Dear Bill Hooper and All,
I thought that the name of Christopher Booker had appeared on this
list before. When I checked, I found that he was active in an anti
metric capacity from 2000 August. See: USMA:6809. USMA:31762, USMA:
34245, and USMA:33534.
I will quote from the last of these from Phil Hall:
**
There is a tendency to think that the UK press is polarised for or
against metric. I don't believe that's the case. I think that
newspapers are generally apathetic about it like so many in British
society.
In my view it comes down to individual writers and journalists.
Editors couldn't care less or at least there's not much evidence that
they do care. One minute you can read an article that's all metric,
turn the page and get the opposite or more often a mixture sometimes
in the same article.
There are some rabid anti-metric columnists though. Christopher
Booker and Peter Hitchin are two that spring to mind, though in their
case it's mainly born of anti-EUism. They both earn their money in
much the same way, by being provocative. I'm sure they love to be
hated and enjoy a good scrap. I've seen Hitchin in action on TV
(wow). Writers like these object to metrication on political grounds
but they don't take the issue itself all that seriously, they spout
too much rubbish for that.
Phil Hall
**
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
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 [EMAIL PROTECTED] or subscribe to
the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter at http://
www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter/
On 2008/01/18, at 2:14 PM, Bill Hooper wrote:
On 2008 Jan 17 , at 8:55 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Here's a longer version of the story from the Daily Mail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?
in_article_id=508252&in_page_id=1770
Ezra
Shame on the Daily Mail!
That so called "news" article (Headline reprinted below) is not a
news story, it is a thinly disguised editorial. It promotes (rather
then reports on) the idea that the UK government has no reason to
prosecute shop keepers for violating UK law. The mis-information in
the article could persuade their readers that they are right when
they are not.
They compound their bias by giving information at the end of the
article telling their readers how to donate money to the shop
keeper who violated the law. That ain't news!
========================
NEWS
Meet the shopkeeper who is the latest to have been penalised for
her imperial measures
By CHRISTOPHER BOOKER - More by this author ยป
Last updated at 01:08am on 15th January 2008
====================================
Regards,
Bill Hooper
Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
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Make It Simple; Make It Metric!
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