Don't be too afraid of metrication !
In Belgium and the Netherlands the word "pond" (Dutch for "pound") is still used as an equivalent of 500 grammes. So, make your pound weigh 500 grammes and the problem is solved !
So you can metricate and at the same time keep your beloved pound !

PS: Turn a yard into the equivalent of 1 metre and the problem is solved again !
PS2: Turn a ton into a tonne and Britain will be happy again, and so will the European Union !

^That would be the cowards way out.

:sigh: No, we have been over this and it is not so. Why can't people just leave me and my country alone? Why can't I enjoy my own culture? Why must I be forced to metricate. A 500 gramme pound is not a pound- it is half a kilogramme. 16 ounces equaling one pound is a pound, and it happens not to weigh 500 grammes. Ask people who speak gaelic, and see if they are accepting of an Anglisised Gaelic or speaking English but with Gaelic taught in schools as a curiosity.

I'm sorry, and maybe I am having my period or something similar, but it genuinely hurts me and makes me sad that I can't live in my own country the way I and every other Englsihman was meant to. Please just leave me, my countrymen and our culture alone.

Please just go away and let me be English.

Hans,
As stated in the last post, 500g is not the same as the 16oz pound; there is a 10% difference (as with the yard/metre).

Ask yourself this: if the kilogram/gram was a "better" system, why do people on the Continent create "metric pound" sub-divisions? The reason is that a weight equivalent to only HALF a kilo is more practical. In Britain, we already have such a unit - the 16 oz pound.

Bryan, no doubt you're English, but are you also European ?

Ralf

Is not the pound, yard and pint also European?

BWMA wrote: "Is not the pound, yard and pint also European?"

As Great Britain is a European country: yeah, they are European.
If you mean "continental":
pound = yeah, but its weight differed according to the region
yard = yeah, but its lenght differed according to the region (in Belgium it was called an "el" and it measured about 69 cm)
pint = no

A bit of history: Napoleon ordered his scientists to design a new LOGICAL system, because the yards were shorter in one part of his empire than in the other and his pounds weighed more in Paris than in Marseille. So he said: "Get rid of this bloody system, and design something completely new".

So please cut the crap saying that you have always used "THE" pound ! There wasn't something like "THE" pound ! No doubt the weight of a pound as was used in Scotland differed from the one used in London or in Dublin or even Brighton. Why do you think the British Parliament advised to adopt the metric system as early as in the mid-19th century ?

Apparently bright Britons still existed in those times. Unfortunately, conservative folks like for example the ones that run the BWMA are trying to prevent Great Britain from becoming a bit more a part of the world.

It's high time you all realized that you suffer NO DEFEAT by adopting a system that is used by the majority of the world population. It's high time you realized that you are Europeans ! That you are not Bush's lap dog, thus trying to give the impression that you still play a leading role in the world ! YOU DON'T ! And as long as Britain doesn't realize that it can only play an important role in international politics through the European Union, it will stay the world's outcast as it is right now. For the moment you're not important in Europe and you're just America's yes-man. But you can change ! Make your choice !

HANS

Weights and measures have been fixed across England for 800 years. One of the reasons why the metric system did not take off in Britain during the 1700 or 1800s is because the problem to which it seen as a solution (the haphazard variation of measure between locations) did not exist. A pound in London weighed the same as a pound in New York or Australia.

The metric system was a Continental solution to a Continental problem; it had little relevance to Britain. People in Britain approach this matter from a totally different direction to people on the Continent. We have a long-standing system of measurement that is standardised, indigenous and popular. Consequently, many people in this country do not understand what the metrical system is for, or why we should use it.

Certainly, many businesses use metric, especially for EU trade and where criminal penalties exist for non-metric use; however, many others use inch/pound/pint for domestic and US/Canadian trade. Apart from that, metric is not very important. Inch-pound is easier to use for most purposes.

Whether or not Britain plays a role in the EU is not a matter of interest to BWMA. We are aware that the EC has established an office to project the consequences of Britain's withdrawal but, as an association, we cannot comment one way or the other. We are limited to weights and measures.

Hans has got his history wrong. The metric system was introduced into France during the French Revolution as part of the fanatical pseudo-rationalism of the time (otherwise known as outright insanity!) that even saw an attempt to invent a "rationalised" deist religion to replace Christianity.

After the terror came Napoleon Bonaparte. He was not impressed, and said:
"The scientists adopted the decimal system on the basis of the meter as unit. Nothing is more contrary to the organisation of the mind, memory and imagination. The new system will be a stumbling block and source of difficulties for generations to come. It is just tormenting the people with trivia."

He preferred the more conservative Système Usuel, which was abolished by bureaucratic decree in the 1830's.

Hans wronte "it will stay the world's outcast as it is right now"

Hans, are magic mushrooms legal in Belgium?

Steveh, no, they're not !

Well be careful what the police find you with!

Steveh, why do you go on about those magic mushrooms in all of your posts?

Because when I read some of the things here I get the feeling people have been chomping on them!

Don't you mean metric mushrooms?

Same thing in my opinion....