The new version of the Met Office’s weather forecasting website no longer has the option to show wind speeds in metric units. All wind speeds are now in mph-only. Previously, users could choose from a list of different units, including metres per second and km/h.
Continue reading “Met Office website drops metric wind speeds”
We at UKMA are deeply saddened to learn of the death of UKMA’s longest-serving patron, Dick Taverne, Baron Taverne of Pimlico. He was a man with a stellar career both in politics and outside, and was an avid supporter of UKMA and its cause.
Continue reading “Obituary – Dick Taverne, Baron Taverne, KC”
Nicholas Kerr cries out against the metric mystery which has us using two systems at once.
There is a new board game, about measurement, called “How Many What?!”. Or rather it is about describing the size of things without the benefit of a universal measurement system.
The game’s blurb says, “Some people will use anything but the metric system to measure things! How Many What?! is the ridiculous party game of absurd comparisons.”
165 years ago, in his opening address at the London meeting of the International Statistical Congress, held on 16 July 1860, Prince Albert drew attention to the measurement muddle prevalent at the time, and was in no doubt that the muddle would have to go.
Words from his speech were included in the 1862 Report From The Select Committee On Weights And Measures, dated 15 July 1862.
Continue reading “Prince Albert and the measurement muddle in the 1860s”
On 19 May 2025, the UK concluded a new agreement with the European Union amid cries of betrayal from the pro-Brexit press. While UKMA has no position on UK-EU relations or on this new agreement, it is a case study to show how it is possible to implement policies such as the completion of the Metric Programme, which started in 1965, while resisting attacks from a hostile media.
Continue reading “Recent example shows way to beat hostile press on metrication”Today is exactly 150 years since the Metre Convention was signed by 17 nations. This treaty established the use of the metric system internationally and created the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) and the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM), organizations with different roles, to co-ordinate international efforts to standardize measurements.
Continue reading “Happy 150th anniversary to the Metre Convention”The Liberal Democrats have become the latest political party to join the populist “save the pint” bandwagon. However, on this occasion their action will not only preserve the use of the imperial pint as the only legal measurement unit for the dispensing of draught beer, but arguably it will also prevent government Ministers from allowing metric measures for draught beer in the future, even if only as an optional alternative to pints.
Continue reading “Lib Dems block ability of Minister to allow metric measures for draught beer”
In a follow up to an article last year, about the occasion in 1904 when Parliament came close to fully-adopting the metric system, we consider one of the possible consequences of this failure.
Twenty years have passed since the UK Metric Association published “A Very British Mess” (VBM). To mark the twentieth anniversary of the publication of VBM, I look at what has changed since its publication in 2004.
Continue reading “What has changed since VBM was published?”
Metric Views 