The British can be particularly and stubbornly conservative about
anything which is perceived as token of Britishness. In these use the
same scales that are used nearly everywhere else in the world. But it
has had only limited The British can be particularly and stubbornly
conservative about anything which is perceived as token of Britishness.
In these matters, their conservatism can combine with their
individualism; they are rather proud of being different. It is, for
example, difficult to imagine that they will ever agree to change from
driving on the left-hand side of the road to driving on the right. It
doesn’t matter that nobody can think of any intrinsic advantage in
driving on the left. Why should they change just to be like everyone
else? Indeed, as far as they are concerned, not being like everyone else
is a good reason not to change.
Developments at European
Union (EU) level which might cause a change in some everyday aspect of
British life are usually greeted with suspicion and hostility. The
British government has been trying for years and years to promote the
metric system and to get British people to use the same scales that are
used nearly everywhere else in the world. But it has had only limited
success. Everybody in Britain still shops in pounds and ounces. The
weather forecasters on the TV use the Celsius scale of temperature. But
nearly everybody still thinks in Fahrenheit. British people continue to
measure distances, amounts of liquid and themselves using anywhere else
in Europe. Even the use of the 24-hour clock is comparatively
restricted.
British governments continue to put their
clocks back at the end of summer on a different date from every other
country in Europe; they have so far resisted pressure from business
people to adopt central European Time, remaining stubbornly one hour
behind; they continue to start their financial year not, as other
countries do at the beginning of the calendar year but at the beginning
of April!
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