HC Deb 14 July 1966 vol 731 c1695
14. Mr. Whitaker

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will now announce plans to decimalise all measurements.

Mr. Darling

No, Sir. The first need is to bring about the wider use of the metric system in British industry.

Mr. Whitaker

Will my right hon. Friend endorse this in principle? Does not he agree that the arguments used by the Chancellor for his welcome reform of the currency, equally obtain in these cases?

Mr. Darling

That may be true, but I think that it would be very difficult to introduce decimalisation in this field at the same time as we introduced decimal currency. The effect on our traders of having to deal with both at the same time, and the effect on customers, would be rather formidable. I think that it would have one positive result—it would increase the sale of headache powders.