I think it's the right decision. Not least because a pint is EXACTLY the right amount of beer!

Metric has the advantage of consistency, using a base-10 number system. Which is fine if you're using a calculator and working to a high level of accuracy. But for everyday use, imperial has a lot going for it. Problems with base 10 of course are that dividing 10 by anything other than 2 or 5 results in decimal places. On the other hand, a foot (and indeed a shilling) divides neatly into 2, 3, 4 or 6. Of course pounds, ounces and stones are a different matter.

And there's something about the actual size of units that favours imperial for everyday reckoning. If someone is described as "5 foot 8" you get a pretty good idea how tall they are. "1.7m" is more or less the same, but the level of accuracy is much less (0.1m = just under 4 inches!), unless you add another decimal place (who can guess someone's height to within a centimetre?)


Not forgetting of course, the names of units: "inch", "foot", "yard", "mile", "ounce", "pound", "stone", "pint", "quart", "gallon"; tried-and trusted, mainly 1-syllable words which slip off the toungue.

As opposed to: "millimetre", "centimetre", "decimetre", "metre", "milligram", "kilogram", "millimetre", "litre" etc; awkward commitee-designed words. Interestingly, in Germany the word "pfund" persists, albeit now used for a metric pound of 500g. Near enough the same, but considerably easier in any language.