Wednesday 9 May 2007

Slander of the Day

Lacking any serious argument why it should be a criminal offence to display prices in lbs and ozs, the UK Metric Association today compare buying a pound of apples with slavery:

But Roz Denny, spokeswoman for the UK Metric Association, said maintaining the current system was "a nonsense" and that Britain should not be seen as "a heritage theme park" that did not change.

"We are now going to have this crazy double measurement system forever," she said.

She went on: "We are trying to put ourselves forward as a modern country putting our imperial past in perspective, like slavery, and here we are glorifying one element of it."


Nice. Being a modern country does involve, in their eyes, as it seems to for so many people now, associating people who don't agree with you with all manner of evil, depredation and murder. There's a real tone of violence, I think, underlying our modern inability to debate with another without assuming he's something dreadful, and a sense of contempt for others in the need to make laws, laws and laws for things we personally don't like. The more we parrot the hollow slogans of diversity, the less we really believe that people with different views and ideals should exist at all.

The tin drummer is 5' 91/2" tall. Oops. I've just glorified our imperial past and the shocking legacy of slavery. Again. Oh well, off for a pint then.

4 comments:

James Higham said...

I'm ambivalent on this one. I'm happy enough to use the metric over here - it's always been their system.

Britain, on the other hand, is another matter. L-S-D come back!

Lord Nazh said...

The metric system was only created so Empires could flourish :)

It's idiotic to equate any system of measurement with slavery. She must be a socialist.

Andrew Allison said...

I don't see the US abandoning the imperial system. Obviously, the US is a backward country not looking to the future.

Gracchi said...

So lets get this right- the imperial system represents slavery. Well what about hte metric and Robespierre adn Napoleon or the Julian Calendar and Lenin or vegetarianism and Hitler- this is the stupidest argument I've seen this week! Well done for exposing it.