‘We’re losing all our national heritage’: BBC Archive clip reminds people of Brexit

A BBC Archive clip featuring interviews with members of the public on a switch from miles to kilometres is drawing comparisons with the 2016 EU referendum.

The 2 minute video, shared on Twitter on Wednesday, was filmed 43 years ago.

In comments reminiscent of the remain-leave divide, one man says: “We’re losing all our national heritage, ain’t we?

“Like, you know, the money’s all changed, the decimalisation, all the weights being changed, measurements and everything. I think, you know, we’re an island on our own.

“Let’s face it, we once ruled the world, didn’t we? Now we’re just being a part of a community.”

Later on in the video, another individual responds by quoting a line from Neville Chamberlain, who was prime minister during the Second World War.

“He said, ‘now we’re going to fight a war to make it a better land to live in.’ That was for me – I was 19 years of age.

“Did 10 years in the war, come back here, now everybody wants to change the way that I went and fought for.

“It ain’t right. I want it as it is now, what I nearly sacrificed my life for,” he said.

The Second World War in fact lasted for six years, from 1939 to 1945.

Several Twitter users were quick to respond with comparisons to modern day discourse:

Some things just never change.