Part of the openDemocracy Network

Immigration islands


The Return of Enoch: Enoch Powell's repatriation agenda must not be rehabilitated, argues Sunder Katwala.


The ugly economics of immigration: Paul Kingsnorth on why the left is out of step with working class interests.


Immigration and the Politics of Resentment: Shamser Sinha suggests the real problem is a politics that turns neighbour against neighbour.

MODERN LIBERTY



Digital Privacy Wars: Guy Aitchison flags up a debate on the threat business poses to digital privacy


The Stalker State: Phil Booth of No2ID on the proposed Comms database


Say 'No' to 42 days: Sign Amnesty's petition against extending pre-charge detention


What do we do now?: Anthony Barnett assesses the stakes for for liberals and radicals in David Davis's campaign against the erosion of rights and liberties


The Abundance of Caution: an authoritative essay by Anthony Barnett sets out the case against 42 Days

Sortition and public policy




A major new series from Imprint Academic on the use of randomisation in education, politics and other public policy areas. Special discount prices for OurKingdom and openDemocracy readers.

Labour After Brown

The next left -Life after the Labour Party: Gerry Hassan sees a historic opportunity for the emergence of a post-New Labour left.

Scottish Labour, where's the coffee?: Gerry Hassan assesses the prospects for Scottish Labour and its new leader.

Lesson for the Left from Chile to Britain: Hassan Akram offers a global perspective on Labour's malaise.

From Milibland to Johnson land?: Jeremy Gilbert argues for Labour without neo-liberalism.

Magical thinking on Britishness: Anthony Barnett critiques Liam Byrne on fraternity.

Rule of law at risk: Geoffrey Bindman calls for a turn away from the marketisation of government.

A new Bill of Rights for Britain?: Guy Aitchison analyses Parliament's proposed new Bill of Rights.

Miliband - by our rights we will know you: Claire O'Brien puts forward a new progressive vision for Labour.

Recapturing liberal Britain: David Marquand challenges Labour's constitutional orthodoxy.

Miliband and the Liberal Democrats: James Graham on the case for realignment.

What is Labour's British story?: Writing from Scotland, Gerry Hassan widens the OurKingdom debate on Labour's future.

This is not Brown's crisis but Britain's: David Marquand says social democracy is bust and Britain may be too.

The Challenges for Miliband's Progressive Fusion: Fabian Society head Sunder Katwala responds to David Miliband.

Fabian Society

America Votes, Europe Responds: Fabian Society conference on the US election result, Westminster Central Hall, 10am to 4pm, Saturday 8th November.

Visit the new Fabian Society blog: Next Left

delicious | digg | reddit | newsvine | furl | google | yahoo | technorati | diigolet

Syndicate content

R.I.P the Acre c1300-2008

Guy Aitchison, 21 - 07 - 2008
delicious | digg | reddit | newsvine | furl | google | yahoo | technorati | diigolet

Guy Aitchison (London, OK): Have we seen the last of the "British" acre? The 700-year old land measurement has apparently been banned by the EU following a meeting in Brussels last week.

The Sun (as you may have guessed) is not best pleased, informing its readers that "Britain" (don't they mean England?) has used the acre to measure land since " the late 13th century under Edward I’s reign." The word acre is apparently derived from the Old English for "open field" and was considered the amount of land tillable by a man behind an ox in one day. The measurement was eventually defined by law under Queen Victoria in the Weights and Measures Act of 1878 as being 4,840 square yards or 43,560 square feet.

This history was brought to an end last week when a "lowly Whitehall official" nodded through the EU orders that sealed the acre's fate. What do OK readers think? Surely the humble acre deserved better than this.

Guy Aitchison's blog | email this blogpdf version | quote
delicious | digg | reddit | newsvine | furl | google | yahoo | technorati | diigolet
 

britologywatch said:

Tue, 2008-07-22 20:05

What, Toque, and change an English motto into a Latin one - mais, non! Personally, I've got nothing against the rest of the world adopting the 'imperial' system of weights and measures if they want to, which would also be 'universal'. Save us from hundreds of grams instead of ounces, or the endless .33333's and .666666s of decimality! Maybe that's what the apostle was thinking of when he identified '666' as the sign of the Antechrist (pace Damian O'Loan!).

Duodecimal systems make far more sense, anyway: more divisible and proceed the 'natural' way we divide things up - by halves, thirds, quarters, sixes, etc. That's why we use it for time. Admittedly, not all / many of the British / English weights and measures are duodecimal; but even the sixteen-based unit of the pound exemplifies the same, human-dimensioned 'logic': it's how we double up - one, two, four, eight, sixteen. And, in any case, didn't the Americans send their astronauts to the moon - successfully, unless you believe the conspiracy theories - using imperial units, or their American equivalent, which they still use to this day (or correct me if I'm wrong).

Tell me, Peter, is there a correlation between your preference for metric and your denial of English nationhood in favour of regionalism? Because the British / imperial units are really English, aren't they? 

parent | reply | email this commentquote

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><b> <i> <br> <p> <div> <img>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • You may quote other posts using [quote] tags.
More information about formatting options

In Pictures