I am very concerned about two groups of signs springing up around the country.

1) The first are the 1/3 and 2/3 (and even 1 1/3) mile signs. The two former would seem to be ready for conversion to 500m and 1000m, 2000m. Furthermore, these signs discredit the logic of imperial since 1/4 mile = 440 yards (2 furlongs) but the 1/3rds are awkward in terms of such sub units. Also, people reckon by the 1/2 and 1/4 mile but not by the 1/3 mile. Moreover, many continental countries use the doubling logic prevalent in imperial (ie, in France one finds 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m distance signs) and these divisions match the quarter mile fractions (400m = 0.249 miles, 800m = .497 miles) better than 500m matches 1/3 mile etc. As 1/4 mile and 1/2 mile signs could be converted easily almost exactly into common continental metric distances (not that I want them to be!), this suggests to me that the metricators are (1) obsessive and want to move away from 1-2-4-8 type relationships altogether and/or that they deliberately want to make the miles distances cumbersome.

2) This same principle of making miles awkward whilst getting ready for shock metrication (with apparently more systematic numbers) seems to apply to more and more distance-to-towns signs. Many, many signs around the UK give distances to the principle town or towns on the sign as 3 miles, 6 miles, 9 miles, 12 miles, 16 miles, 19 miles ... These seemingly random figures are, of course, the equivalents of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 etc km. Make a note of the signs you see (eg around the M25) and I think you will agree that these figures shown up more often than is otherwise logical.

We have recently placed on bwmaOnline two photographs of signs relating to the above threat: one sign says "328 yards" and another "383 yards" - these equate to 300 and 350 metres exactly.

The page can be reached directly by clicking on this link or copy-pasting it into your browser:
http://www.bwmaonline.com/Transport%20-%20Roads.htm

All British motorways and most major dual carriageways have white posts on the left and right hand sides of the road (very occasionally in the middle between the carriageways) at precisely 100-metres intervals. On the top, they have a blue square with the distance from either London or some other starting point in tenths of a kilometre.

These 'tenth-of-a-kilometre' white posts have been justified by the Department of Transport as 'helping motorway maintenance workmen to identify precisely where they are'. No explanation why kilometres rather than miles were preferred for this purpose. It is fairly obviously a prelude to the erection of metric distances on signposts. It also tells us how deep-laid and longstanding is the plan to obliterate British weights and measures - as are a whole series of other plans to standardise us all as much as possible in our thinking, habits and beliefs.

I believe that the most effective way to prevent this major threat to British weights and measures will be a continuing escalation of the campaign to remove or amend all metric distance signs, traffic or pedestrian, together with building a committed 'metric resistance force' who will make it plain to the government that any attempt to metrify traffic signs, like the recent messy but largely successful attempt in Ireland, will be met by active resistance

Tony Bennett, UKIP

The Welsh Nationalists successfully used a similar strategy to have every sign post in Wales labelled in Welsh.