People are not purposely choosing them in preference to metric they are
simply reacting to the environment in which they live and were brought up in
and the continued need to engage them because they persist and haven't
experienced an all metric world where they can see it working properly.
This may be true of the US where metric tends not to get a look-in.
In the UK metric is all around you - it is "available" - it just doesn't get "picked up". People refer to and think in imperial (most of the time).
The latest tactic is for the state to tell us not to use metric. It still doesn't work. I don't know what the next tactic will be. One thing for sure though, in a month or two (or three) there will be a chance for the UK to change direction. Unfortunately though, when it gets to placing the cross expressions like "better the devil" will fill many people's minds.
This is why it's so important not to try and mix metric with non-metric,
they are incompatible and the advantages of metric are not properly
realised. The advancement that the development of the SI represents marks an
improvement in the way we measure and should not be made to co-exist
indefinitely with old measures that are no longer needed.
I agree that its bad practice to mix the two AT THE SAME TIME. Like 4 miles and 200 metres. However I reserve the right to pick and choose whatever measure I feel fit for the application I need it for for that point in time - whether that be litres, millimetres, inches or pints.
The UKMA see this as a "mess" - as if its an issue to the common Brit. You ask a Brit what his or her opinion "on the current measurement mess in the UK" and he/ she will show puzzlement and probe you for more info. Its a non-issue over here. No-one (except the motivated) talks about it. The BBC show "Question Time" on Thursday night (information: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/default.stm) and the panelists get grilled by a lively audience. The panelists are never given clues on what the questions might be. I've been watching it for years and I've never heard a question about this so called "British mess" (I believe there was an 'imperial-positive' discussion about the so called 'metrric martyrs' once).
