Give them an inch and they'll take 1.609km

If you've read my first few posts you'll already know that British road safety policy is something that gets me wound up. Well, the other thing is the metric system... specifically the fact that in 1965 the British government decided (for the nth time) that we'd become a metric country and since then progress has crawled at the usual British pace.

Well, it's on the back of this week's changes to British road safety laws that I come onto our use of metric. I was surprised, shocked and annoyed on seeing TV coverage over the last weekend telling how the British public is confused and mis-informed at new rules that will force many children back into child-seats. I'm already enraged by our government's lack of official advertising on this particular issue as we should not have to rely on the BBC and Halfords to tell us the law is changing. I was a little peeved at the usual "Blame the EU" attitude taken by some. But what really got my goat is the BBC reporting that the law applied to "children under the age of 12 and less that 4 foot 5 inches in height". Let me explain: what the law actually says is 135cm. Yes folks 135cm, otherwise known as 1.35m or 1350mm. What the law does NOT say is 4 foot 5 inches - now, if the law actually said 134.6cm then I'd have to accept this.

So, why is the extra 4mm important? It's indicative of the stupidity of the system of measurement we operate in this country and however much people might complain that completing metrication might be expensive and dangerous, it is more expensive and dangerous not to convert. Apart from the USA (and even they are starting to use metric), the UK is the ONLY country on this planet which is not using metric in all areas of life and is certainly the only one where it is possible to get confused.

Starting at birth the midwife will weigh and measure a baby in metric and make a record of this information for future use, yet the proud parents will announce the weight in pounds and ounces. When the child goes to school they will be educated in the use of metres, grammes and litres, but when they get home they will take a pint bottle of milk out of the fridge and listen to mum complain about how many pounds she's put on and dad talk about how many miles per hour faster his car goes than somebody elses. This goes on throughout life.

Every time you go to the petrol station you'll put perhaps 40-50 litres of petrol in your car without thinking about it yet you'll work out how economical it in in Miles per Gallon. No matter that the size of a gallon in the only other country in the world who does this differs in size by over 3/4 of a litre! And on the basis that we don't understand what a litre is, we're still forced to buy beer and milk in pints (even though spirits can only be sold in metric units and in the supermarkets a pint of milk must by law be marked as 0.568 litres). We're forced by holiday companies and radio DJ's to listen to en-promtu weather forcasts in Farenheit!

Not many people realise we do more in metric than they're led to believe by the loony-tabloid-press. A4 paper is metric. Measurement of electricity using watts, volts and amps is all metric. Your 35mm camera is metric. Measure a CD and you will find that it's exactly 12cm across. But can we, in this modern and forward thinking nation of ours, convert to using metric? No. Why? Because it's too hard for people to undestand it.

Even our roads use metric. Where? I hear you ask. Everywhere. All engineering is in metric. Roadsigns are made according to metric specifications. Lines and markings on the roads are specified in metric. Even the positioning of the road signs. If you read the laws and guidelines on how roadsigns are errected they state specifically that distances between signs are in metres. If you see a roadworks sign even though it states "n yards" the law regarding it's positioning states "n metres". It is deemed that 100 metres and 100 yards are close enough on the roads that they are equivalent, yet the same laws state that distances cannot be shown on the sign itself in metric. It is assumed that the British people are too stupid to understand the difference (even if we had it explained using little words in big writing).

Think now of international travellers. Not only those coming to this country on both business and pleasure, but those of us doing the opposite. We're used to seeing signs that give a width limit of 6"6' but this means nothing to people from most other countries (well it does, it means 6 minutes 6 seconds!!!). Even the owners manual to my Vauxhall Zafira doesn't give me measurements in this manner, it tells me my car is 1999mm wide (just a little under 2m for those of you who refuse to understand). Using this country's habit of using inches in this way am I supposed to presume that the gap is wide enough for my car? Well, 6 foot 6 inches is actually 1981mm which is 19mm less and I'm afraid that IS enough that I'm not going to take a chance so please excuse me if I reverse back up that narrow lane because my car is too wide. Spare a thought though for those thousands of European drivers who don't know how to convert. How many low bridges have to get hit by German lorries before we put things right. The law allows us to put both metric and imperial on weight and height warnings so why don't we? Why don't we change roadwork signs to read metres AND yards in the same way as Welsh signs show both languages? This would really be too easy.

I recently spent 2 weeks driving my German made car around western Europe and couldn't properly read the km/h markings on the speedometer. Would this have been a defense if I'd have got a speeding ticket? I think not!

Incidentally, weight limits on British roads are shown in metric Tonnes (except that I know a road sign in Cambridgeshire which shows two weight limits, one in tonnes the other in tons! Unsurprisingly Cambridgeshire County Council have to date ignored my request to know why this is the case).

British industry and government must be wasting millions of pounds (thats money folks!) every year on pointless conversion and education. Surely this money would be better spent on improving our hospitals, schools and other public services.

All I can say is, if the Austalians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Indians and most recently the Irish can convert, why can't we?