A letter has recently been sent out to businesses in Hertfordshire and Essex from a local storage company.

It offers two types of storage containers, described as follows:

"Rental of one 20ft container (width 7ft 7in, height 7ft 8in), 150 square feet, Cost £32.20 per week"

"Rental of one 10ft container (width 7ft 7in, height 7ft 8in), 75 square feet, Cost £22.68 per week".

It's in English because the European Commissars haven't yet enforced directives which apply to the descriptions of storage containers, their lengths, heights, widths and area. But may be that's only a matter of time.


Would it really be a better world if the advert ran:

"Rental of one 6.1m contaiuner (width 2.33m, height 2.36m), 14.6 sq.m. Cost E21.65 a week"?

Tony,

Regarding your statement of May 28th @ 11.13 p.m.

"The Brussels Europist Gauleiters haven't yet enforced their decrees & direcives which apply to the descriptions of storage containers, their lengths, heights, widths & areas. But maybe that's only a matter of time."

Tony, you're wrong.

1 TEU = 1280 cu.ft.
1 TEU = 20' x 8' x 8' steel storage container
1 TEU = 20 ft. equivalent unit
1 TEU = 12.8 register tons
1 TEU = 32 freight tons
1 FEU = 2560 cu.ft.
1 FEU = 40' x 8' x 8' steel storage container
1 FEU = 40 ft. equivalent unit
1 FEU = 25.6 register tons
1 FEU = 64 freight tons

Tony, 99.9% of all items in world trade are transported in TEUs & FEUs.

Look at the trucks going past your house. Yeah, TEUs & FEUs.

Look at the docks of the U.K. capitol city, London. Utterly destroyed. Destroyed by what? Yeah, by TEUs & FEUs.

Even the slightest attempt by the Europist Gauleiters to enforce their Napoleon Emperor's Republic of Europe Decadent Weights & Measures crackpot directives regarding the common weights & measures' TEUs & FEUs would result in the following:

A. The collapse within days of the entire Europistland economy.

B. Starvation & death within weeks of millions of people on the Europe continent.

So the facts are:

1. All TEUs & all FEUs are built to common weights & measures.

2. Accordingly all items placed into TEUs & FEUs must conform to common weights & measures, in order to fit.

3. As 99.9% of world trade items are transported in TEUs & FEUs, so 99.9% of world trade items conform to common weights & measures.

4. As 99.9% of world trade items conform to common weights & measures, the N.E.R.E. scheme will always remain a deviant scam, for use only during nazi/commie/loony-tune social quiz nights.

Tony, just about anything can happen. But N.E.R.E. changes to storage containers? IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN.

If you want more info on TEUs & FEUs, see site:

http://www.weights-and-measures.com

And topic:

Common Cubic Measure

Tony Bennet wrote

<<
... snip ...

"Rental of one 20ft container (width 7ft 7in, height 7ft 8in), 150 square feet, Cost £32.20 per week"

... snip ...

Would it really be a better world if the advert ran:

"Rental of one 6.1m contaiuner (width 2.33m, height 2.36m), 14.6 sq.m. Cost E21.65 a week"?
>>

I know that the pound has dropped against the Euro. When I was in Italy a year ago, 1 Euro was worth between 60p and 65p. The Euro now appears to be worth £1.48 - a dramatic fall in value. (or are you suggesting that people who pay in Euros should get a discount?)

<Would it really be a better world if the advert ran:

"Rental of one 6.1m contaiuner (width 2.33m, height 2.36m), 14.6 sq.m. Cost E21.65 a week"?>

Would it really be worse? Would we really be any less British?

floor rental is by the sqft too, hence all those "to let" signs.

Quite a nice unit actually since a square foot isn't a million miles away from what you could stand in, thus a 1000 sqft office is imaginable from seeing 1000 people sardining into the office!

In reality, a 1000m^2 office is more likely to hold 1000 people comfortably. If you want your 1000 workers standing shoulder to shoulder, buy a 1000 sq ft office, if you want a spacious office for your 1000 workers, buy a 1000m^2 office.

Many signs these days have the value in ft and metres. I would say about 75% I see have both values on.

Make it 1000 sq. yds then if you want your "1000 m^2" space. All office and building space in the US is advertised and measured in square feet.

reality check alert

rarely do signs show a m^2 amount

i'd say it was 90% sqft 8% both and 2% m^2.

you also get weird sizes, one of which I call a "squirm" - shown as, for example, 20 sqrm!

When I was visualising a room, I wasn't trying to imagine 1000 people lounging around I was trying to visualise 1000sqft from humans standing shoulder to shoulder (like the US/UK during the war!!)

re (Andy): "Would we really be any less British?"

Andy, this is a good question. It's a rhetorical question, and no doubt your anticipated answer is: "Of course not, what difference does it make to our sense of national identity what system of measurement we have".

We might then examine the question of whether it is, to quote '1066 and All That', a 'good thing' that a group of people feel British, and what it is that makes them feel that way.

I would argue, though born after the last war of two parents whose countries were on opposite sides in the war, that ugly expansionism and aggression on the continent was defeated, at least partly, by a very strong sense of national purpose that the British had acquired. I include in this the English, Welsh, Scots and many Irish people, especially in the north.

Incidentally it would be very difficult indeed to find another example on the planet of four nations - English, Welsh, Scots and Irish - combining voluntarily to form a collection of nations in one State. It has been a Union in which all the four nations have prospered and in which national traditions were allowed to flourish e.g. Scotland retaining many of its own civil and criminal justice procedures. The English attempt to suppress the Welsh language in the nineteenth century was a regrettable departure from that 'live and let live' philosophy.

If we accept for a moment the premise that it is a 'good thing' to be and feel British, and go on to accept that the British have, inter alia (a) twice in the last 100 years stood in the way of European empire-building and fascism and (b) introduced many parts of the world to Parliamentary democracy, then it must follow that anything that weakens that national sense of identity is a 'bad thing'.

For example, would it make any difference to our sense of Britishness if we adopted the euro?

Would it make any difference if we placed ourselves permanently under the European Constitution?

Would it make any difference if we became a republic?

Would it make any difference if we ceased to have jury trial?

Would it make any difference if we ceased to have 'habeas corpus'?

Would it make any difference if England were split into nine regional Parliaments and Westminster were to lose even more of its powers?

Would it make any difference if we have a common European foreign and defence policy?

The political elite in the European Union has an agenda to weaken and undermine national identities. Achieving that will help them build the common European identity they are striving so hard for. I would agree that changing our weights and measures alone is not the most important aspect of our national identity by a long way.

But it *is* a part of what makes us who we are, and in many respects that which makes us what we are and have been for hundreds of years is being eroded, year by year. You may cheer that or lament it, but it's a fact

Some of the things talked about above refer to a common spirit where people stand together against a common enemy or in a common cause.

But is this really about identity or about a community spirit?

Both my parents were East-Enders who lived through WWII. My Mother was, at the time, a teenager who stayed with her parents during the Blitz on London. (My Father was in the Navy).

She speaks fondly of the kindness and friendship of people helping each other during those terrible times. The German bombing campaign was in part designed to break the moral of people in British towns and cities. To soften them up and undermine the political leadership, embodied in Winston Churchill.

They didn't crack. The people of London and elsewhere defeated the Luftwaffe. (With considerable help from the RAF of course).

I can honestly say I feel a sense of gratitude to that generation both at home and away fighting for their courage in the face of such overwhelming odds.

People of today live in a world where we have to stand together in an International community. We have to recognise that human society transcends the old National boundaries.

We all need some sense of identiy sure but it doesn't have to be drawn from trivia such as pounds and ounces.

We need to identify ourselves by our morals and the humane principles we stand for. We must fight cruelty to both humans and animals. We must stand up against (genuine) tyranny and oppression.

At the same time we must not trivialise those latter concepts by taking arms against common standards that potentially make life easier and safer for all.

re: "People of today live in a world where we have to stand together in an international community. We have to recognise that human society transcends the old national boundaries".

REPLY: This, with respect, is full of woolly and grand-sounding sentiments that don't stand up to scrutiny and analysis. What do you mean by what you say? The world has always been global, with interdependence, trade etc.

But 'stand together in an international communtiy' means something like 'have a one world government and a world-wide set of rules'. Of course, humans are internationally-minded in all sorts of ways. But does this remove the need for groups of people with a common identity to form their own states, and to be governed at as local a level as possible?

After all, even the United Nations Charter guarantees the 'right to self-determination of all peoples' - which presumably means the right to rule themsleves. Well, I am English and so would prefer to by ruled by fellow-Englishmen. And I am British and am content to be ruled by fellow-Britons. You need to explain what your phrases mean in practical terms.

-------------------------------------------------------

re: "We all need some sense of identity, sure, but it doesn't have to be drawn from trivia such as pounds and ounces".

REPLY: An entire system of weights and measures which has been part of our culture for more than hundreds of years, and which we share with the most successful nation on the planet, the U.S.A., is scarcely 'trivia'. And I was making the point that this was only one element of national identity that was being phased out

-------------------------------------------------------

re: "We need to identify ourselves by our morals and the humane principles we stand for...We must stand up against (genuine) tyranny and oppression".

REPLY: That's roughtly what Tony Blair and George Bush said when they invaded Iraq. Two of Britain's 'morals and humane principles' are jury trial and 'habeas corpus'. Europe intends to abolish them! And do you include 'free speech'? That is already under attack in Britain - look for example at the arrest of countryside campaigner and journalist Robin Page last year for comments he made in a speech at a Countryside rally in Gloucestershire

-------------------------------------------------------

At the same time we must not trivialise those latter concepts by taking arms against common standards that potentially make life easier and safer for all.

REPLY: I wonder what you have in mind here?! 'Common standards that potentially make life safer for all'.

Ah yes, got it! - a uniform system of signage on roads which we all in Britian understand - miles, yards, feet and inches. I agree! Let's make sure that no official interferes with those 'common standards that potentially make life easier and safer for all'