As part of a review of the rules inherited from the European Union, the British government wants to abolish the metric system in shops and supermarkets in favour of imperial units.
No more grams and kilograms, make way for ounces and pounds. As Britain leaves the European Union, the British government announced this week its intention to revise thousands of European regulations, according to BBC reports. Starting with leaving the metric system to return to imperial units.
In accordance with European Union legislation, traders are required to measure and display the weight of their products in grams and kilograms in their kiosks. The use of ounces (1 ounce = 28 grams) or pounds (1 pound = 454 grams) remained permitted for the British, but provided that the metric measurements were equally visible to the consumer.
A list that some traders on the channel for a long time found unacceptable. In 2001, someone was convicted of selling bananas with imperial measures only. The ‘Martyrs of the Metric System’ was soon established.
Boris Johnson has already mentioned in an interview the restoration of the imperial system at the expense of the metric system. Daily mail in 2019:
“We will bring back this old freedom. I see no reason to persecute people (only for using the imperial system),” he said.
However, the British government’s announcement this week led to discontent among the Labour opposition, which accused it of being “out of touch” with voters ‘ priorities, as the UK had to deal for several weeks with deficits, with many non-labour goods, as well as a rebound in inflation to a level that has not been seen in nine years.
Another opposition politician, Jess Phillips, repeated his speech by stressing that the subject of the procedure was far from the British’s main concerns: “no one has ever raised this issue with me as a member of Parliament. Never!”exploded. Scottish Independence Party MP Stephen Flynn called on the government to focus as a priority on offering “food on the shelves”.
Downing Street defended himself against opposition attacks on Friday, saying that “pound and ounce are easy to understand and are already commonly used units of measurement”. A prime minister’s spokesman also noted that leaving the metric system “is only a small part of a broad government campaign aimed at creating the right regulation to support jobs and growth in the Kingdom – the UK”.
Brexit minister David Frost himself said that the move to imperialism would be part of broader changes aimed at “taking advantage of the freedoms Brexit offers”.
No Comments