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50 years ago, The Great Decimal Con on 20:04 - Feb 16 by Hayesender
As someone born in Jan 71, I've never known any different, but why did they change it?
It was in preparation to join the EEC (EU) the same as why we moved to metric weights. After all these years I still struggle with them and kilometres instead of miles.
Maybe now we should change back, that would really confuse things
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50 years ago, The Great Decimal Con on 09:38 - Feb 17 with 1366 views
50 years ago, The Great Decimal Con on 08:55 - Feb 17 by philc
It was in preparation to join the EEC (EU) the same as why we moved to metric weights. After all these years I still struggle with them and kilometres instead of miles.
Maybe now we should change back, that would really confuse things
We never changed fully to Km on the roads in speed or distance, even cars still show miles or both after 56 years beginning in 1965.
And we still ask and get a Pint of beer.
Most tape measures have both but most material is sold in metric.
I still don't like food, like meat, being in metic weight.
In my minds eye, I can "see" what 10ft square looks like
0.92903SQM and I'm lost
Do you land on a sixpence or 2 1//2p and can you see for miles and miles or 1.60934Km X=
50 years ago, The Great Decimal Con on 08:55 - Feb 17 by philc
It was in preparation to join the EEC (EU) the same as why we moved to metric weights. After all these years I still struggle with them and kilometres instead of miles.
Maybe now we should change back, that would really confuse things
We were in talks with the EEC/EU, but didn't sign up until 1972. Like the metric system, decimal money is more simple and convenient for people who make large calculations - relevant as computing and calculation technology was really getting going then. It would have been very expensive to reprogram and reformat displays for the UK market for 1-20-12 monetary systems, not to mention 1-10-8-14-16 weights...ton-hundredweight-stone-pound ounce.
While it was convenient for the professionals, the end-users weren't really considered and carried on with their old ways. US science teaches and uses metric/SI measurements, but the people weigh themselves in pounds, drink smaller but more rational pints (16 fl oz, same weight in water as the pound, as a litre = kg), hit balls in feet, drive miles, measure temperature in Fahrenheit etc.
I saw a fascinating programme where I learned there was serious consideration to split the pound in two at the time of decimalisation, so 100 new pennies would equate to 120 old pennies, not 240, and 10p being worth one shilling, instead of two. This would have made the calculation of smaller prices at least more straightforward and any exploitation more obvious. If I recall, the main objection was the effect on British "prestige" of a halving in the pound's exchange rate - the pound was (and still just about is) traditionally a "heavy" currency, with a unit value higher than foreign muck like Francs, Lire, Pesetas and even Deutschemarks.
[Post edited 17 Feb 2021 10:09]
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50 years ago, The Great Decimal Con on 10:23 - Feb 17 with 1322 views
50 years ago, The Great Decimal Con on 11:41 - Feb 17 by TacticalR
Did anyone ever listen to the scurillous Victor Lewis Smith?
When not attacking Ipswich, he used to make up albums like 'Frank Sinatra sings for the masses', including the hit:
'These new 5p coins don't like them they're too fiddly I preferred the old shilling, that was really worth a bob'
Starts at 2:10
He was a strange bird, VLS. Hated all sorts of things, but liked Cleo Laine and John Dankworth, and loved Mrs Brown's Boys. Getting sacked from Radio 4 for getting Arthur Mullard to host Midweek was an inspired move, though. A pioneer for Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker, not sure if that's a good thing.
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50 years ago, The Great Decimal Con on 12:58 - Feb 17 with 1216 views
50 years ago, The Great Decimal Con on 12:09 - Feb 17 by MrSheen
He was a strange bird, VLS. Hated all sorts of things, but liked Cleo Laine and John Dankworth, and loved Mrs Brown's Boys. Getting sacked from Radio 4 for getting Arthur Mullard to host Midweek was an inspired move, though. A pioneer for Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker, not sure if that's a good thing.
I used to get pocket money according to my age, a penny a week for every year i.e. at age 10 I received 10d. However by the time I reached 25, I felt this was inadequate, a feeling exacerbated by the apparent reduction in value caused by decimalisation, so I had to ask my parents for a rise.
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50 years ago, The Great Decimal Con on 13:27 - Feb 17 with 1175 views
On a serious note, decimalisation did have quite a lot to do with the increase in inflation, but that could have been easily avoided.
By keeping the £ the same but reducing the amount of pennies from 240 to 100 was too much for the manufacturers/marketeers to avoid taking advantage of. If the old £ had been the same value as £2 in the new world, we would only have lost 40 pence, thus reducing the price increases.
I ranted about this at the time & it got me nowhere & so I will leave it there!
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