UK Metric Association
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The UK Metric Association, or UKMA, is an advocacy group in the United Kingdom that argues for completion of the British metrication programme. UKMA argues that the continued use of non-metric units is messy and confusing, and should be made illegal by British law.
UKMA was founded in 1999 and formally associated in 2002 as an independent, non-party political, single-issue organisation. The current chairman is Robin Paice. Political patrons include Lord Kinnock (Lab), Lord Howe of Aberavon (Con), Lord Taverne (Lib Dem), Dr Nick Palmer (Lab) and Ian Taylor (Con).
UKMA has released two major reports, aimed at stimulating discussion in Britain about completing the transition to international standard units:
- A very British mess (ISBN 0-7503-1014-6, 2004) is a survey of the use of units in the United Kingdom and the ways in which confusion can arise from the simultaneous use of two systems. It has also been used as a campaign slogan similarly.
- Metric signs ahead ([1], February 2006) focuses on road signs, the last major area where current UK legislation mandates the use of miles, yards, feet and inches. The report estimates that the total cost of switching all of the UK's estimated 200,000 speed signs from miles per hour to kilometres per hour would be £80 million (£400 per sign, including installation). It argues that while, for safety reasons, all speed signs would have to be changed during a very short transition period (a few days), other road signs and markings that indicate distances or height restrictions could be changed more gradually, often in the course of routine maintenance.
UKMA neither supports nor opposes changing British roads to driving on the right-hand side, though it acknowledges that doing so would cost much more than metricating road signs and many metric countries drive on the left. [2]
[edit] See also
- Metrication
- Metrication in the UK
- British Weights and Measures Association – an anti-metrication advocacy group in the United Kingdom
- U.S. Metric Association – the U.S. metrication advocacy group that inspired the founding of the UKMA
- Metric Martyrs – a group of English greengrocers who were convicted for using unapproved scales
[edit] References
- 'Call for metric road sign switch', BBC News, 2006-02-23 [3]
- 'Campaign for £80m switch to kilometres', The Guardian, 2006-02-23, p. 6
