Like US, UK Uses a Hodgepodge of Measurement Units

choi

Saabira Chaudhuri, UK Weighs Saying Cheerio to Metric System; Freed of EU edict, government formally studies embracing old measurements. Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2022, at page A1.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-k ... -system-11657463960

Quote:

"The U.K. is in a leadership crisis, but as politicians argue over who is to be prime minister, ordinary Britons face an issue more pertinent to everyday life: Should they weigh themselves in kilograms or in stone? * * * English imperial measurements date to medieval times. Among them, the stone, which many Britons use for their weight, equals 14 pounds. The metric system was created much later across the Channel in France, England's ancient arch rival.  The UK has used various metric units since the 1960s and officially adopted the metric system in stages between 1995 and 1999. British law requires that metric units be used for most things, to align with the EU, although exceptions allow Brits to still drink beer in pints on the pub and drive in miles.  The government says the consultation it announced in June * * *

"the UK Metric Association has long campaigned for Britain to adopt even more metric measures. * * * The Metric Association says imperial units already appear too frequently, lamenting how soccer pitches have an 18-yard box and real-estate agents describe homes in feet and inches.

"Like the US, Britain uses a hodgepodge of units: Medicines are dosed in milligrams, beverages are bottled in liters, and athletes run 5K races. Yet height is measured in feet and inches, distance in miles and property in acres.

"Emotion about the EU edict hit a high two decades ago when a greengrocer in Sunderland in the North of England was forced to hand his imperial scales over to the police after an undercover inspector found him selling bananas weighed on the equipment. Steve Thoburn and fellow traders were convicted of failing to weigh or price goods in metric [and fined: according Wiki, which does not say how much], earning the moniker 'metric martyrs' and sparking a national outcry.  Mr Thoburn died in 2004. A former fellow market trader, Neil Herron, continues to hunt a pardon for him.

"Advocates of a Britain that re-embraces imperial measures lost a major advocate with Mr Johnson's resignation as prime minister on Thursday.

Note:
(a) There is no need to read the rest.
(b)
(i)
(A) cheerio
https://www.lexico.com/definition/cheerio
(pronunciation)
(B) cheerio (interj.): "from cheer"
https://www.etymonline.com/word/cheerio
(ii) Cheerios
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheerios
(1941- ; section 1 History: name)

(c)
(i) stone (unit)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_(unit)   
(section 1 Antiquity)
(ii) stone (n): "British   a unit of weight equal to 14 lb (6.35 kg)  <I weighed 10 stone>  <He weighs in at a massive stone and a half - 8.6 kilos - and his vet says he's never seen a cat so big in all his working life.>"
https://www.lexico.com/definition/stone
(d) pint
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pint
("The British imperial pint is about 20% larger than the American pint because the two systems are defined differently")