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I think the GP might be yanking our chains a little bit.

Also you kind of have to include the UK in the list of countries that use imperial measures. We're mostly metric but the roads are in miles/yards and if you tried to take pints (which are larger than American pints at 568ml) out of British pubs in favour of the smaller half-litre it would make the party that did it instantly unelectable. People are nearly always measured in feet and sometimes weighed in stone (14 lb) too. I'm a little surprised we don't measure fuel efficiency in miles to the litre because that would be pretty typical of the British approach to measuring things.

I actually don't think it's a bad thing, a bit of mental maths never hurt anyone and it underlines the fact that units of measurement aren't handed down on a stone tablet as a fact of nature.

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Who really cares what names the glasses in bars have? Canada, Australia and New Zealand all use the metric system, and all sell pints of beer in their pubs. Australia and Canada also sell schooners of beer, which come in 425ml and 946ml sizes respectively (where a schooner is 103ml in the UK).

No matter what system a country uses, there’s nothing stopping a bar from selling 568ml portions of beer, and giving you one of those when you order a pint.

> there’s nothing stopping a bar from selling 568ml portions of beer

The law (via regulations) stipulates what sizes can be sold. As an example, this[1] from 2011:

> The centuries-old cry of "fancy a pint?" may soon become "fancy a schooner?" under plans to relax the strict rules dictating drink sizes.

> Current regulations mean draught beer must be sold in pints (equivalent to 568ml), halves (284ml) or the little-known "thirds", and wine in measures of 250ml, 175ml or 125ml

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12113880#main-heading

Whatever the regulations about portion sizes are, they’re independent from the measurement units used. The government is allowed to regulate portion sizes of 568ml, 284ml and 189ml.

Also, is it really illegal to serve a 150ml glass of wine in the UK? That’s insane… A 750ml bottle of wine is supposed to have 5 glasses in it, not 4.28

So you already have solution for non existing problem? Who cares about the imperial part if you already sell metric 568ml beers?

> if you tried to take pints (which are larger than American pints at 568ml) out of British pubs in favour of the smaller half-litre it would make the party that did it instantly unelectable.

Definitely something only a government with the ability to essentially erase history would able to pull off.

What's the problem with just selling 568ml bottles? Why does it have to be named somehow?

UK shops do just that, for example milk in supermarkets is still sold in pints but labelled in metric due to EU laws.

Not everywhere in the UK. In Northern Ireland milk is sold in 1pt, but much more commonly 1L, 2L, and 3L bottles.

Most bottles are 660ml and cans are varied, but many are 500ml.

However, in pubs and restaurants, the standard glasses are 568ml and half of that, for a half-pint.

Why would they remove that if you removed imperial usage?

What does it mean to “remove imperial usage”?

Are you suggesting we should stop calling it a pint and instead demand that we order “568ml of Hobgoblin, please?”

Why would we do that instead of just ask for a pint?

>>> if you tried to take pints (which are larger than American pints at 568ml) out of British pubs in favour of the smaller half-litre

FYI here in metric-land (well, Italy) we normally have glass of beer in the size of regular (600ml) and small (400ml), and half litre is usually used only for weissbier

> the roads are in miles/yards

They actually aren't. They're all measured in metric, then roughly translated to imperial for the signs.