A recent report has stressed the importance of numeracy – and of raising the level of numeracy – both for people with learning difficulties and for people who are otherwise well qualified. In this article Martin Vlietstra suggests that fully adopting the metric system would help to raise standards – and blames the Europhobic media for obstructing progress.
Category: Media
Daylight saving, opting out, and a nudge from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Looking for a lead out of the UK’s measurement muddle? The last government showed no desire to become involved, and now the present government appears to be following in its footsteps. Metric Views recently came across a comment elsewhere which prompted speculation on a way forward.
Continue reading “Daylight saving, opting out, and a nudge from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
How decimalisation succeeded while metrication stalled
The media like nothing better than an anniversary, so it was predictable that the 40th anniversary of “decimal day” – 15 February 1971, when the UK finally gave up its archaic and inconvenient coinage and currency – would get a good airing. Some commentators have even recalled that decimalisation was originally supposed to be complementary to metrication, with both operating to roughly the same timetable. So, it is interesting to compare the slick and successful operation to decimalise our currency with the incompetent bungling of metrication.
Continue reading “How decimalisation succeeded while metrication stalled”
How big is that oil spill?
A reader of Metric Views points out that confusion on the reporting of this disaster is not limited to the UK.
An improvement in the weather
A recent exchange of e-mails between Ezra, a reader of MetricViews in the USA, and Tony, in the UK, suggests that recent years have seen changes for the better in weather reporting in the both the UK and Canada. Do other readers of MetricViews share Tony’s viewpoint? Continue reading “An improvement in the weather”
Joules on the menu, please
The very worthy proposal of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) that menus should state energy values is undermined by its failure to use proper measurement units. UKMA has responded by advocating joules rather than so-called “calories” (whatever they may be).
Spare a thought for any would-be Brysons out there
What units do you choose when you are writing travel books and other popular non-fiction for English speakers, wherever they might be found? (Article written by a reader of Bill Bryson’s books) Continue reading “Spare a thought for any would-be Brysons out there”
Who said that?
The standards for writing SI are very clear, those for speaking perhaps not. So this contribution to the topic from the BBC may be of interest to our readers.
Our Christmas Cracker
The traditional Christmas cracker usually contains a joke, a paper hat and a toy, and goes off with a bang. Metric Views, in its cracker, has an anecdote about a Christmas Fair, links to two radio programmes, and a video with some knockabout fun.
Mystery shopper exposes imperial media stunt
UKMA has received evidence that the recent media hullabaloo about the prosecution of a market trader in Hackney was a deliberate setup, designed to reawaken interest in the flagging campaign to preserve obsolete imperial measures.
This is the report from UKMA’s mystery shopper:
“I managed to get away early today (instead of tomorrow) with plenty time to get off at Dalston for the Ridley Rd Market.
In brief..it is one of the most metric markets I’ve seen in the UK! It is even more kg-only than last time I went through.
All the meat and fish stalls and shops are either predominantly kg-only.. with some having per lb, usually underneath (but that would be about 3 out of approximately 10 shops).  All the fruit and veg stalls showed both kg and lb, varying in kg first or lb first…but well signed and all scales set to kg/g. There were NO lb only stands. A couple of stands seemed empty so may have been where Devers (not to be seen) had/has her stall…
Finally, I walked a good 3/4 of the way through this very long market before I heard ANYONE speaking English! (Absolutely true).
Having done a lot of shopping there (as the prices are like a step back in time after Notting Hill) I did get a lot of chats with the traders. Mostly they were Asian, Middle Eastern, African (I overheard other shoppers all asking for kilos) and they said no-one has ever shown a sign of confusion there.
The English “barra boy” types, who had (like everyone else) scales set to metric, sold me my purchases without fault weighing up exactly in kilos. They were quite jokey, so I got to ask them where the “Ridley Road media star” was? They pointed further down where I’d been and told me it was all a set-up, as the so-called customers had been asked on camera “how many POUNDS do you think this weighs”. Then (God knows where they found these “confused Caribbean” people) they replied for the cameras an amount in pounds while filming next to Devers and her stand. Now that’s outrageous!!! (But typical of the media trying to create a story out of nothing.. Seems one big storm in an imperial teacup!)”
So now we know. Or rather our suspicions are confirmed. The great majority of both traders and customers in Ridley Road are perfectly happy with using metric scales and measurements, and there is little local sympathy for the antics of Ms Devers and the bogus “metric martyrs.” Some elements of the media have been complicit in trying to create the opposite impression. None of this is very surprising, but it is disappointing that senior politicians, who ought to know better, appear (or pretend) to have been taken in by it. Sad.
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