Friday, September 14, 2007 |
00:50 - Humiliations galore
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2431521.ece
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Hah! The dark forces of metric have been turned back at the gates:
The European Industry Commissioner now says he cannot even understand why there was ever a movement to homogenise measurements.
“When I looked into this matter it was obvious to me that there was no reason why imperial measures should go. And then we held a very wide-ranging consultation which confirmed how unpopular this move was,” Mr Verheugen said. “I think up to that point nobody had really asked the obvious question which is ’do we really need [to ban] it?’
“Things such as pints and miles and feet and inches are what makes us love Britain. We don’t want to get rid of them. The idea that you could not go for a pint in a pub in Britain is not acceptable.”
I guess if we're going to be humiliated, we might as well be in good company. And we might as well derive our humiliation from a victory, at that.
What I love about this story is how the commenters read right past things like this:
Almost forty years later the EU has concluded that trade is unaffected by the discrepancy in measurements; indeed exports to the US may be aided by the inclusion of imperial measures alongside metric on British produce.
... And say things like this:
The European Commissioner who pushed this backward move through the EC should be ashamed of himself. If he can't see the value in harmonising measurement across the EU then he is not fit to hold such a post! Every modern civilised society needs a system of measurement that everyone can understand and use, we don't need two or more.
Never mind what the numbers say; everybody knows the truth!
Beautiful. I'm lovin' this.
(Of course, I'm being somewhat facetious. ...Or am I?)
Via J Greely.
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