I am 21 years old. I was brought up with the metric system. I was never taught the imperial system at school. When I am driving on roads, speeds and distances are only given in miles. I don't complain about this, although it would make things much easier for me, if they were in kilometres. Yet, many older Imperialists complain when the metric equivalent is shown in conjunction with the metric. Why can't these people accept that some of us don't understand the imperial just like they don't understand the metric. There is widespread suppport for the market trader in Sunderland and yet none for the barman who sold beer in half litre glasses.

I think the fact that there is support for Steve Thoburn and others but none for your metric publican itself speaks volumes.

I sympathize with your predicament. I am 32 years old and just as much a product of our obsessively metricated education system as you. However, I am "bilingual", if you will - if ever I want to make a precise calculation I will use SI because that is how I was trained in my physics classes at school, but to relate to the real world around me I unthinkingly use feet+inches, pounds+ounces, etc. I can't imagine this changing. Are you one of those incredibly rare people (even among your peers) who when asked his height will reply 1.78m instead of 5'10" (or whatever)?

All this said, the fact remains that metrication has been imposed on this country stealthily, deceitfully, without any real justification, and against the wishes of its people.

For heaven's sake, thanks to our masters in Brussels, in 8 years time it will be ILLEGAL to mark the weight of something in pounds or its capacity in pints (even if only alongside kilograms or litres). This kind of tyrrany must be resisted.

It may be instructive to consider _who_ decided that Britain 'should go metric'. _Not_ the people of the country. The plan to eradicate a perfectly good system of weights and measures was never put to the people, ever mentioned in any election manifesto. A result of the decision of a very few people has been to cause confusion and division (in your case, between young and old). Despite metric education, _most_ young people still _think in_ and _prefer_ the 'Imperial' system. Why? - because of the power of the oral and written tradition. A handful of lessons in the metric system can't overwhelm the oral tradition in the family, among friends, reading books and newspapers, watching TV etc. - weights and measures used in the popular culture are almost all 'Imperial'

Tony Bennett

In the case of road signs, only one system should be used, otherwise there will be mix-ups on distance, speed limits, bridge heights, etc. No material benefit is to be made by switching to metric.

In the wider consumer economy, if the UK government and European Commission allowed people to adopt metric on the basis of choice, we would not really be so concerned - it is the element of compulsion that must be opposed.