Imperial left-overs in Australia

Although Australia is predominantly metric, there are still some pockets of imperial usage.  Ronnie C recently visited that country and has written this account of what he found.

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BBC told to stop undermining the National Measurement System

In its response to a recent BBC consultation the UK Metric Association (UKMA) has called on the BBC to live up to its declared mission and hence to support – and not to undermine – the exclusively metric National Measurement System.

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Independent Scotland would keep …

In its White Paper today (26 November 2013) the Scottish Government has tried to reassure nervous sceptics with a list of things that they hope a future independent Scotland would keep.  Widely reported have been the Queen, the pound sterling , membership of the EU, membership of NATO (all these subject to negotiation), free travel to the rest of the British Isles, the BBC, Royal Mail (albeit renationalised).  But there is one item in the list that has not attracted much attention …

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Metrication in Australia

As the UK approaches the fiftieth anniversary of the commencement of its prolonged metric changeover, we draw attention to an article about a country that succeeded in making the transition in little more than a decade.

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DfT guilty of making unfounded claims

Yesterday, the National Audit Office (NAO) criticised the UK Department for Transport (DfT) for its unfounded claims about the benefits of the proposed high speed rail project HS2. In this article, Ronnie Cohen identifies another unfounded claim by the DfT – one that relates to the change to metric units on road signs.

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The 1895 Select Committee on weights and measures

This article looks back to the findings and recommendations of the 1895 Parliamentary Select Committee on weights and measures.

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