All the evidence suggests that, despite more than decade-and-a-half of goods being labelled in both metric and imperial, the British remain defiantly out of step with their counterparts across the channel.

BBC: Will British people ever think in metric?

"This shows that the commission has listened to our views and recognised the strong arguments that we've made for maintaining dual metric and imperial labelling and the right for the UK to decide on the future use of pints and miles, " he said.

BBC: NEWS | UK | EU gives up on 'metric Britain'

In May 2011, a survey by supermarket chain Asda suggested 70% of customers found metric labelling confusing and wanted products labelled in imperial instead.

BBC: Will British people ever think in metric?