Category: Media

Australia’s successful metrication strategy

There is much to be learned from Australia’s highly successful 1970s metrication programme. In a previous Metric Views article, we looked at two information leaflets produced by Australia’s Metric Conversion Board; Temperature and Pressure go Metric and Motoring goes Metric. Both leaflets were part of intensive public information campaigns in the lead up to “M-days” for weather forecasting and motoring – specific days on which official measurement units switched from the old units to modern metric units.

In this article, we take a look at another of their leaflets, Think Metric – It’s Easy.

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What role did the BBC play in the UK’s transition to the metric system in the 1970s?

It may come as a surprise to many readers that, 50 years ago, the BBC had an Inter-divisional Metrication Committee. It’s precise remit is not clear, but in 1976 it published a 68-page booklet with the intriguing title, Metrication – A Producer’s Guide.

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Media blast from the past

In the early years of the Metrication Programme, which began in 1965, the press was not hostile to metrication. They published articles that sounded supportive or neutral. It was only a couple of decades later when metrication progress ran out of steam and the consensus on metrication broke down in the 1980’s that the press turned against metrication. Here we look at some of the earlier and later newspaper articles that reflect the changing attitudes to metrication in the UK.

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Is the metric system the tool of the (Sea) Devil?

In Matt Groening’s The Simpsons, Grampa Simpson famously decries the metric system as being “the tool of the Devil”.

In Russell T Davies’ latest Doctor Who spin-off science-fiction mini-series, it seems the metric system is the tool of the Sea Devil too.

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Met Office website drops metric wind speeds

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.

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A “Quite Interesting” mess

If, like me, you are a regular viewer and fan of QI, the BBC’s long-running “Quite Interesting” trivia game show, you are probably frustrated by the seemingly random choice of measurement units that the programme uses to convey the sizes of things. Viewers are expected to be familiar with a whole host of units that haven’t been taught in schools for more than 50 years.

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Recent example shows way to beat hostile press on metrication

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.

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Are UK weather forecasts a form of gaslighting?

As we once again enter the Celsiheit season, that uniquely British time of year, where temperatures become so warm that some assume that a switch to the larger numbers of the old Fahrenheit scale is required, the BBC has dashed any hope that 2025 might be the year when Fahrenheit is finally consigned to the history books of UK weather forecasting.

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