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We all know, far too well, the terrain of the culture wars, the places where the sides are deeply entrenched, where the pounding is heavy, where prisoners arent taken Brexit, face coverings and Covid restrictions, immigration, Harry and Meghan, ubiquitous union flags, trans rights, statues, BLM, taking the knee, institutional racism, woke values. But then there are the other, smaller, theatres of battle. At sea, Boris Johnson has deployed the idea of a new royal yacht (which has endured friendly fire from Buckingham Palace, whod rather it wasnt named after Prince Philip. On the airwaves theres the dogfight between GB News and the enlightenment. On land, the prime minister has embarked on what might be called culture skirmishes the return to imperial measures, the pledge to make television companies commission distinctively British programming, and the little crown emblem going back on the pint glasses.

And so the conflict goes on, distracting from the more traditional issues about living standards, jobs and the cost of living, what were called in Roman times bread and circuses, and which games are now conducted on social media. Like summoning up the ancient icons of the past, the initiative on imperial measures has recalled the metric martyrs of two decades ago, arguably the first casualties in what we came to know as the Battle for Britain, aka Brexit.

The issues are divisive, but mercifully minor. Even Nigel Farage couldnt start a riot just because someone doesnt want to sell cheese by the ounce or wheat by the bushel. The mile and the pint never disappeared anyway, and, besides, few people know what a quarter of toffees actually is. To understand how remote the return of widespread traditional measurements is, one only needs to try and answer the question: if a pound of Red Leicester sells for 5, how much is six ounces?

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Imperial measurements represent yet another battle in the culture wars - The Independent