[SunRescue] OT: CA: It's Our Turn

[Mike Meredith]

On Tuesday 03 April 2001 23:38, you wrote:
> [taken to geeks list, please reply there if at all]
>
> "Chris Byrne" <chris at chrisbyrne.com> wrote:
> > Honestly I do wish we were metric if only for the fact that it
> > would make life easier when dealing with the rest of the world. But
> > 350 some years of tradition dont get changed overnight.
>
> I personally wish that .UK *wasn't* gradually switching to metric. 

I suspect you're slightly older than me. The advantages of switching to 
metric (what everyone else in the world uses apart from the US) 
outweighs any possible advantage that Imperial measurement uses.

People my age and younger have difficulty in dealing with Imperial 
measurement because when it hasn't been taught it comes across as 
bizarre.

> > Hell officially the UK has been metric for more than 20 years and
> > still most people I know of think of things in miles, pounds, and
> > ounces. And how long did it take to switch from shillings to
> > new-pence?
>
> It was over twenty years before the old shilling and florin stopped
> being legal tender.

The *coins* were legal tender, but the 'decimalisation' process went 
very quickly --- there were certainly no signs of the old system when I 
started buying things (early 70's).