The race has been run. Pictures and commentary have been broadcast around the world, and millions will have formed an impression of Britain in 2013. Ronnie Cohen asks if more could have been made of this opportunity to publicise UK plc.
Continue reading “The Grand National’s unhelpful measurements”
A key point of President Obama’s State of the Union address on 13 February was the proposed EU-US trade agreement, which has been under preliminary discussion for the past year. (See http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/13/state-of-the-union-free-trade-europe). As this agreement is supposed to remove regulatory barriers to trade, there should now be a serious opportunity to remove the US ban on metric-only labelling of most packages.
Continue reading “Will EU-US trade agreement bring in metric-only labelling in the US?”
The question of adopting metric measures in the UK is not a new proposition; in 1862 Parliament’s Select Committee on Weights and Measures considered the matter and came down firmly in favour of metrication. A century and a half later, we are still waiting for the government to finally complete the job. The full report can be read here. A summary follows:
Continue reading “1862 report from the Select Committee on weights and measures”
On 11 February, Bloomberg reported that China had overtaken the US in global trade. One of our readers has now drawn our attention to additional information on this subject.
It was not possible to provide illustrations for the article on metric progress in Malaysia that was published on MV in January 2010. We can now remedy this deficiency.
We look at some of the consequences when there is more than one option for supplementary units on product labels.
As the Games draw to a close, we take a look at some of the winners and losers.
A recent comment on UKMA’s Facebook page has prompted Metric Views to look into NASA’s latest mission to Mars. This is reported to have landed at 06:32 BST on Monday 6 August.
Thursday 26 July, the eve of the opening of the Games, was a busy day for the Prime Minister as he focused on the benefits the Olympics will bring to the UK.
Continue reading “The Olympics – a showcase, but not just for the UK”
We mark Mr Wiggins’ success in the Tour de France and Mrs Obama’s visit to London with a story that links our nearest continental neighbour with our former colonies across the pond. Those of our readers who are looking for an article about the greatest international sporting festival and the international system of measures which makes it possible must wait until next week.
Metric Views 