The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill has many serious problems. In its current form, it represents a huge power grab by the Executive. It sunsets all EU-derived laws at the end of this year unless a Minister acts to save them. Only Ministers will decide which laws are retained, which ones are amended and which ones are scrapped without parliamentary oversight and scrutiny. Affected stakeholders are excluded from the process. There is less than one year to review approximately 4000 laws and decide what to do with them. The rush to scrap or amend laws is bound to lead to mistakes, omissions and contradictions. There are ways to fix the problems with the REUL Bill.
Continue reading “How to fix the main problems with the REUL Bill”DfT holds back TfL from all-metric usage
Transport for London (TfL) uses metres and kilometres to express distances in its press releases with few exceptions and often uses metres elsewhere in public places. However, speeds are expressed in miles per hour, no doubt due to Department for Transport (DfT) regulations and usage. Tariffs for taxi fares are expressed in metres for short journeys and in miles for longer journeys and reflect current regulations. I praise TfL for using metric units wherever they can. It is a pity that DfT regulations and usage are holding back TfL from going fully metric.
Continue reading “DfT holds back TfL from all-metric usage”Retirement of the US survey foot
It is well known that the USA uses miles, feet and inches and they are identical to the English versions of these units used in the UK. What is a lot less well known is the fact that the USA had two official feet, the international foot and the survey foot. By extension, there were also two versions of derived units based on these two feet. So there were survey and international versions of common units such as the mile, yard and inch. The US survey foot was deprecated at the end of last year. This deprecation act shows the importance of ensuring uniformity and common standards in measurement matters.
Continue reading “Retirement of the US survey foot”DfE fails to see link between poor numeracy and measurement muddle
The late Alan Young, a metric campaigner and a highly experienced maths teacher, mentioned the problems of the measurement muddle that British pupils face on a daily basis. On 1 September 2022, I wrote to my local MP to raise these issues with Department for Education (DfE). In their reply, they failed to see the connection between poor numeracy and the measurement muddle and suggested that the key stage 2 national curriculum addresses this problem.
Continue reading “DfE fails to see link between poor numeracy and measurement muddle”REUL Impact Assessment described as “not fit for purpose”
On 15 November 2022, I condemned the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) for failing to produce an impact assessment on the Retained EU Law Bill. One week later, BEIS published its impact assessment (IA). Its IA document looks like a blank form with notes for someone else to fill in the blanks. No actual figures are provided for changes or deletions of any affected laws. So it is no surprise that the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC), an advisory Non-Departmental Public Body of BEIS, has described the IA as “not fit for purpose”.
Continue reading “REUL Impact Assessment described as “not fit for purpose””Weak regulations cause disasters like Grenfell Tower fire
Grenfell Tower was a block of flats with 24 floors in North Kensington, West London. On 14 June 2017, a fire broke out in Grenfell Tower and spread very fast throughout the block with the help of flammable cladding. This disaster destroyed Grenfell Tower and resulted in the loss of 72 lives. Many more were injured. This is a classic example of what can happen when regulations are non-existent or inadequate. If the Retained EU Law Bill becomes law, almost 4000 EU-derived laws could disappear overnight at the end of this year and ministers would only have to do nothing to let this happen.
Continue reading “Weak regulations cause disasters like Grenfell Tower fire”No mention of measurements on Reform UK website
Reform UK is a right-wing Eurosceptic party, formerly called the Brexit Party. Its support has recently been roughly as high as the Liberal Democrats, at around 9% of the electorate. Its slogan is “Let’s Make Britain Great”, which sounds similar to former US president Donald Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again”. How has Reform UK gained support in recent times without saying a word about imperial units?
Continue reading “No mention of measurements on Reform UK website”GWR2023 reflects our measurement muddle
Today, we start the year with the 2023 edition of Guinness World Records, a famous annual publication. Obviously, this publication would not be possible without measurement. Unlike some foreign language versions of GWR2023, the English version is published with dual units to make allowances for metrication laggards like the UK and USA. GWR2023 contains some measurements in metric only and a few in imperial only, mainly related to records in the US, but the vast majority of measurements are predominantly expressed in dual units.
Continue reading “GWR2023 reflects our measurement muddle”Miles beyond transport
Here we will look at some visible displays of miles that are totally unrelated to road transport, the one major area of British life where miles are used across the UK. The images shown in this article demonstrate the enormous influence of British mile-based road signs for speed and distance on British society.
Continue reading “Miles beyond transport”Official party line on REUL Bill
Conservative MPs have been using a standard text to respond to their constituents about the Retained EU Law Bill. Three UKMA members, including two Committee members, live in different constituencies that are represented by Conservative MPs. When they wrote to their MPs, they received almost identical replies.
Continue reading “Official party line on REUL Bill”
Metric Views 