If we re-labelled existing pint glasses as “568 ml” for legal purposes and to make the amount more meaningful in context with all the other non-draught alcoholic beverages bars serve, the glasses would be no different, the amount of beer would be no different, and there’d be absolutely nothing to prevent people from still referring to the glass as a “pint glass”, just like we call a 25 ml glass a “shot glass”.

Even if we moved to continental half-litre measures to take advantage of cheaper glassware, would the absence of a measly 68 ml of drink make any significant difference to the experience? Hardly.

If the Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans and now Irish can convert to solely metric measurements without a) mass confusion and chaos, b) losing their national identity and culture or c) surrendering sovereignty to the “EU superstate”, then so can we.

What? You mean the burden of having to deal with a single system of measurements? or the burden of knowing that when they label their product it will be understood by 96% of Earth’s population?

Your mention of a pint may be a subliminal reference to a ‘half pint’ revered by the legal profession, no not Sarkozy but Napoleon Bonaparte. He gave us the ‘Code Napoléon’ (originally, the Code civil des Français). It was regarded as the first successful codification in use and influenced many legislatures around the world.

I believe he is associated with the metric system per se and I believe a metric pint of 500ml is still in common use. As for the pint itself we have a US dry pint, a US fluid pint and our own imperial fluid pint. Didn’t one of NASA’s Mars Landers fail because they got imperial and metric measures confused?

I suppose all that remains of Napoleon’s conquests is to have us drive on the left hand side of the road. So the statutory instrument is perhaps a last ditch attempt to resist him?

They don’t even have to sell tomatoes of all the same size now that the Guernsey tomato has been well and truly done out of business.

Still you can’t beat their Jersey vertically grown (but not challenged) potatoes! Hanging potatoes!

Has the taste gone metric too? When do you ever get a tasty, shop bought, spud?

Nah! They have gone metric!

Metric units are no more useful for measuring, probably even less so. But they are much easier to manipulate, and that is getting more and more important. So there is no turning back now.

Imperial must have something to do with how old you are. And metric how young.