So farewell then acre

The Wall Street Journal, getting into the Murdoch tabloid spirit even before he takes over, exults (subs. req'd) --

Brussels has learned what many an exasperated woman has known for some time now: Don't get between a Brit or Irishman and his pint. We refer to yesterday's decision by the European Commission to allow the U.K. and Ireland to continue using imperial weights and measures.

The EU had intended to force the Isles by 2010 to stop using miles on road signs, troy ounces for gold and other precious metals, and pints for milk, cider and, yes, beer. The metric system favored on the Continent was deemed superior. Britain and Ireland had already agreed to require metric labeling alongside imperial measures on other goods, but you know what they say about giving an inch.

In the end, disrupting trade with the U.S., which hasn't adopted the metric system, was probably a larger concern for the EU than offending British and Irish sensitivities.

There are several issues here. First, blaming the EU for the metric system being imposed in the UK is a tad awkward given the existence of the "Metric Weights and Meaures Act" -- passed in, er, 1864. And then there was that awful man Harold Wilson making another run at metrification, in 1965 -- 8 years before Britain and Ireland's EU membership.

Furthermore, as these EU press releases patiently explain, it's not like there was going to be a jackbooted kilogramme stomping on a British lb in 2010 -- the alternative was simply another extension of the exemption that the UK and Republic of Ireland have to sell beer and a few other commodities exclusively under the Imperial measure. The Commission simply decided that these extensions were pointless because the use of the measures was not inhibiting a common market and because people were quite attached to them. They do actually listen.

The main bite of the EU restrictions is that outside of beer and the other exceptions, transactions can't be conducted exclusively in imperial measures, which explains why the traditionalists in the grocery trade are offended. Without a constituency to defend it, note that the acre is long gone. But there never was any risk that French Special Forces would be parachuting into the Stag's Head to force orders of "0.57 litre of Guinness."

UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan observes --

The Pint Is Saved

And England will endure - despite the evil bureaucrats in Brussels, who never saw a tradition they didn't want to streamline.

One interesting hypothesis that the degree of ranting about the supposed extinction of the pint is closely correlated with the degree of ranting about the supposed Islamification of Europe.