Assuming they do :cool:;)

One point I try to convey until I’m blue in the face is that even if the EU does create bureaucracy, whenever we trade with EU countries from the outside we will still have to abide by those rules, even though we won’t have any say in making them! This is the exact situation that France found itself in via NATO, hence why they rejoined in the last few years.

As with the anti-metrication lobby, it really seems to me that they are cutting their nose to spite their face. Even if they succeed in completely ingratiating the metric system from the UK, all it will do it make it more troublesome for us to trade with the overwhelming majority of the world.

I understand where it comes from, my point is that it is in fact anything but universal! People come in all shapes and sizes, so to base any system of measurement on the human body is clearly ridiculous.

In any case, how we even got onto this subject is beyond me. 😀

1 mile = distance you can walk in 1/4 of an hour, or distance travelled by an ox-cart in one hour.
1 yard = distance from tip of nose to outstretched middle finger, used for measuring cloth.
1 foot = obvious.
1 inch = length of end joint of a finger.
1 gallon of water weighs 10 pounds
1 pint = 1/8 of a gallon, or half of half of half a gallon.

Given that the distance measurements vary from person to person, I’d hardly call them an objective measure.

My point was that all human measurement systems are by definition arbitrary. You are obviously more attached to the imperial system, which is fine if that’s what you’re used to. As I said before though, it’s a system that is being left behind. Even in the UK, science and engineering fields have already left it long behind.

Sorry to have disturbed the anti-EU diatribes but I felt that lone voices such as SNAFU352 needed support.

I’m here too 😎

One thing I can’t quite wrap my head around – I understand the political argument for being/not being in the EU, some people like it and some don’t, fair enough.

But when it comes to the economic argument, the ‘out’ crowd keep telling us how much better off we would be, when even people like the CBI are adamant that we wouldn’t be. The organisation that represents people whose job it is to make money are telling us they would be worse off outside the EU – why would they lie?

Which is just as well, since replacing every signpost would cost this country millions, for a false, made-up measurement that was only invented because of a French obsession with the figure 10.

Are you going to argue that imperial measurements are any less arbitrary? I’ve love to see you make that case.

I can understand why people are attached to Imperial measures, we like what we are used to after all, but we have to face facts. Be it science, engineering or just general usage, the UK stands almost alone in perpetuating this system of weights and measures.

I simply have to make a brief return to the Daily Ma.. sorry the General Discussion forum to laugh at the way these posts are used to reinforce existing prejudices while having no basis in fact.:D

Another load of xenophobic rubbish

Didn’t see your post before I made mine, looks like my bull$**t detector was right after all 😀

Is this what you are referring to?

“Prime Minister Julia Gillard – Australia

‘Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.’

I find this part of the quote highly curious, since Gillard has herself openly stated that she does not believe in God.

While I’m in broad agreement with her that if you emigrate to a new nation you should seek to integrate, I’m really not on board with the ‘accept christianity as supreme or gtfo’, it’s rather offensive to the concept of religious freedom.