The fight to keep the imperial system and resist the growing role of the metric system in the UK has been erroneously seen as the plucky British underdog gaining victory over the European bully. This is how metrication issues are reported in populist national newspapers. Hence the growing hostility to the European Union has come in tandem with growing hostility to the metric system. Many wrongly believe the myth that the metric system has been imposed on the UK by the EU. The EU is seen as the villain or bogeyman in the metrication process in the twenty-first century. How can we demolish the EU bogeyman to clear the path for the completion of metrication in the UK?
In the early 2000’s, a group of traders became known as the metric martyrs for selling fruit and vegetables exclusively by the pound and using unauthorised (and therefore illegal) imperial scales. They were taken to court by the local councils and their cases received widespread media coverage at the time. They were seen as defending British tradition and resisting the EU.
When the Department for Transport (DfT) had an obligation to set a date for the metrication of UK road signs, they refused to do so or even tell us when they would do so. Instead, the UK sought opt-outs for the continued use of imperial units on UK road signs. In 2008, EU allowed the UK to retain imperial units on UK road signs indefinitely. In response, government ministers and national newspapers claimed that they have saved imperial units for Britain and resisted EU directives to force the UK to switch over to metric units.
The DfT published grossly inflated estimates of road sign conversion costs in 2006 and has refused to accept overwhelming evidence that their estimates are grossly inflated. Since then, the DfT has claimed that it is too expensive to convert UK road signs to metric after their previous excuses lost all credibility. It is not the real reason for the refusal to change them but an excuse for inaction.
On this issue, former UKMA Chair Robin Paice has said:
“The real reason for the refusal is cultural. Miles, yards, feet and inches are BRITISH whereas the hated metres and kilometres are foreign – or, worse, European. As long as a substantial proportion of the British people have this insular, post-imperial mindset, I think it is useless to employ rational argument.
I think we need to wait for a change in public attitudes to Britishness and foreign culture before relaunching a campaign about costs. Unfortunately, one of the effects of Brexit has been to insulate the UK still further from European influence – e.g., the failure to sign up to the Erasmus (student exchange) programme, or the ending of mutual recognition of European professional qualifications.”
When the UK left the EU, the Government has tried to bring back imperial units and claimed that going back to the imperial system is described as a Brexit bonus or dividend. Never mind that mixed weights and measures in the marketplace are incompatible with the system of unit pricing. Unit pricing depends on a single system of units being in place for direct comparisons.
The metric system is seen as foreign, or even worse, as European – like metric units, a hard core of Brexiteers want to get rid of all things associated with the EU, hence the Retained EU Law Bill that originally sought to wipe out all EU regulations at the end of 2023 except for a few that ministers decided to save.
One advantage that our opponents have over us is that they are defending the status quo. They only have to persuade our political leaders to do nothing. We will not win by becoming a group of vigilantes who go round altering road signs illegally – something suggested by one regular Metric Views contributor in several comments. Nobody should do this. UKMA will not nor will be associated with anyone who does. In any case, this will not work and does not address the erroneous link between metrication and the EU. Unlike some of our opponents, we at UKMA are all engaged in lawful activities and do not take the law into our own hands. UKMA demands that all its members’ participation in the activities of UKMA will be legal, ethical and consistent with its objectives.
The path to victory is by winning hearts and minds. We must continue to expose the anti-EU arguments against the metric system as nonsense. We must continue making the case for the metric system until our political leaders are prepared to listen.
Metric Views 
Anyone who equates Metrication with the European Union probably doesn’t have the intelligence to understand that the Metric System is used by nearly every country except for the USA, Liberia and Myanmar. And even Myanmar and Liberia have officially declared themselves in the process of metrication. The EU has nothing to do with the changes to the metric system in the UK , that was a government policy since the mid 1960’s.
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The problem is that even if the UK was the *only* country left using imperial, the right wing populist nationalists would say that was even more evidence of our glorious uniqueness! Only country in the world with a ‘great’ in its name don’t you know!
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@Steve
If the USA ever converts to metric, the UK will have to go along.
Too bad we are worse off than you guys. 😦
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One of the events that spawned metriation was Harold Wilson’s famous “White heat of technology”. Giving this speech more publicity could help the cause. One of the spin-offs of Wilson’s speech was the pocket calculator and the spreadsheet. Neither of these work well with imperial units, especially where numbers represpent the same quantity (eg length) but are in different units – for example a road sign not too far from where I live states «Width limit 6′ 6″ 1650 yards ahead». How do I clock 1650 yards on my odometer? Of couse, if it said 1480 metres and I had a kilometre odometre, I would know that it was 1.48 km away.
PS – I used the “French style quotation marks” (« … ») to avoid confusion with the single and double apostrophe which were used to represent feet and inches – another absurditiy of the imperial system.
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So, both by-elections went to Labour. Excellent!
News reports say a couple more by-elections are likely early next year. I hope the results will be the same.
Maybe that will help push the Conservative party to call for a general election in the spring so Labour can take over Downing Street.
At that point maybe the government will be amenable to some changes that help promote ending the metric muddle. Still hoping for more changes while I am still alive to see it happen! 🙂
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I think that we need to focus on a few facts:
In 1960, the GCPM adopted SI as the “official” version of the metric system.
In 1965, it was announced in Parliament that the UK was to adopt the metric system with a target of completion by 1975
In 1969 the Metrication Board was set up and it was announced that road speeds would go metric in 1973.
In 1970, following a general election in which Heath became prime minister, the target date for road speed change-over was revoked.
In 1972, the EEC published a directive concerning units of measure which had the aim of harmonisng the use of units f measure across the whole of the EEC by discarding the cgs variant of the metric system and other “local” variants in favour of SI.
In 1973 the UK joined the EEC. The 1972 directive was of academic interest only because it required the UK to complete metrication by 1979 (rather than by 1975 as origianlly planned).
In 1981, on the eve of the introduction of metric units for foodstuffs that were sold in loose quantities, the Metrication Board was wound up by the recently elected Thatcher Government.
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Ezra,
As I posted a few days ago to your post concerning a change of government for England about why there will not be a completion to metrication, the same holds true for the US. The people who were captains of industry back in the 1970s in the US saw a need for metrication and pressured the members of government responsible for change to make it happen. Sure at the time a company can just metricate and be done with it, but that can cause a whole plethora of problems. Everyone needs to metricate at the same time. The reasons being that companies need both metric thinking employees and metric capable suppliers. Thus the reason for a coordinated effort.
By the early 1980s and the administration of Ronald Reagan, the American population, the small ma & pa suppliers, and media rebelled such that the members of congress made metrication voluntary. Many industries by then had already metricated and returning to FFU was not an option. The solution was to allow them to move to metric countries and outsource parts from metric countries as well.
This caused a huge shift in the economy, forcing thousands of factory workers out of jobs and forcing them to seek work in service industries that don’t rely on measurements. Others went into poverty not being able to live off the lower wages provided by service jobs. Many became dependent on credit cards to fill in the gaps and household debts soared.
Fast-forward to today and you see the US is still primarily a service economy with the remnant of manufacturing jobs still declining. Those industries surviving are moving over more and more to automation technology that permits them to expand without the need to hire people who lack the skills (ie not knowing metric units for example) to work in manufacturing.
So, expect that no change will come either to the US or England in the near future as I said because there is no one where it counts from industry pushing the members of government who have the power to make the change making it happen. If there is pressure on members of the government in England, it is from small Luddite groups to return to imperial.
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Ezra,
In reference to your comment on the by-elections and the win for Labour, you obviously didn’t read my comment of 2023-10-19 posted to “Why are the authorities afraid to tackle law breaking by imperialists?” It is the last post presented. I explain quite thoroughly as to why you will not see any further metrication effort coming from any members of government. There simple is no pressure coming from members of industry or the public (other than by Luddites to return to imperial).
If you don’t intend on going back and reading it, then just explain what would be gained by members of the Labour party to complete metrication?
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Martin,
Are you sure that the road sign near you that states 1650 yards is really this number of yards or is it really 1650 m mislabelled as yards? It is a known fact that signs showing yards are really metres in disguise. Why would it mean 1480 m? 1650 yards actually converts to just under 1509 m. That is an odd distance. Maybe if it isn’t a true 1650 m, it could have been measured as 1500 m and just converted and rounded to 1650 yards. 1500 m converts to 1640 yards, which is close enough to 1650 yards to give the value in yards a more rounded feel. Overstating the yards by 10 gives a slightly greater buffer.
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@Ezra Steinberg
Unfortunately, Labour isn’t much better at embracing metrication in transportation. There has been a Labour government from 1997–2010, and no significant improvements in regards to this have happened under them. There is even a video on the UKMA’s YouTube channel of the then Labour minister for transportation giving a very dismissive reply to the idea of switching over to metric units, and it was the then Labour government in charge of the DFT who responded with the dismissive £760 million figure as an excuse not to convert the road signs. In response to the UKMA’s £80 million claim given in the “Metric Signs Ahead” report,
It was even an uphill battle to make pointlessly cluttered dual-hight signs mandatory, despite the overwhelming evidence of bridge strikes from foreign goods vehicles who didn’t understand the antiquated units and presentation on the signs, and metric-only signs were extensively being used in the private sector at the time. The law only changed after they left power.
Metres and km are still not generally permitted in the TSRGD. Which would be a fairly easy thing to amend and would be consistent with a whole bunch of other things.
I try to be optimistic, but I can’t see Keir Starmer’s Labour government being much better in this regard. It is just not something that is currently on the political agenda. Political inertia has well and truly set in at this point. Most people seem fine with the status quo and don’t see the need to change. The golden time to switch over was in the 1970s, when it would have corresponded with other important things, rather than now, when people have gotten too comfortable with the status quo and it is an uphill battle to restart it.
My main hope now is that more people realise how increasingly bizarre it is to leave such a massive area of life largely unmetricated when virtually everything else is and non-metric units are becoming less relevant, and there would be a push to finally complete it from that. After all, once it is done, it is done, and people would be wondering what all the fuss was about.
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@Daniel, I wnt onto Google Earth and measured 1650 yards fromthe point where th esign was placed and found nothig special about that point. However, the back entrance to a motorway services area was at 1303 yeards (not open to the public) while there was a small bridge across a stream at 1725 yards. The prohibition might well appy to the bridge so I checked the conversion factors. It seems that the ral distance is 5% more than the stated distance, but if yuo take the average of 1659 yards and 1650 metres you get 1724 units. Regardless, my arguement of how do you measure 1650 yards on a mile odometer still holds.
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Alex M,
I think what has confused Ezra is he thinks because metrication occurred in the 1970s under a Labour government that the members of the Labour government are somehow automatically pro-metric and that if they were returned to power they would push for a completion.
I doubt Ezra understands that back in the 1970s, it was the leaders of industry that convinced the then labour government in power at the time that metrication was in the best interest of the nations economic future and members of the labour government at the time agreed. Of course not all of the members agreed as we see today with road signs, beer and milk.
Unless or until some organised group whose member have influence, wealth and power push for a completion to metrication, the status quo will remain.
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Interesting recent article about anti-metric sentiment in the UK and the USA:
https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/16/23507199/us-uk-anti-metric-sentiment-beyond-measure-james-vincent-excerpt
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As others have said, there is quite simply zero political benefit to any party in Parliament to push metrication at this stage. We have always been, and today are especially so, a nationalist nation whose people are suspicious of anything ‘foreign’. The rightwing parties and their attack dogs in the tabloids would see any attempt or proposal to complete metrication as a gift from heaven – you can imagine the blaring and savage headlines, month after month. The more rational parties are faced with a collapsing NHS, crumbling schools, war spreading across the world, a declining economy, etc etc. The reality is: why would they spend limited and precious political and financial ‘capital’ on something like metrication? It would take a *very* strong argument to persuade the British people (and especially the Little Englanders) that they should support it. Just saying “virtually the entire world uses it” won’t cut the mustard.
Back in the 1970s there was a window of opportunity to get metrication agreed as part of the upheaval of money decimalisation, joining the EU etc. That doesn’t exist today. The only route I can see towards metrication is for a government to try and slip it under the radar. For example, get the railways to metricate their network distance measurements (which currently unbelievably use ‘chains’) – probably no Daily Mail reader would object to that, or even notice it. Then move to other aspects like requiring all government documents to use metric only – that has the potential for the tabloids to get onto it, but if it succeeded then it would start to become even more obvious that road signs were a weird outlier. The final stage would be to take the political risk and announce metrication of road distances, but soften the ‘blow’ for Little Englanders by insisting that traditional ‘cultural’ measures like pints of beer would be specifically protected. You could then assume that these final imperial aspects would gradually fade out of their own accord over decades – but if they didn’t it wouldn’t be a huge problem.
That’s my view for what it’s worth.
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Steve,
The Rail network began metricating almost a decade ago as was reported in this Daily Wail article of 2015-01-24. I don’t know how far they are now in their use of metric, but the Daily Wail did sound the alarm bells over it:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2925013/Safety-fear-EU-make-railways-metric-forcing-staff-calculate-speeds-distances-miles-kilometres-change-over.html
According to the article: “The chain – a unit of measurement equivalent to 22 yards still used by engineers to calculate track lengths between stations and bridges – will also disappear. ”
Maybe someone from Metricviews can update us on what has transpired in the last decade. I’m surprised that the Daily Wail and others haven’t cried on about how the DFT despite forcing the signage to be in imperial on the roads works in metric behind the scenes. How the signs that show miles and yards are really measured in rounded metres.
Maybe they did sometime in the past wail on about metres being used behind the scenes but were totally ignored. I’m sure they were equally ignored with this issue too.
Pints already metricated decades ago when the glassware manufactures adopted 570 mL (not the 568 mL seen in the media and on some labels) since every country in the Commonwealth that still uses pints now legally defines the pint as 570 mL. But, I can’t see too many people squabbling over getting an extra 2 mL in every glass. The fake news media however if they really knew the truth would cry and cry that tradition has been broken. But conveniently ignore that prior to the imperial reform of 1824, the pint for alcoholic beverages was only 473 mL and now it is 97 mL more.
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Martin,
I was a little confused by your response but I would have tried to measure as best as possible the Google Earth distance in metres as well to see if the intended measured distance was 1500 m. As I said, 1500 m is 1640 yards and trying to measure 1640 yards versus 1650 yards is impossible on Google Earth. Finding nothing special about the point where the 1650 yards ends just shows they measured a fixed, round number in metres as is normal for them not caring if it equals some significant point.
As for your point that the showing of distances in yards can’t be read on an odometer is somewhat interesting as it is also done in the US. Yards are not used, but on city streets feet are. Such as stating an intersection as 500 feet ahead. On highways, distances are given in increments of quarter miles, which also don’t specifically appear on an odometer. One would have to estimate it as the odometer is in tenths of a mile using one decimal place and quarter miles require two decimal places. So the halfway point between 2 and 3 has to be estimated.
This makes me wonder if it isn’t intended for the driver to use the odometer to measure short distances and just estimate the distance in your head. For focusing on the odometer means taking your eyes off the road for too long which can result in a serious accident.
Some years back, signs began appearing along US highway exits showing the distance to nearby hotels, restaurants, petrol stations, etc, in tenths of miles. I don’t know how effective using tenths are seeing that every American focuses on the quarter-mile. No matter what the real distance is, everything is a quarter-mile away when directions are asked for.
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I work in the railway industry and know that it is one of the worst for a confusing mix of metric and imperial. It’s a genuine safety risk in my view, but there is no consensus on moving rapidly towards full metrication. As usual in the UK there is no strategy, it’s just a gradual drift towards metrication as new signalling systems (eg. ERTMS) get introduced.
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@Steve
I am of the opinion that the best way forward is to push to amend the TSRGD to allow metres and km to be displayed on distance signs. Then they can be incrementally phased in over time which wouldn’t add any significant additional cost onto pre-existing budgets and would get rid of the main excuse that the DFT is using to stifle the switch over to metric. I don’t find the argument that m is already used for miles convincing as people can easily work out from context, and there is no excuse why that hasn’t already been removed.
The thing about railways is that the general public don’t need to understand that as it is only really relevant for the people working in relation to it. Therefore switching it over to km, would not have a significant impact on wider society and ultimately as long as the road signs are still in imperial, they have an excuse not to.
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@Daniel
“I think what has confused Ezra is that he thinks because metrication occurred in the 1970s under a Labour government, the members of the Labour government are somehow automatically pro-metric and that if they were returned to power, they would push for a completion.”
I do think that Erza would have been right in 1970, as if Harold Wilson had won that election, it would have been likely that the road signs would have been switched over to km in 1973. As opposed to Ted Heath, who delayed it indefinitely and thus missed that optimum time when it was the most politically viable. However, it is just not something that is on the political agenda, and as you say, there isn’t the pressure or will to move away from the status quo.
@Ezra Steinberg
“Interesting recent article about anti-metric sentiment in the UK and the USA:”
It is bizarre that such a fringe minority of eccentrics have been given such political weight when they can easily be ignored. The whole metric martyrs thing was 20 years ago and was centred around one greengrocer who went to ridiculous lengths just because he wouldn’t buy a new scale to comply with the law. Now that nearly everything is sold in metric units, people have gotten used to it, and attempts to permit imperial units were treated with widespread ridicule.
While ARM is being enabled by the DFT and successive governments’ refusal to permit metric units on road signs, If they were switched over to km, society would have quickly gotten used to them, and there would have been no ARM, as that battle would have been lost. The reason why it appears to be ‘creeping’ is because they are bending over backwards to support antiquated and inconsistent units when they don’t have to.
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What’s ARM?
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ARM stands for “Active Resistance to Metrication”. They are a vigilante group who, when they see a road sign (or similar) with metric units, replace the metric units with imperial units. The group was founded by ex-solicitor Tony Bennett and Derek Norman, both long-time anti-EU activists. You can read about Tony Bennett at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician). Derek Norman died on 6 June 2023, but the ARM website (https://www.activeresistance.org.uk/) has not been updated to reflect his death.
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Daniel and Steve:
Over the past three years I have seen on television several documentaries on the railways, their operation, maintenance and project management. Whenever distances along the track have been mentioned, it has always been in metres and kilometres. No mention of chains at all. Yes I have seen the chain distances on railway bridges, including some near where I live. But are these chain measurements still used for any purpose – or are they just relics of the past that nobody sees anh need to remove?
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Miles and chains are still widely used to identify locations on the railway network. Most maps and plans use them still. And train speeds are always exclusively in mph, even where distances on the track are stated in km!
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Thanks, Steve. And what about the Eurostar service?
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The way in which the railway industry uses units of measure can be found in REIB (Railway Accident Investigation Branch)reports. The report into the accident outside Salisbury Station two years ago can be found at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6537ab301bf90d0013d844e4/R122023_231024_Salisbury.pdf. Note 1 of the definitions on page 9 reads “Metric units are used in this report, except when it is normal railway practice to give speeds and locations in imperial units. Where appropriate the equivalent metric value is also given.” The section entitled “Context” (page 13, paragraphs 10-12) shows how this is done in practice.
If one looks at the Croydon tram accident report (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/58a59596ed915d603500001c/IR012017_170220_Sandilands_Jn_IR2.pdf), paragraphs 3, 13 and 15 one will see that everything is in metric units including speeds, but that speeds have an imperial equivalent in brackets. The tram industry, unlike the heavy rail industry is now exclusively metric.
It appears that when both mph and km/h are displayed on BR, then the km/h display is on a dark background (See https://www.railsigns.uk/sect13page6.html).
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I have a sneaky suspicion that metrication on the railways will be held up by the unions for a long time. I don’t think that they are interested in whether the railways use metric or imperial units but they are out to get the best that they can for their members and they wil oppose any change unless their members get an increae in pay.
The same philosophy applies to many other anti-metric organisations – the ARM website for example lists seven sites on its links page, only one of which is associated primarily with weights and measures. Five of the other six are all political sites that have a strong Eurosceptic vein and where weights and measures are only an afterthought. The sixth has a dead link.
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Eurostar uses metric as it uses the ERTMS signalling system, plus it’s an isolated line. I understand that HS2 does also. However the East Coast Main Line is gradually being upgraded to ERTMS and I believe that this is metric also. Bit I’m working on a railway project at the moment where everything is still in miles, chains and mph.
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Since this post is about the EU I thought I would mention here that there is some buzz (including an article in a major Canadian newspaper) about Canada applying to join the EU. The rules do say that a country applying for membership must be European so I’m not sure if the rule would have to be modified to allow Canada to apply (since Morocco was rejected at least in part because it was not a European country).
However, since Canada already has metric road signs and weather reports and a universal health care system plus tons of natural resources I can see why Canada joining the EU would benefit both partners. Plus, such a union would bolster the push to finish metrication in Canada for many reasons. It could also push the UK to seriously consider rejoining the EU, which could also bolster moves to finally resolve the metric muddle in the UK.
Flights of fantasy? Perhaps, but these days I grasp at every glimmer of hope. 🙂
Ezra aka punditgi
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punditgi,
Even if Canada and other countries outside of Europe can’t join the EU, it doesn’t mean that they and the EU can’t form a trade partnership that would grant these countries the benefits of being in the EU per whatever treaty conditions the representatives of these countries agree to.
I don’t know if you remember back in the last century, but the members of the EU council put into effect a 10 year program to make SI the only legal units for use in the EU. It was known as EU/80/181 directive. It originated in 1979, but when the first 10 years came due, there was enough whining from various sectors that the directive was postponed for 10 years. Every time the 10 years came up, it was postponed and postponed until 2010 when it was postponed indefinitely. The EU would have to reinstate this directive in order for trading partners to be forced to use SI only when trading with the EU.
However, there is far as industrial products go the use of SI is governed not so much by a directive but by being a signatory to the ISO and IEC. American industrial products don’t sell well in countries under ISO and IEC rules and vice-versa. You will find limited ISO or IEC products in the US or Canada.
For Canadian industrial products to sell in the EU and other countries who are ISO/IEC signatories, Canada would have to adopt ISO/IEC standards for internal use and I can’t see them doing that. With Canadian industrial standards being aligned to US standards is the prime reason Canada is so tightly glued to the US and any talk of increased trade with the rest of the world is going to be more talk and less action.
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