I recall speaking to an American about how useless and uselessly complex was their continued use of imperial measures such feet, quarts, ounces and Fahrenheit. At the time of that discussion I was hoping the UK would finally ditch all the old measures including inches, miles and ounces. You can’t readily calculate anything in the senseless imperial measures.
Now I read that instead the UK has decided to go backwards. It wants wine to be sold in pints. This makes no sense as 500ml wine bottles have long been available and these are so close to a pint as to make no difference. And who ever talks about how many pints of wine they’ve drunk? Dismal plan and the opposite of progressive.
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I am not sure that the UK could tell the US anything about metric.
The UK does seem to be an anomaly in the metric world with metric and imperial measurements mixed apparently randomly.
It stuffed up the introduction of metric in schools CGS units versus MKS units, still uses miles on road signs, clutters up speedos with both kph and mph units, serves pints in pubs etc
Like Brexit the only thing Britain can teach the world about metrication is how not to do it.
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Doesn’t wine usually come in 750ml bottles Lincs?
As an engineer and machinist I was taught to work in metric or Imperial. Some drawings would arrive in metric, and some in imperial. Older Machines were calibrated in imperial, the newer machines were calibrated in metric… So now I use either depending how the mood takes me. However…Although I find the Centigrade scale better for measuring temperature, I would prefer to fill my tank with a gallon of diesel rather than a litre. And my calculation for distance would always be the mile, hence, mpg. A 3000 metre high mountain means nothing to me, but a 3000 foot mountain would perfectly describe the amount of blood, sweat and tears required to ascend such a beast…My porridge is best measured out in ounces rather than grammes…
Like you I’m familiar with both systems but the engineer in me deplores imperial measures. Combining more than one measure in any calculation is only sensible in metric. It’s set up to work together. The volume of 1000 ml is 10cm by 10cm by 10cm - and if its water it weighs a kilo. Sensible.
Everything else is simply familiarity through common usage. We talk about miles per gallon but it is as easy to use kilometres per litre (once you get in your head that 15 km/l is a good performance). A munro is 914 metres high so 1000 metres would be one of a few mountains in Scotland and are called real munros. Speed is easy in km/hr - 100 km/h is 60mph. 50km/h is 30mph. Its very easy to drop the old and adapt your familiarity to metric.
Anyway, porridge is best measured in handfuls or cups - why weigh such things? And wine is easiest bought in 3 litre boxes.
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I know it makes sense to work in metric Lincs, but as you say, common usage and a 70 year old brain is hard to adjust…As you probably have observed in quite a few of my posts…
Like Foxy, my field is electrical engineering. But many older people still use Imperial especially think like stones, pounds, feet, and inches - and some not so young… My wife, being from the USA, used pounds but now is comfortable with metric. My kids all use metric. Whatever, I have no problem either units. Aviour Dupois or System International or SI.
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I can deal with both, although when it comes to hiking, walking, cycling etc and using maps it’s miles first, kilometres are secondary.
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Pint of Red! … can’t wait!
Deplore it if you wish but ignoring it not terribly sensible. A for example:
A number paper mills have a long history and still use Imperial units. These are long machines, typically up to 100 yards long or around 100 metres.
I just go into the pub and ask for a firkin of mead…
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It sounds like a backwards step to me - and a sop thrown to the die-hard imperialists in an attempt to show that Brexit has given Britain back “the power” to change the standard measurements if they want to - though why would anyone want to move away from being in step with their trading partner countries over wine packaging?
I can’t see what the benefit of introducing pint sized bottles of wine would be - apart from an opportunity for retailers to confuse consumers over pricing, maybe - but I presume they will still have to display a comparison price per standard unit on the price label, as they have to do now on all products?
Stocking bottles of wine containing 568 ml alongside the standard 75 cl bottles will just make it more difficult for consumers to do a quick mental calculation when comparing products and prices while they are doing their shopping.
I was looking for a bit more news about this daft idea when I came across this opinion article - I don’t know if it’s true but I was interested to read in this article that it was Britain who first pushed for European manufacturers to stick to Standard 75 cl size bottles and for them to be packed in cases of 6 because 6 bottles of 75cl tot up to an imperial gallon, near as dammit.
If any manufacturers decide to produce pint bottles of wine, I wonder if they’ll also change the case sizes and sell them in cases of 8?! 
No more metrification for Blighty, old folks are not prepared to go the extra Kilometre 
I see this as a wind up…and I ask myself, what is been overlooked while everyone is getting hot under the collar about such an insignificant issue that has nothing to do with brexit…Or has it got something to do with brexit… 
Could it be something that the remainers have dreamt up to put another nail in the coffin of the patriot.
People should be ashamed of themselves not standing up for British heritage and principles…Call yerselves British?.. 
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… and what about the bent cucumbers, as promised?
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UK has been using metric since Brexit. Over 50 years in my case.
Hi
The thing is that Metric is a widely used system which is easily understandable.
We are nowhere near as big as the USA and we do not need to put additional costs on our manufacterers.
Yep… 
Us British are more than capable of working in any units you care to offer.
It’s this adaptability that makes us who we are.
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Don’t worry about the cost of the imperial system, lets not start “Penny” pinching.
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Pardon? So even if there has been British things that were utterly pants, bad and useless you’d demand that we stick with them? That is actually not very British at all. The UK has succeeded when it innovated and challenged. I say let the French adhere to their rigid rules such as the Academie Francais that refuses any development of the French language. British heritage is history and leave it there.
What if one is a Luddite at heart, where is their representation?
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