I WAS struck by the contrast between two of your contributors last week.

In Postbag, Rex Poulton argues vehemently that metrication is treason.

Although I am of the generation which grew up with and regularly used the old Imperial system, I take the apparently treasonable view that a system which has ratios such as 5,280 feet to the mile, 112 pounds to the hundredweight, 4,840 square yards to the acre, and 6.23 (approximately) gallons to the cubic foot is really not fit for purpose. As against this, Chris Savage in his article on page 87 appears to have been completely seduced by the modern Strasbourg parliament building, and the perceived quality of debate enforced by a two-minute warning bell.

No matter that Strasbourg is part of a ridiculous two-ring circus which decamps to Brussels and back; or that the European Parliament has very limited powers, with most legislation emanating from the Commission; or that the European Union is inflicting untold suffering through the ill-begotten Euro project; or that the Commission is a by-word for waste and extravagance.

All this is insignificant compared to a modern parliament building, which we should emulate.

So on the one hand we have a person who wishes to preserve an anachronistic and cumbersome system of weights and measures in the name of tradition, and another who would have us bulldoze the Mother of Parliaments and home of the world's longest continuous democracy, to set up a nice polite talking-shop in a modern glass box.

What a strange world we live in.

John McGarry

Salisbury

MAY I suggest that Rex Poulton, your correspondant who complained about metric units being used on height warning signs (Journal, February 19),should consult the owner's manual of his own car. His car's dimensions are probably given entirely in metric units without any imperial conversions – my car’s dimensions certainly are.

Most car magazines only use metric units for car length, height and width – I suggest that he does his own survey at his local newsagent.

In view of this, it makes eminent sense for road signs to reflect what appears in all the literature.

Martin Vlietstra

Hampshire