A blurb from last month, that I'll hope to refer back to next semester when we teach about the European Union and its struggles when its bureaucratic rules, backed up by legislation from the European Parliament challenge national sovereignty, sparks fly. What's a sovereign nation to do?
In this, the latest example involving the EU and its members, the EU bureaucrats, using their wide range of discretion, seem to have backed down. The defenders of pints, miles, and pounds (as weight, not money) are not entirely satisfied. By the way, those of us not in the UK (or the Republic o Ireland) might not understand that the pint is the most important of these traditional measures.
EU gives up on 'metric Britain'
The European Union is set to confirm it has abandoned what became one of its most unpopular policies among many British people."
It is proposing to allow the UK to continue using pounds, miles and pints as units of measurement indefinitely..."Under the plans which have now been scrapped, even displaying the price of fruit and vegetables in pounds and ounces would have become grounds for a criminal prosecution."The decision to back down was made by Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen... 'I want to bring to an end a bitter, bitter battle that has lasted for decades and which in my view is completely pointless. We're bringing this battle to an end.'..."John Gardner, director of the pro-imperial British Weights and Measures Association, said: 'If a trader tries to conduct his business in just imperial measurements that will be illegal.'"
The UK Metric Association said the statement does not mean that traders can go back to weighing and pricing in imperial measures, and it will be 'business as usual'..."
Ken Wedding on his blog, Teaching Comparative Govenment and Politics, http://compgovpol.blogspot.com goes back on some Minnesota history when metric rationalists seemed to have been gained the upper hand and even in the US people saw km/hr speed limit signs, learned that a dime (part of a metric system) weighed about a gram, and that a meter was about a yard long.
In 1977, the NCAA sanctioned a Division III metric football game between Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges here in Northfield, Minnesota. But the enthusiasm for imposing metric (even in Europe)uniformity may be waning.
Yet another victim on nationalistic pride. The Brits and Irish will raise a pint to that.
4 comments:
This situation highlights the limits of even the most powerful supernational organizations. The real challenge of the E.U is to incorporate the features that benefit the most member nations, while still preserving the traditions that have been groomed over a millenia.
If people from other parts of Europe want to visit a pub in Ireland or England, I suppose it wouldn’t be too hard to order 568.2 ml of beer. In fact, it won’t be hard for the bartender to pour one since it will fit in a pint glass. I can see a traveler walking up to the bar and saying, “I’ll have a 568 please.”
I agree with Industry Commissioner Verheugen when he said this whole business, “is completely pointless.” I commend the EU for trying to make everything uniform and simple, but sometimes when you try to uncomplicate a situation, you wind up making it more complicated.
I'll drink to that (not alcohol, but... you know what I mean). Here's to ya, gov'na. *clink*
Personally, I think that the world would be much more efficient if every country (including the United States) was on the metric system. We, as Americans, have to know the metric system in order to do anything in math or science and thus, instead of learning 2 systems, we would just learn one. I know that many people will object to this because people hate changes, especially drastic ones. But in the long run, metric conversions will be greatly valued and they are much easier to learn than the standard system. Plus, Britain and Ireland are always whining about something and now it happens to be about their pints. Maybe this is sign that all of the drinking in Ireland needs to stop. Just a thought.
I understand completely how the pint is the most important imperial measurement. To be fair to the EU and its metrification, however, in Ireland, distances, speed, weather, weight, mass and volume of everything else but a pint of beer is done in metric, and even in the UK there is more meterification with the younger generation. As well decimilsation* of the currency start off being unpopular, but it is now a non-issue.
Post a Comment