"... stupid persons are generally Conservative" (John Stuart Mill, 1866)

[LigH]

In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade—which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it.

Whereas in the American system, the answer to "How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?" is "Go f*** yourself," because you can't directly relate any of those quantities.

Josh Bazell — Wild Thing: A Novel

The only relevant country in the world (besides Burma and Liberia) where the imperial system is still used, are the United States of America. The rest of the world uses the metric system, because ... well ... the SI system is the base of the modern science. Mixing up different unit systems may lead to disasters, therefore a common unit system for the whole world would be recommended by leading natural scientists. But politicians are rarely natural scientists. And I could imagine that parties who prefer medieval circumstances, like the Creationists, are valuable election donors...

Expressing the opinion that the imperial system should be taught at school appears to emphasize a kind of conservative thinking that doesn't support the human development based on science. Intelligent people are critical and therefore dangerous electors, better keep the populace dumb so they will believe the propaganda more easily...

It seems to be urgent for Great Britain to get rid of its Prime Minister. God save the Queen...

David Cameron: schools should teach mainly in imperial measurements (the guardian)

Not even an April Fool ("cartesian product" blog)

Quotes by J.S. Mill (Wikiquote)

[Volki]

[cdmoreland]

As an American I can say that the metric system sucks!

Too much of the world is jealous of the USA. We invent it and they use it. Too much trouble to convert measurements? Maybe the rest of the world should use our system.

[Volki]

Did you just say we invented the Imperial System?

[Sen]

As an American I can say that the metric system sucks!

Too much of the world is jealous of the USA. We invent it and they use it. Too much trouble to convert measurements? Maybe the rest of the world should use our system.

To really fulfill prejudices, you should now be surprised that there is a rest of the world.

[BoevenF]

We invent it and they use it.

Come on, ...we... don't have even the basics, here 

[LigH]

Well, I believe most of us have 10 fingers. I wonder which body parts people used to count to twelve, in medieval times. If it was their feet, it would have looked hilariously, I guess...

[gonger]

As an American I can say that the metric system sucks!

Too much of the world is jealous of the USA. We invent it and they use it. Too much trouble to convert measurements? Maybe the rest of the world should use our system.

Best answer comes from Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, in their fabulous novel Good Omens:

NOTE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND AMERICANS: One shilling = Five Pee. It helps to understand the antique finances of the Witchfinder Army if you know the original British monetary system: Two farthings = One Ha'penny. Two ha'pennies = One Penny. Three pennies = A Thrupenny Bit. Two Thrupences = A Sixpence. Two Sixpences = One Shilling, or Bob. Two Bob = A Florin. One Florin and one Sixpence = Half a Crown. Four Half Crowns = Ten Bob Note. Two Ten Bob Notes = One Pound (or 240 pennies). One Pound and One Shilling = One Guinea. The British resisted decimalized currency for a long time because they thought it was too complicated.

[Rigwyn]

We teach both imperial and metric in school. People here don't have a hard time understanding it, the two systems are just used for different applications. For carpentry,  imperial is traditional, for science, metric is more conventional. I'm not a carpenter, so I don't know if there's a good reason for sticking to imperial. My guess is it might be more convenient, but I really don't know.

Before you Europeans gripe about temperature, let me ask, when you watch the news in London, is the temperature reported in Fahrenheit*, Centigrade or Celsius?

We can also thank our German friends for the Fahrenheit scale while we're at it.

[Zalya]

I for one think we should all switch to using cubits.

[Rigwyn]

Human hands and feet a uniquely personal touch!
Who says measurements have to be perfect, eh? 

xD

[cdmoreland]

Did you just say we invented the Imperial System?

Nope, just that we use it. And we don't use the Pound Sterling. Our monetary system is quite different.

[verden]

You know its a slow week in PS when...

[Rigwyn]

David Cameron: schools should teach mainly in imperial measurements

[Eonwind]

Well, I believe most of us have 10 fingers. I wonder which body parts people used to count to twelve, in medieval times. If it was their feet, it would have looked hilariously, I guess...

Most probably the reason why a 12 based system was in use in ancient times is it make it easier to divide by 3 and 4, which are in turn very useful factors in (ancient) architectural design. A decimal system was unfitted for the same purpose (divide 10 by 3 and see it cannot even be done with natural numbers).