1.136 litres of milk please

If you go into a shop in the UK to buy milk you will notice that the capacity of the plastic bottles is slightly unusual in that it is 1.136 or 2.272 litres.

To the English the size of the cartons are the same as they have always been. In fact that’s a clue as to what’s happening.

If you can find a conversion chart for SI to Imperial measures you will find that 1.136 litres is 2 pints. As you may know, imperial measures are still used in UK although much more than the government (and the EU) may like.

Most English people (including me) were taught SI measurement (mm, cm, m, km etc) at school and yet there is the most enormous resistance to change to use them domestically.

A couple of years ago the government changed the law to make it compulsory to price things using metric (SI) measures when they are sold. However, rather than change to using SI measures, the retail industry just converted our pints into an equivalent number of litres. Change yet no change!

In fact if you look on the milk carton, you will still find the capacity in pints – just in a slightly smaller typeface.

Petrol is also priced and dispensed by the litre in UK. However, always remember when you are in the UK, every speed limit is in Miles per hour (not Kilometres) – no exceptions!

Drive safely.

Dave