Taking back the mile

One of the depressing aspects of life over the past few decades has been the steady replacement of comfortable, familiar British measurements with the confusing and alien metric system. This is often blamed on the EU, but in fact our own government had set the ball rolling many years before we joined.

Fortunately, two bastions of proper measurements have managed to survive. One is pints of beer and milk, and the other, more significantly, is the use of Imperial distances, widths and heights on the roads. While I’m sure there have been plans made in the past to convert these to metric, as has been done in Ireland, the enormous cost and the likely scale of opposition has always put governments off, and realistically it’s very difficult to see it happening now.

Indeed, not only are Imperial distances in miles and yards mandated for official road signs, it is actually illegal to display metric distances. Dual units for width and height restrictions are permitted, but not metric-only signs. However, despite this, in many areas council officials have taken it upon themselves to erect metric signs, even though they must know full well that they contravene the regulations. One can only speculate as to the motivation for this – presumably it arises from a loathing of their country’s heritage and distinctive identity and a desire to elimate all signs of it.

But fortunately help is at hand. As the Daily Mail reports, veteran anti-EU campaigner Derek Norman has formed a campaign group called Active Resistance to Metrication which is dedicated to tackling metric road signs. So far, he claims to have removed over 2,000 of them. Although some may regard this as vandalism, he argues that his actions are legal, provided that he tells councils where he has put the signs, because the signs are in contravention of regulations in the first place and thus constitute illegal obstructions to the highway. So far, this argument has held up in several court cases.

I say more power to his elbow in standing up for this country’s traditions. Any blame should be attached to the council officials who allowed the signs to be erected in the first place. They should be subject to disciplinary action and made to pay the cost of replacement with signs using the correct measurements. A defence of ignorance of the rules simply will not wash.

And hopefully, once we have finally extricated ourselves from the clutches of the EU, we can restore the use of proper traditional British measurements for all everyday purposes, and confine the metric system to its proper domain in the scientific and technical sphere.

It is also disappointing how the National Trust, which is supposedly dedicated to the preservation of Britain’s heritage, has often chosen to erect metric signs at its properties. While these are not bound by government signing regulations, they show a contempt for this country’s traditions, and the Trust should put under pressure to replace them all as soon as possible.