UK NEWS

NOW THE EU IS TO BAN THE ACRE

HERITAGE: An acre was originally the area ploughed in one day

Monday July 21,2008

By Gabriel Milland Political Correspondent

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(37)

THE acre is set to be banned after the EU announced that Labour has agreed to the abolition of yet another part of the British way of life.

The traditional unit of land size will go the way of the pound, gallon and inch in the list of forbidden units of measurement.

The Government’s surrender – buried in the small print of an EU document last week – could also make it more likely that miles will be removed from road signs in favour of the kilometre.

Shadow Europe Minister Mark Francois said the acre should stay and the British people should be able to decide how they want to calculate the size of a field or building plot.

He added: “Whether we use hectares or acres should be a matter for Britain to decide, not the EU. Once again this weak Labour Government has meekly given up yet another of Britain’s rights to Brussels.”

Virtually all land in the UK is sold in acres. The official Land Registry also uses acres. But from January 1, 2010 all official documents and advertisements in Britain and Ireland will have to refer to land in metric hectares instead.

The move was agreed at a meeting of the EU’s agriculture and fisheries committee. Other EU nations sent full cabinet ministers to Brussels but Britain was only represented by the low-ranking Jonathan Shaw, the Minister for Rural Affairs.

The size of an acre was first regulated in English law under Edward I, who ruled from 1272 to 1307. An acre was originally the amount of land capable of being ploughed by one man and an ox in a single day.

Britain’s EU membership has already meant the disappearance of pounds and ounces prompting “metric martyrs” like market trader Neil Herron to risk going to jail rather than sell bananas by the kilo.

The acre was supposed to be protected with the mile, the troy ounce and the pint.

Only America, Liberia and Burma still resist the metric system.

THE ACRE - GOOD RIDDANCE!

22.07.08, 5:01pm

Hurrah for the banning of the acre! I am 67 and have not used the absurd and antiquated rag-bag of imperial units since I was 18. I would also bet serious money that most people stopped in the street and asked to define an acre would be unable to do so; the ‘imperialists’ don’t even know their own ‘system’. I would further submit that those who mindlessly wish to retain the acre NEVER measure or calculate.
There is absolutely no need for such anachronisms. The hectare, on the other hand, is sensibly defined as an area of 10 000 square metres (imagine a field 100 m by 100 m).
It is high time that we completed the changeover to SI (metric) units and got rid of the terrible muddle we have in this country with a mixture of imperial and metric units being used daily. Over 95% of the people on this planet are metric. Why is Britain always living in the past? We owe this to our children and all future generations.
Continuing as we are is expensive, confusing, time-consuming, and even dangerous!
Those still not convinced should visit the website of the UK metric association (www.ukma.org.uk).

• Posted by: KeithA • Report Comment

THE EU WON'T STOP THERE

22.07.08, 1:46am

With the active collusion of this Labour Government and an ineffectual reaction from opposition parties, the Acre joins a long list of Britishness being ruthlessly rooted out and summarily erased. When they get through making us all drive on the other side of the road and we kill each other off, then perhaps the EU might just be satisfied.

• Posted by: Adanac • Report Comment

FOREIGNERS IN SPAIN AND ELSEWHERE

21.07.08, 11:16pm

Nice to see the Expats living it up it Spain twisting the blade on our wounds. Do Britain a favour and drop your British passports to the sea (Preferably the Costa Del Sol) renounce your nationality, change your names to Pedrito/a, Juanito/a and forget you´re British.
Traitors...all of you. Who cares if the acre is archaic, its ours its British...it should stay.

There thats my rant for the day.

• Posted by: AffenKid • Report Comment

ACRE NOT

21.07.08, 10:37pm

the word is pass

• Posted by: retiredmale • Report Comment

ACRE NOT

21.07.08, 10:35pm

The point about this is that some bloke in France can ban the use of something that is of no harm to anyone.Just like the 1LBS of bananas Why should some farmer go to jail for selling his 10 acres of land the person buying it dose not mind the farmer in the next field could not care less.and the bank manager only wants his cut.But no some jobs worth will make sure that this farmer is treat with the full force of the law and made to pay for calling a bit of land an acre instead of a hector.We are being ripped off by MP's MEP,s;
s and just about everyone in government but do the EU p**** laws to stop fraud no they p**** laws to take the honest man to jail.For using a word.

• Posted by: retiredmale • Report Comment

LET'S GROW UP

21.07.08, 9:03pm

Thank god, another measure that is impossible to calculate with has been consigned to history.

No one seriously wants shillings back, let's do the switch, in a few years everyone will wonder what the fuss was about. We lost gallons for fuel over 20 years ago, no one misses it now.

• Posted by: acdeag • Report Comment