Still looking for a Brexit bonus?
Well, “Bodger” Johnson may finally have one for you, or so he thinks.
Yes indeedy, the Tories have announced the return of imperial units to replace those evil EU socialist-surrender metric ones. Brilliant, except for a couple of minor points.
Firstly, the use of imperial units for commerce has been permitted since 2007. We never stopped using miles, and many happily measure their height in feet and inches.
Secondly, imperial units originated in France – or what is now Italy if you prefer – and were developed as a European/international system to ease trade.
Today’s metric units have been developed into an International System or SI, with logically derived units – not just for international trade, but to make science work as simply and as free of errors as possible.
In 1999 a $125 million Nasa mission to Mars missed the planet because of a failure to convert data from imperial to metric.
In 2021 the Tories are equally far off target by assuming they can divert our attention from the developing omnishambles of Brexit with some imperial flag-waving.
Scientists and engineers everywhere will ignore this nonsense. We all should.
William McLeod, Netherbrae, Turriff
Our Market Street mess
I Had occasion to walk down Market Street recently, on the very day you wrote in glowing terms about our city.
Attached is only one example of the mess littered in the city centre.
Pedestrianisation? You must be having a laugh!
James Noel, Aberdeen
This article originally appeared on the Evening Express website. For more information, read about our new combined website.