British pints of beer no longer endangered

Thu, 09/13/2007 - 9:23am

Cate Gillon/Getty

Don't get between the British and their pints of beer. That's what the European Union has finally learned after giving in to Britian and allowing it to keep using pints—a non-metric unit of measurement—to dispense and sell beer.

Previously, the island country had been under an EU diktat to abandon pints and pounds, and instead sell goods in the metric system's liters and kilograms by 2010. Euroskeptic Brits have traditionally bristled at the idea of being pushed around by Eurocrats, which over the years has spurred the creation of many hilarious Euromyths

The issue of abandoning the beloved imperial system of measures, in particular, had been a deeply emotional issue. Grocer Steve Thoburn became Britain's "metric martyr" when he was convicted in 2001 for the ghastly crime of selling bananas by the pound.

In the end, it seems like the EU decided to throw in the towel and just "go along to get along." A spokeswoman for the European Commission said it wanted to "put a full stop on this issue." With the future of the new EU Treaty hanging in the balance, that's probably wise.

( filed under: )


Advertisement