Showing:
◈ imperial measurements×
South Wales-based wine importer Daniel Lambert challenged an MP to a radio debate on the benefits claimed for “pints of wine”. Will he do it?
English wine producers look set to pass up the chance to sell wine by the pint, despite a triumphant announcement from the government that it had given them the “Brexit freedom” to do so.
The results of our analysis showed that 98.7% of respondents were in favour of using metric units when buying or selling product, either as the primary unit of sale (maintaining status quo) or as the sole unit of sale (purely metric). 1.3% of respondents were in favour of increased use of imperial units...
Business department consulting on bringing back archaic system of units. / A “biased” consultation into reintroducing imperial measurements launched by the government has been criticised for giving the public no option to reject the change.
In a nutshell, the consultation explores the possibility of removing the requirement to use metric units in some areas of trade and commerce. It is a deeply flawed survey over an unnecessary, wasteful and potentially damaging proposal.
The imperial measurements fiasco is another sign that government-via-culture-war doesn’t work
30/05/2022
There are good reasons why imperial measurements, so long the favourite topic of a nostalgia-frenzy in the tabloid media, haven’t been brought back into general use. And it’s not because they are “illegal”.
A slow metric transition in Britain has led to widespread myths about metrication in the UK. Unfortunately, many (but certainly not all) anti-EU campaigners have also opposed metrication and have spread myths about metrication to attack Britain’s participation in the EU.
Today is one year since the “Choice on units of measurement: markings and sales” consultation closed. It is about Government proposals to remove the requirement to show metric units alongside imperial units in trade or allow metric units to be shown with less prominence than imperial units.
We received 101,108 responses to our consultation. Out of the responses we analysed, we identified 93,041 as being from consumers, 4,718 from businesses and 3,179 from academia, healthcare, government and trading standards, and other organisations. ...the majority of respondents expressed limited or no appetite for increased use of imperial measures.
The Metric Martyrs case – twenty years on
30/05/2022
Before Brexit, there were the Metric Martyrs. / The key legal case here was a set of appeals which were decided by the High Court in 2002, in a judgment now known as Thoburn.
The Brexit self-punishment machine
05/01/2024
It’s tempting to ignore the government’s announcement, made in the doldrums between Christmas and the New Year, that it is to become legal to sell wine and champagne in pint bottles.
The poet Robert Burns imagined a man toasting his lover with a “pint o’ wine”, and Winston Churchill was perhaps the most famous proponent of the pint bottle for champagne. Now, Rishi Sunak’s government has spied a “Brexit opportunity” to legalise the sale of wine by the pint once more – if it can persuade anyone to make the bottles.
The Tories have been criticised for boasting about post-Brexit freedoms that mean the UK can sell pints of wine while the economy is "on its knees" and public services "at breaking point".
Government scraps 'Brexit dividend' plan to bring back imperial measurements in shops after almost 99% of voters say they prefer metric measures
27/12/2023
Ministers have canned plans to allow shops to sell in imperial measurements only after the public said they preferred their metres and kilograms to their pounds and feet.
Editorial: The UK’s six-year Brexit hangover
05/01/2023
There's little talk of reversing the decision, but evidence of Brexit-induced harm is piling up.
As Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to depart Downing Street, tossed from office by his own party, his legacy — the opening lines of his eventual obituary — will call him the man who “got Brexit done.” / So how is that going? What can be said about the post-Brexit Britain that Johnson is leaving behind?
Using imperial measurements alone is illegal in many circumstances. But the EU did not outlaw their use altogether, and the UK did take some steps towards adopting the metric system prior to joining the EU.
BVTV: Brexit fantasy ends
08/07/2022
The idea of Brexit as a force for reordering British society expired with Boris Johnson’s resignation speech, Peter Thal Larsen says.
Post Brexit inflation is making UK "sick man of Europe" | Economics | The New Statesman [22 mins]
18/06/2022
A "perfect storm" of Brexit, covid and poor macroeconomic fiscal policies by the Conservatives has weakened Britain's economy and diminished the UK's standing in Europe, says economist Duncan Weldon.
Brexit Chickens Come Home to Roost
07/06/2022
While the picture’s hardly pretty and certainly not what advocates of Brexit envisioned, none of it surprises economists. As a former Bank of England official observed: “You run a trade war against yourself, bad things happen.”
Supermarket chief slams move aimed at pleasing ‘small minority who hark for the past’. / Arts minister Stephen Parkinson gave incorrect answers when Kay Burley asked him to convert ounces and grams into pounds.
Has anyone got any genuine reasons why imperial is better than metric, I asked. I got more than 2,000 replies.
Tory peer Lord Rose criticises ‘backwards’ proposal as business department launches 12-week consultation.
Leaving the EU was supposed to enable innovation, not tedious headline-grabbing.