A poll in the Independent on Sunday showed 62% in favour of Britain going completely metric, with 38% opposed.

The metrication debate in the UK has run for over 100 years, ever since the House of Commons first voted to go metric back in 1863. Meanwhile, most of the world has gone metric - even America for many purposes. (There's a fascinating article on the subject at Wikipedia.)

Yet the very idea of using the same measurements as the rest of the world seems to make some people apoplectic - at least if they think it is something to do with the European Union! Take Peter Hitchens in the latest Mail on Sunday (registration required):

"Bureaucrats and tyrants love metres and kilos and hectares, in the same way that they love concrete and wide, straight streets."

Pretty heady stuff for what most of the world thinks of as the simple convenience of using the standard measurements!

And he goes on - trying to blame what he thinks is unpopular on the EU:

"Our absorption into the EU means that we are undergoing many of the things a conquered people must endure; the introduction of foreign laws and customs, the obliteration of our own, the deliberate destruction of familiar landmarks like imperial measurements"

No doubt, many people will believe him that metrication is all because of the EU. But the Independent on Sunday's opinion poll shows that most of them might actually think better of the EU for it! Hard luck, Mr Hitchens!