Frequently asked questions

Does UKMA support any political party?

The UK Metric Association is a single issue organisation not affiliated to any political party. It enjoys support from Parliamentarians of different parties.

Does UKMA support Britain's EU membership?

As a single issue association, UKMA takes no position on Britain's membership of the EU, the Commonwealth, and so forth. Nevertheless, with members of both the EU and the Commonwealth using almost exclusively metric measures it is clearly to Britain's advantage to use the same system. Even if Britain were outside both the EU and Commonwealth, using the metric system would still be important for trade with countries as diverse as Brazil, China, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Russia, Switzerland and Thailand.

Does UKMA want to force Britain to go metric?

In some areas of life such as safety, consumer protection and transport it is essential to have order. Today Britain has a confused mixture of units that is detrimental to the public. UKMA wants 'just enough' legislation to ensure that Britain gets the considerable benefits of using the metric system in trade, transport and safety. Obviously the units used in private (e.g. in kitchens or workshops) are up to the individual citizen. Language and literature will be unaffected.

Does UKMA want Britain to change to driving on the right?

UKMA takes no position on this question, which is an entirely separate issue. However, it can be pointed out that many metric countries, including Australia, India and Japan, drive on the left. The cost of switching to driving on the right would be many times more than the cost of completing the conversion to metric.