How SI Units came to Britain

Contrary to popular belief, the metric system was not imposed on us by the EU. The British chose to adopt it!

1862    Select committee of Parliament unanimously recommended that the use of metric should be legal for trade.

1864 & 1894 Weights & Measures (Metric System) Acts permit the use of metric.

1965    Britain adopts the metric system, on the recommendation of the Federation of British Industry (since renamed the CBI).

1972    Britain joins the EEC (since re-named the EU).

Although the EU legislated for the use of metric measures by retailers, they permitted the use of imperial units alongside.

Steve Thoburn was prosecuted for using an illegal set of scales and not for selling in pounds and ounces - despite what the press may say. I will sell rice, priced per kilogram, but break the same law as Steve Thoburn by using an illegal set of scales!

No-one was prosecuted for selling in pounds and ounces because it was never illegal to do so!

I will discuss just how much influence the EU really had on UK measures.

In 2023, a government poll on the return to imperial measures, found just 1% of the public in favour! The idea had been sold as a "Brexit dividend".