Anthony - as Peter implies you appear to be arguing against the principle set out in the Magna Carta that there should be a standard system of weights and measures throughout the country.  There is a good reason why the Barons considered that to be of fundamental importance.  There is a similarly good reason why this is one of the few powers we knowingly gave to the Common Market in 1974.

How is using a hectare a denial of history?   What is ahistorical is to suggest the acre we use now has existed for 700 years.  It has only  existing for 130 years, following the passing of the Weights and Measures Act.  But then, scratch beneath the surface and consistantly what you find is that Britain's historical traditions tend to date from a time when we were ruled over by a bunch of Germans.  History consistently shows us not how unique we are but how interdependent we are within the rest of Europe.

Can't export British land?  Well, a large amount of it isn't owned by the British these days.  Much of London, including most of the block of flats where I currently have a toehold, is now owned by congolomerates based in Hong Kong.  The land market is a global one.  Personally I don't have a problem with that - my problem is the fact that we don't have a system of land value taxation to clawback all the wealth generated by it all.  But what is more significant: the fact that County Hall is measured in hectares, or the fact that it is owned by a Japanese businessman?  It seems to me that by obsessing about things like weights and measures we consistently miss the bigger picture.

Gareth - the reason I don't speak in esperanto is because esperanto isn't the standard.  The standard, much to the chagrin of the French, is English.  This is crucial because the fact is it works both ways.  Across Europe, companies and organisations take it for granted that they will have to produce materials in English; we are not expected to make that concession.

We could go down the route, as people here seem to be suggesting, of attempting to preserve the tertiary aspects of our culture in aspic.  Of course that would be an exceedingly French thing to do.  It is likely to be as futile as the French's attempts as well.