English units of measure (and a touch of Brit lit)

[earendil_fr]

> Earendil:
> I suppose Carol is refering to the French voting "no" to the European
> Constitution last sunday by referendum (and if you want my opinion as
> a French citizen, if the politics wanted us to vote "yes" all they had
> to do was to ask us to vote "no"... French people tend to have this
> innate sense of contestation ;-)
>  
>  
> K
> 
> I got the distinct impression that wwhether the constitution was
good or bad
> was irrelevent. 

Earendil:
I think you're right. People weren't saying no to the constitution,
they were saying no to the government. I'm quite sure a majority of
people didn't know exactly what they were voting for/against.

> K
> If Chirac had held a referendum on whether the French people
> wanted him to give them all a hundred percent rebate on their taxes,
they'd
> *still* have voted no because it was Chirac doing the asking.

Earendil:
But Chirac wasn't the only one to ask us to vote yes. During the last
month or so we've had tons of politics from every political background
(right and left wing alike)(I have to admit it was fun to see them
agree on something for once) saying we should vote yes (it was only
isolated extremes that asked to vote no). Every week we had a big
political figure making TV appearances and asking to vote yes. Even
*I*, who don't watch political programs, grew tired of being asked to
vote yes.


Earendil.