Boris Johnson may bring imperial units back to mostly-metric Britain, reports say, riding the nostalgia of the Queen’s jubilee

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Boris Johnson is expected to use the Queen’s Jubilee as an opportunity to announce a return to imperial measurements, rolling back a long trend towards the metric system.

UK newspapers carried news of the plan over the weekend, attributed to unnamed government sources.

The policy idea came as Johnson was under pressure in the wake of an official report exposing the extent of wrongdoing by him and other officials in so-called “partygate.”

The scandal refers to a series of illegal gatherings during the UK’s mandatory lockdowns, details of which outrage the public and led to numerous calls by Johnson’s own MPs for him to resign.

The plan, per reports, involves reworking regulations to allow British shops to sell products in pounds and ounces.

The Daily Mirror reported that Johnson was planning an announcement on Friday, the middle of a four-day weekend to honor the Queen’s 70 years on the throne.

Britain currently uses a mix of imperial and metric measurements. Speed limits are miles per hour and milk and beer are sold in pints, but most other products are sold in grams and kilograms. 

But the move has proven controversial among the younger generation, more used to the European metric system for weights and measurements. It has also reopened some of the old Brexit wounds.  

Since 2000, EU rules meant that imperial measurements — such as pounds and ounces — were relegated to a lesser status that metric measures. Products could feature both types of unit, but imperial ones could not be more prominent.

Labour MP Angela Eagle said the measurement move was a “pathetic” attempt to “weaponise nostalgia”.

A second Labour MP, Jess Phillips, tweeted: “Yardley voted for Brexit, literally no one has ever raised metric v imperial measurements with me. NO ONE.”

Conservative MP Alicia Kearns also criticised the move, saying: “Not one constituent, ever, has asked for this. This isn’t a Brexit freedom. It’s a nonsense.”  

Jenny Jones, a Green member of the House of Lords, said: “It’s still legal to sell in Imperial! As long as the price is displayed in both metric and Imperial and the scales are properly tested, it’s *legal*. 

“The idea is a deadcat from the PM to distract from Govt corruption.” (The so-called Dead Cat strategy refers to attempts to change the subject away from an unfavorable one by abruptly dramatically producing something else, like a dead cat.)

Appearing to confirm the plan, technology minister Chris Philp told Sky News on Monday morning: “It’s allowing a bit of our national culture and heritage back onto the shop shelf.”