What's the issue here?
We joined the EU so it makes it their business...
We don't like to be told to stop using imperial measures and they give-in...All modern vehicles have both Miles and KM's on the speedometers so we can drive in Europe without mental arithmetic...
and we have a choice.
Move on.

Mr Brown, London,

I think they both work perfectly well. I'm in my 20s and grew up measuring my height in feet/inches and weight in stones. Don't know them in m/cms or kg, wouldn't mean anything to me anyway. Also I've always measured long distances in miles, shorter in metres and liquids in litre/milileters.

Shaka, Glasgow, Scotland

Why don't you go back to 20 shillings, 12 pence, crowns,etc...
Would that make any sense???

Talis, Paris, France

Actually the whole world uses a complete mix of different measurements all the time without any problem at all - we are all quite able to cope with ease. Just look at EU plumbing sizes as a starting point !! And ask for a "livre" of product in most French markets will get you a "pound" (or 500grams)

Michael, Chalais, France

Yes, dinosaurs have rights just like everyone else, and those who want to continue to waste their time using a ludicrously complicated and illogical system are perfectly entitled to carry on doing so. Meanwhile British businesses will continue to design and specify everything in sensible metric...

Graeme, Dinan, France

John, France. Here's one for you.... a km is 5/8 a mile. hardly the world' most difficult arithmatic. We are our own independent nation state, and if we want to use imperial measures, or the pound for that matter, we will. There is nothing "quaint" about having your own culture

Jessica, London,

The utter futility of imperial measurements is shown by the fact that the last two countries who use them (the US and the UK) have *different* fluid ounces. Please, let's allow them to die quietly.

Anthony, Brighton,

Comments on this form show that most Brits are quite happy to be in the EU provided we take no part in it.

Oh and John Maynard: our empire may be in the dustbin now, largely thanks to US pressure, but at least it lasted several hundred years and worked!, lets see how long the US's empire lasts

Bob, Sittingbourne, UK

Eventually the imperial measures will disappear. They don't make any sense any more. Scienctists all over the world, including in the UK and USA, have been metric for decades.
The EU knows that forcing anything on the Brits will only make them go against it. Reverse psychology at its best.

Erwin, London, UK

I'm 25 and I have grown up in a world that uses two types of measurement for everything without any actual reason behind this.I am 5'11" and I weigh 12', yet I ran the 100 meters and i can bench press 80 kilos.We will lose imperial measurements-move on oldies, please!If the Aussies can, we can.

Gareth, Birmingham, UK

If it's a one world government people are looking for by all means let's all jump on the band wagon and switch to metric, while we're at it, let's just change the worlds money to one type then we can make an official language to speak, certain types off clothing styles to be allowed... raseberries!

Leila, Orlando, USA

Whether you Brits like it or not your empire is long in the dustbin and you, whether you like it or not, are, with the agreement of your government, part of the new empire, the European Union. Enjoy your quaint measures, all children need some toys.

Jon Maynard, Lansing MI, USA

I understand metric and imperial - what is the problem? Using both really is not that challenging. Britain should use its heritage and its brains to its advantage and these people crying out about Brussels should stop whining and grow up.

louise, brighton, uk

"More taxpayers money wasted on a nonsense."
I agree entirely! Europe should not have poked her nose in in the first place! THAT would have saved your £millions.
NOTE: £ yes £ millions - now THAT fight is on and WILL BE WON!

Angus R MUNRO, DONCASTER, South Scotland

John, Péault, France

That's the thing John, Britons really don't care what you Europeans think of us. Most Britons don't want anything to do with your precious EU.
Hence why the Government flatly refuse a referendum on anything EU related.

Phill, Cheshire, UK

So how will drivers from the mainland know what speed they're travelling at? All EU speedometers are calibrated in k/h, and there's no attempt by UK authorities to help. If Brits want to be considered quaint by the rest of Europe, they're going the right way about it.

John, Péault, France

It is a shame that the BBC has forgotten our long traditions and insists on using all metric no matter what or who they are talking to. The Brussels Broadcasting Corporation does not belong in Britain.

Vanessa, London,

"We made strong arguments for the right to carry on using pints and miles and maintaining dual metric and imperial labelling.”

Isn't the UK an independant sovereign country? Why do we have to beg for the 'right' to do what we want? How very nice of them to let us keep pints.

Anthony Lester, Brum,

Most people I know in our 30/40's are happy using feet/inches for heights & clothes, stone/pounds for weight, miles for distance whilst using mm/cm/metre for sports & small distances. Maybe those that crave EU standardisation and all things foreign should move there & stop trying to change us!!

simon, chelmsford, uk

If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it.

Clare Vokes, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

There used to be three countries in the world that were non-metric: Burma, Nigeria and United States. So now suddenly there will be four. It is apparently not just the Tailbans who are striving towards a medevial society!

Göran Granath, Uppsala, Sweden

I'm British, over 70 and along with most of my friends and neighbours abandoned the "imperial" system decades ago. As GB "inches" (how can you say that in metric) its way towards a unified metric system, I heave another sigh of relief - though I doubt that I shall still be alive by the time we've caught up with seventeenth century France.

Ian, Berwick, UK

Mark, London says:
"Our imperial mile is derived from the nautical mile which is exactly the same as one minute of latitude on the globe"
Actually an Imperial mile is about 14% shorter than a nautical mile and has never really been defined.
The nautical mile is NOT exactly the same as one minute of latitude on the globe, but only at the equator - because the Earth is not exactly spherical.
No great standardisation there I think.

Ian, Berwick, UK

In fact there is far more basis for using the mile than the completely arbitrary kilometre. Our imperial mile is derived from the nautical mile which is exactly the same as one minute of latitude on the globe. The kilometre is nothing other than a construct of one thousand metres.

MArk, London,

The UK and US pints are not even the same size! What utter nonsense in this age. How many yards in a mile? Nobody under the age of 50 can tell you the answer. Eventually the old guard will die off and the young ones who learned metric in school will legislate in favour of a common metric standard.

Stephen J. Brown, Cambridge, UK

"The mile will go on for ever" is a naïve perception. It's only a matter of time before the UK is forced to abandon imperial measurements. While products from the UK must show both metric and imperial measurements, mainland European products will show only the metric. Imperial will slowly die out.

Juliusz, Guildford, England

It always was a load of nonsense, and the EU did not practise what it preached.

Just look at the tyres on any European (or British) car and you will find wheel sizes in inches and tyre width in millimetres!


Garry
Birmingham

Garry Bean, Birmingham, UK

Way to be stuck in the 18th century Britain. Why would you possibly want a measurement system that makes sense? That would make life far too easy.

JB, Melbourne, Australia

Australia went metric without a fuss in the 1970s. New Zealand did the same. Adults just learnt metrics by use.

The inability of Britain and the United States to join the rest of the planet on this issue is another small but stark example of the insularity and rigidity of both nations.

Mark, Melbourne, Australia

The argument about imperial measures making trade with the US easier is a fallacious one, as the US's imperial (or, as they're ironically known, "English") measures are considerably different from Britain's.

Andrew, London, UK

Not quite a victory - Why should EU countries make big efforts to stop UK from voluntarily handicapping itself with medieval measurements. They are after all our business competitors

Geoff, redhill, Surrey

"Günter Verheugen, who called the metric movement “a pointless battle” against British culture."

Why is the EU trying to "battle" the cultures of its constituent countries? Where there is no fundamental need for harmonisation, let the countries be.

Tim, London,

This "agreement" was made in Strasbourg, I see the writer of the article is writing from Brussels. Do they all have to travel the miles and miles now to Brussels to confirm the "agreement"?. Wherever you come from on this, it's a joke! and its my money they're wasting.

alan, worcs, UK

More taxpayers money wasted on a nonsense. Pounds, Ounces, Miles all belong in a museum.
And to claim it makes it easier to trade with the States? Bah, what are we trading in these measures? The UK pint is not even the same as the US pint.

Bob Travels, Stevenage,

Stephen Brown's argument is fallacious. Using his logic, one could just as easily say that Europe should standardise by adopting the imperial system.
Why are europhiles so obsessed with eliminating traditional British weights and measuremenst? How does this anti-British nonsense help Europe?

Leslie, Glasgow,

Great! So tomorrow instead of buying 1Kg of grapes I'll buy 2 pounds of grapes. Yeap, makes life much easyer, as some say, is bliss.

Fabio C, London, UK

Glad to see the EU has such very important things to discuss at this time??????

Harv, Antigua,

Congratulations! We have preserved our right to be one of the only two countries in the world that thinks using measurements that nobody else understands is a good idea. We'll continue to have a half-imperial, half-metric mess, because nothing is more important than avoiding change. Well done.

Andrew Gallagher, Galway,

Bring back the shilling, the halfcrown, the threepenny bit, the sixpence and the farthing. The continentals would then be completely lost.

Barry McGarty, Thun, Switzerland

This Christmas I used my mother's recipe for Christmas Puddings. The ease with which I used ounces and pounds to multiply up or divide down the quanities I needed was bliss. I've been using metric, but decreasing or increasing quantities is always a problem.

Elizabeth Harvey, Dunstable,

Show me any Brit (of which I'm one) who can estimate how far in miles that remote church steeple is, or how many fluid ounces there are in that glass. You won't find many good estimates. The truth is, weights and measures are arbitrary and we should adopt the metric system and standardise.

Stephen J. Brown, Cambridge, UK

So the EU allows Britain to use the imperial system, Well thats very kind of them, to allow us some thing that has nothing to do with them.

John, Carlisle, Cumbria