A campaign to end the "the very British mess" of the state of weights and measures in this country was launched today by Lord Howe of Aberavon, the former Tory Chancellor.

Lord Howe spoke out as the patron of the United Kingdom Metric Association, which is calling for a change-over to the exclusive use of the international metric system as soon as possible.

The Association claims that the current "half metric, half imperial muddle" increases costs, prevents fair comparison in shops, requires constant conversions, leads to misunderstandings and confuses overseas visitors.

Lord Howe, in the Association's new pamphlet, says: "British weights and measures are in a mess. Litres for petrol and fizzy drinks, pints for beer and milk, metres and kilometres for athletics, miles per gallon for cars.

"And this muddle does matter. It increases costs, confuses shoppers, leads to serious misunderstandings, causes accidents, wastes our children's education and, quite bluntly, puts us all to shame."

Lord Howe claimed that Britain had got into this "shambles" because "we've been dithering for almost 150 years".

He said that as long ago as 1862, a Commons Committee unanimously recommended the adoption of the metric system.

"And a century later the decision was taken to go metric over the next ten years. But in 1979, alas, the Government (of which I was a member) foolishly decided to go slow on the whole process. So we are stuck halfway. And the rest of the world has moved on," he added.

Lord Howe went on: "Plainly we can't stay where we are, with two confused, competing systems. And it would be madness to go backwards. The only solution is to complete the change-over to metric - and as swiftly and cleanly as possible. It is long past time for us to summon up the will to get ourselves out of the present wasteful, untidy mess."

In its report, the Association accuses the media of being "a major obstacle to completion of the metric change-over, saying there were "vigorously pro-imperial and anti-metric attitudes in most of the tabloids".

And it quotes "an absurd result of this confused approach" in The Times last January: "Steve Irwin incurred the wrath of child charities yesterday after holding his baby son just a metre from the jaws of a thirteen foot crocodile".

It continues: "We are in this mess because successive British governments lacked the commitment and political courage to carry through a necessary reform in a decisive and co-ordinated manner.

"The result has been that opponents of change have been able to exploit fears of the unknown and misrepresent metrication as though it were a foreign imposition. The reform has therefore stalled."

The Association adds: "The United Kingdom is the only significant country in the world (apart from the USA) which has begun and then failed to carry through a metric conversion programme."

Thursday July 08, 2004