Inches and Pounds Are Ready for a Post-Brexit Comeback
The metric system is elegant and modern, but clumsy and archaic units of weights and measures have always had remarkable staying power. Just ask Boris Johnson.
The old-fashioned way.
Photographer: Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesIn the never-ending drama that is Brexit, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has floated a proposal to allow the U.K.’s vegetable and fruit vendors to use non-metric units like ounces and pounds. David Frost, the government minister overseeing the exit from the European Union, described the move as an effort to “capitalize on new Brexit freedoms.”
It’s also evidence that clumsy old systems of weights and measures have always had remarkable staying power despite the metric system’s self-evident advantages. Which means that Johnson’s move may be more than posturing. It may usher in a revival of old-fashioned units of measurement.