Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to allow retailers in the UK to be able to choose whether to sell goods using imperial or metric measurements after years when imperial appeared to be dying out.

We asked people on Strand Street what they thought of a move back to the imperial system, and which measurements they use in daily life.

Julie Mercer, 64, visiting from Burnley, said: ’Leave it, we’ve moved on [from imperial].’

However, she said that she is still ’old school’ and uses imperial.

’However, my life’s in the past really - but the youngsters have gotten used to the new way, and it’s their world not mine’.

Talking about the mix of systems used in the British Isles, Julie said: ’We buy fuel in litres, so why is it still miles per gallon? That confuses me’.

As for cooking, she said: ’I’ve got Alexa! She tells me which is which, so she can translate four ounces into whatever it is. I’ve lived through pounds, shillings and pence, and got used to it. So you’ve got to live through this and get used it that, that’s the way it is.’

Peter Hughes, 62, also here visiting from Kent, said: ’I still work in stone, but I’ve not problem with it being both.’

’But I know people who are a bit younger, they’re more used to metric - so it will be up to them to decide really. But it’s still difficult to convert - especially miles per hour, most people work in that but in kilometres you don’t really know how fast you’re going.’

When it came to cooking, he told us: ’Whatever the instructions say: if it says 200ml then I’ll use that, but if I’m weighing it up myself, I’d probably think in things like pounds, for example.’

When we spoke to Richard Hogg, 27, Laxey.

He told us that any move back to imperial was ’fundamentally a waste of time’.

’I don’t see why he [Boris Johnson] has a need to do it.’

Asked which units he uses he said it was a mix, for example miles and kilograms.

’Maybe there should be a standard going forward,’ he added.

Asking Pagan Norton, 29, Peel, about the different systems, she said: ’I don’t really mind to be honest.

’I like the older style of things, I don’t think we should always change everything.

’Because people want to change things constantly don’t they, even if they’re not broken.’

She added that she prefers measurements like pounds and ounces.

John Petry, 56, Port Erin, agrees that shops should have the right to sell in imperial if they want, saying it was ’freedom of choice’.

John remembered when the European Commission regulations came in and curtailed imperial measurements, with ’a pound of bananas’ no longer being available.

’I still work in pounds and ounces when I’m cooking, added Fiona Petry, 46.

John added: ’I’m ex-scrap metal trade, so I used to work in kilos and short tons - which is 1,000 kilos.’

He explained that even in Britain, that trade has used kilos dating back to the Second World War.

John said he thinks that the metric system is just part of the ’standardisation of the whole globe’, and to go back to imperial would just be ’confusing’.

He noted that America still sticks to imperial units, but seemingly the only thing measured in pounds globally is aircraft fuel.