law, Road signs, Transport | 22 Comments

First Emperor showed the way – 2000 years ago

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the splendid (Chinese) First Emperor exhibition at the British Museum. Apart from the terracotta warriors, what impressed me the most was the way that Qin Shihuangdi imposed standardisation on his vast empire – … Continue reading

Posted in Consumer affairs, General, History, Law, Myths | 4 Comments

Decimal measures to oust inches and miles

But seriously folks. The article below was an April fool joke but the decimal tape measure is real. In Britain surveyors did use the decimalised foot before going metric. Clearly they recognised the advantages of a decimal system but realised … Continue reading

Posted in General, Law | 11 Comments

TSI cops out

The Trading Standards Institute (whose members are responsible for enforcing weights and measures law) has declined to support the UK Metric Association’s campaign for a single, rational system of measurement that everybody understands and uses for all purposes. In response, … Continue reading

Posted in Consumer affairs, General, Law | 17 Comments

An echo of the past, but no pointer to the future

The Sunday Telegraph and the Daily Mail have followed the far-right British National Party in drawing attention to the case of a market trader in Dalston, East London, who prefers to sell fruit and veg by the bowl (see previous … Continue reading

Posted in Consumer affairs, Law | 9 Comments

Imperial scales may give short measure – says metric group

The following news release was issued by UKMA at 02:00 on 18 January:

Posted in Consumer affairs, General, Law, Media | 5 Comments