Why did Britain change measurement system?
The government first announced plans to go metric in 1965. The reason was that it is an easier and more widely used system than the old imperial measures, and it helps to measure things in the same way as the people you trade with. However, Britain is not fully metric. Road signs use miles and yards, and milk, beer, and cider still come in pints (which are different to US pints). People still commonly refer to a person’s height in feet and inches, and weight in stones and pounds (a stone = 14 pounds). It a very emotive issue for some British people and there are a group called ‘the metric martyrs’ who protest at laws designed to increase the use of metric measurements. They won a recent victory when it was decided that Britain could continue to display prices in imperial measures as well as metric. The plan was for that to end in 2009.
