Imperial Measurements

One of the most successful campaigns of the 1970s was the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA).

At the beginning of the 1970s, the traditional hand pump and pint of traditionally brewed bitter had all but disappeared from Britain’s pubs.  In its place, drinkers were directed to Watney’s Red Barrel or the new lager alternatives.  At that time, the only national pub chain still serving in that way in its older establishments was Bass Charrington.  There were also some smaller local breweries still serving beer ‘from the wood’ such as Young’s brewery in Wandsworth.  In fact, it would have taken only one more legislative step to abolish the traditional pint in its entirety.  Bottled and canned beers had already been repackaged in alternative metric sizes, commonly now in sizes of 500 millilitres.

No one is forced to drink real ale.  You might not even like it.  But the important thing is that CAMRA has given you a choice.  If you buy it draught, you can still buy it in traditional imperial units but sadly not if you buy it bottled or canned.

Maybe, like me, you dislike having anything forced upon you as part of anyone’s agenda.  Whether it’s lockdowns.  Or if it is someone is telling you in what units you can market goods and services.  Speaking for myself, I don’t eat magic mushrooms.  But if you want to get high on magic mushrooms, that’s fine with me.  It’s not for me to tell you what you can or can’t do with your own body.  So if I love our traditional system of weights and measures, why should someone else tell me that I can’t use them? I can buy a 454 gramme jar of honey from my local supermarket but I am not allowed to call it a pound of honey.  What nonsense is that?

In modern Britain, we value diversity.  We value the many different cultures, languages, accents and dialects which we encounter everyday of our lives.  We would not dream of asking someone who is born and bred in Yorkshire to change the way they speak.  So why do we ‘tut tut’ when someone chooses to talk in terms of feet and inches, pounds and ounces, Fahrenheit instead of centigrade (sorry Celsius)?  No-one in history has ever legislated to force the use of traditional British measurements?  It is something which grew out of trade and custom.  And over many centuries.

Don’t get me wrong.  I am not calling for any legislative change.  I just object to the fact that 1000 years of history has been airbrushed out of the information which is fed to us daily through our televisions or other media outlets.  As though it has been removed as part of a corporate policy.  As though our traditional measurements had never existed.

Several years ago, one of the mainstream TV channels provided a series of documentaries in which they recreated life within a 1950’s primary school.  It was all authentic except for one thing.  When the teacher was measuring the height of the schoolchildren, she spoke to them in terms of centimetres instead of feet and inches.  Kilograms instead of stones and pounds.  Yes-I know that children today would not know how to use imperial measurements.  But if you are trying to re-create a 1950s environment, at least please try to make it authentic.  Otherwise, what’s the point?

A couple of years ago, the Johnson government announced proposals to relax the rules on mandated Metrication.  But it never came to anything.  It was too half-hearted.  A nod to the Brexiteers.  Even though there is nothing anti-Europe in wanting to preserve something more than 1000 years old and which helps to make us what we are.  If we are going to abolish traditional measurements, why don’t we go the whole hog and abolish folk music, morris dancing and piano accordions?  Yes-the government has legislated to restore crown markings on pint glasses. Big deal! Did you even notice that they had gone?

Whether you like it or not, there are three reasons why imperial measurements, and their American equivalents, will never disappear completely during our lifetimes:

1. The United States of America, the biggest economy in the world, hasn’t even begun to go metric.  In fact, it even used customary units in relation to a recent space mission.  What’s the betting that the next American space mission will also go with customary units? And if you watch any Hollywood blockbuster, you’re going to see references to feet and inches; pounds and ounces.  They’re not going to convert it for your benefit. Remember also that American Tech still leads the world.  The plastic may be made in China.  but the technology behind it is 100 percent Silicon Valley.  It’s why you will still be buying your 22-inch computer monitors for many years to come.
2. Even when legislative Metrication is 100% complete, we will still drive a mile down the road; or grow an inch in height; or put on a couple of pounds.
3. Some things just don’t lend themselves to Metrication.  Like the fact that it takes the Moon 28 days to circumvent the Earth; or the Earth takes 365 ¼ days to go round the sun.  It’s why we still measure time and angle the Babylonian way.

If like me, you want to celebrate this part of our history, here is something you can do to shout it out.

Do you love sunshine? Then get into your car and adjust the dashboard display so that the temperature is expressed in Fahrenheit instead of centigrade (sorry Celsius).  Somehow 38°Celsius doesn’t feel quite as hot as 100° F. Phew!