Dear Martin,
No, there was no particular general mood or feeling in Australia at
that time for or against metric units or Imperial measures. One of the
driving forces – for politicians – was that we had in 1966 carried out
a very successful change from pounds, shilling, pence, and fractional
pence to dollars and cents. This monetary decimal transition was well
planned and well managed.
Most Australian recognised the efficiency of the money transition and
perhaps many expected the transition of physical measurements to be
just as simple and just as well done. This turned out to be true for
most metric transitions as they were done on an industry by industry
basis. Most industry occupations used the opportunity to streamline
all of the measurements in their industry and to get rid of
measurement redundancy. To me the classic example was the building
industry because I was involved in training for many building
companies – the transition was well planned, well managed, and it was
essentially completed within 2 years (1972 to 1974).
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain
from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial
and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA.
Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com
for more metrication information, contact Pat at pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com
or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
to subscribe.
On 2010/04/06, at 05:52 , Martin Vlietstra wrote:
By 1979 the metrication program in the UK had slowed down into
bottom gear. In that year Mrs Thatcher became prime minister and
one of the things on the agenda was the harmonization of units of
measure across the EU. Mrs Thatcher’s antipathy towards the EU was
well known and she used the failure to complete the metrication
program as a symbol of defiance towards EU regulations. Intricate
details of how VAT was collected meant nothing to the man in the
street, but changing of everyday things like miles and pints were
highly visible.
When I compare this to South Africa – the bulk of the South African
metrication program was complete by 1975 – South Africa had been a
republic for over a decade and metrication was seen as being a step
in the direction of the country asserting its independence – in
particular South Africa did not have to wait for the British lead in
everything. Pat might be able to mention whether or not there was a
similar mood in Australia.
From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] On
Behalf Of Paul Trusten
Sent: 05 April 2010 17:13
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:47048] The "Europeanization" of the U.S.? --was Re:
BBC debate about road signs
This is a 2006 program, hence the discussion of 2010 and
supplementary indications.
Perhaps the U.K. citizens can enlighten me on this point, but in
that country and in mine (the U.S.), metrication seems to me to
have become a political issue, not a technical one, when it is more
technical than it is political. Right now, in the U.S., there is a
great deal of complaining about President Obama seeking to
"Europeanize" America with his political agenda. and I hate to see
this argument spill over into the metrication discussion, as it
seems to be doing in the UK . My counter to this is that the SI
metric system does not belong to Europe alone. Far from it. It
belongs to North America, South America, Asia, Africa, the Pacific
states--- it is global.
If we take into account the U.S. Metric Act of 1866, the Metre
Convention of 1875, and the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, SI is
the entire world's system of measurement, and its avoidance by a few
countries should be seen a form of deprivation, not a form of
exceptionalism, for those countries' citizens. The lad who asked
what a pint was is part of our future. In the government
publication Metrication In Australia, the Australian government
stated its wish to be part of the future, not the past, when it
launched metrication in the 1970s. As it was in Ireland in 2005,
Metrication of road signs in the UK would be forward-looking, and
for the long term.
Paul Trusten,R.Ph.
Public Relations Director
U.S. Metric Association, Inc.
www.metric.org
----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Naughtin
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: 05 April, 2010 02:27
Subject: [USMA:47044] BBC debate about road signs
Dear All,
I have just watched this completely bizarre BBC program called,
'Question Time' at http://www.youtube.com/user/UKMetric
I say completely bizarre because we, in Australia, changed all of
the road signs in this very large country in a single day (Sunday
1974 July 1). We did this with with minimum cost by simply applying
stick on signs over all the old signs. Some approximations were made
(1/4 mile became 400 metres for instance) and all the the signs were
replaced and perhaps moved slightly in the normal order of
maintenance plans.
This completely bizarre BBC program illustrates clearly that the UK
government has no plans to learn from others about how to go about
the road sign change. Instead they appear to want to extend the
discussion well beyond the 45 years (1965 to 2010) it has already
taken so far – and there is no end in sight.
I have said before and I will repeat here, 'A well planned and
carried out metrication upgrade can be completed in a single day – a
poorly planned attempt at metric conversion can take more than 100
years. In both cases the change to the metric system is inevitable'.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain
from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that
they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or
selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources
for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial,
industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and
in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google,
NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the
USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication
information, contact Pat at pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com or
to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
to subscribe.
