I'm not too sure where you are getting your information there. All of the countries, apart from the USA, that you mention are metric countries for just about everything, especially Australia and New Zealand. I've lived with people from Oz and NZ and most of them have no concept of any imperial measurement.

The UK and Ireland (I'm Irish) are slightly different. Most people would have grown up with metric and imperial measurements. The older the person the more imperial units they would have grown up with.
In Ireland just about all measurements in daily use are in the metric system now. Diesel and petrol are sold by the litre, speed limits and distances are in km (changed over from miles in 2005). The only things that are commonly referred to in imperial units are a pint of beer or a pound of butter (454 g on the label) and people's height and weight. Height and weight is usually refereed to in feet and stone (strangely enough very few people know their weight in pounds). The only notable difference between Ireland and the UK in this regard would be that the UK still uses miles on road signs.

With regards to scientists and engineers, no scientist or engineer in any of those countries (apart from the US maybe), would use imperial units (unless for a very specific or unusual purpose). The very idea of using any imperial units would be laughed out of the room so there is no conversion going on. Where there are two units of measurement being used side by side (example of height and weight in the UK and Ireland) they tend to be used independently. For example most people I know in Ireland would tell you their weight and height in stone and feet respectively, but not that many would be able to tell you their weight and height in kg and metres (though more people would know their weight in kg) even though they now use kg and metres for everything else.

As to your comments on European scientists and engineers it would seem to reinforce the first two sentences of your post.

The advantage of the SI system is not in a single measurement like metres or kg but the fact that they all integrate together with grace and simplicity and most importantly consistently. You say we would be better off with more people having an ability to reason fluently in both systems but you give no good reason why this would be so.

Personally I can see no advantage to an engineer working in two units consecutively, in fact I can only see problems. The potential for miscommunication, errors in assumptions and just plain awkwardness would be very high indeed.

This makes the classic mistake that people make about agricultural land. 'It's all the same'

The two big deciders on what you can grow on land are the land itself (soil type, drainage, slope, natural fertility) and climate. Land and climate is not all the same everywhere. For climate and land that will produce 25 tonnes of tomatoes you will need irrigation and a lot of it.

I'm from Ireland, a country famous for our rainfall and potatoes, if there is any kind of dry summer at all potatoes will need irrigation in Ireland and an acre of potatoes will take a lot if irrigation. Carrots are not as bad but you still need the right land to grow them. Most of the agricultural land in Ireland would not be considered suitable for potato or carrot production.

I'm not arguing the figure but I'd question why it matters. If both grass and wheat are being rain fed it doesn't matter how much water they require to grow. In fact in low rainfall areas it may be more efficient to produce grass than wheat.

In fact beef can be better in low rainfall conditions as you lower the stocking rate per acre so that the land supports the stock. In similar conditions it might be economical to produce wheat at all.

A good example of rainfall being a key factor in what can be grown is the west of Ireland. For the most part soil type does not suit any tillage crop, the land tends to be wet and the high rainfall makes getting the correct conditions to work on the land difficult.

In these conditions however grass does exceptionally well. So much so that 90% of the beef produced in Ireland is exported.

I won't argue with the figures (though to be honest it sounds very high) but I would like to emphasise the grain fed part.

There is a significant amount of beef around the world that comes from predominantly grazing.

Here is a Wikipedia article on abortion law around the world. There are many countries in Europe that have restricted access to abortion.
The wikipeida article on Abortion in Ireland has a good summary of the history and the current status of abortion in Ireland.

Abortion is illegal in Ireland (and also for the most part in Northern Ireland as well.)
It has never been illegal to provide medical care to a women which would cause an indirect abortion.

There was also a constitutional referendum in 1993 which guaranteed the right to travel and the right to information.
It is not illegal to provide information about abortion in Ireland.
It is not illegal to travel to another jurisdiction for the purposes of getting an abortion.
It is not illegal to have an abortion in another jurisdiction.

A lot of European satellite providers use conditional access modules (CAM) along with smart cards to decode encrypted satellite television.

All the European satellite providers use DVB as the transmission system. DVB specifies a Common Interface. The CAM module sits in the CI and contains a card reader. With the correct smart card the CAM decodes the encrypted signal and sends it back to the receiver to be displayed.

Usually a particular type of CAM is needed for each encryption system. So if a CAM module is available, you place it in the CI slot of any receiver with supports the CI standard (EN 50221-1997), insert your smart card and watch TV. In this way you can pick the receiver that you wish (as long as it supports the CI slot), get your CAM and smart card and bob's your uncle.

There are some satellite providers that do not sell separate CAM modules. In this case the CAM is built directly into the receiver and you have to use the providers hardware. Sky in Ireland and the UK are an example of this, though it is possible to legally view their services using the third party Dragon CAM.

So while definitely a move in the right direction it looks like it's only going to effect around half of the mobile phones sold in Europe initially.
I would expect this proportion to increase as smart phones move down into the lower cost markets though.

It's also not as big a jump for the manufactures this way as most of the smart phones already use some type of usb connection (mini or micro) so it shouldn't require a complete change of designs and tooling.

The TDI Golf has a 12.5 UK gallon fuel tank, this equates to a ~15 US gallons (the fuel economy site you linked to gives 14.5 US gallons capacity.

With a full tank at 12.5 UK gallons and a best fill up of 781 that would give a fuel efficiency of 62.48 miles per UK gallon (53.86 miles per US gallon), which is achievable. I have a 2000 1.9 90bhp TDI Golf and I often get between 55 and 60 miles per UK gallon (46 - 50 miles per US gallon) so I wouldn't find the idea of 62.5 miles per UK gallon (52 miles per US gallon) that far out. Driving style and reading road conditions can have dramatic effects on fuel efficiency especially when driving long distances

as gaeilge (in Irish) it'd be sneachta.

Another one for your list :)

I'm not too sure where you're getting your information from but it's very wrong. Under the Irish building regulations insulation standards along with other building standards are laid out. (See Part L which was last amended in 2008.

Depending on the construction type single leaf walls may be allowed but a large amount of insulation would be required on the inside of the wall before the plasterboard and hardwall.

Again you seem to be very uninformed, building standards are set for the country as a whole, the various councils in the Dublin region do not have any say over building standards, they do however have say over what structures can gain planning permission etc., this has nothing to do with the energy standards that the building is constructed to though.

That said, much anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that building insulation standards were not met in many building built in the last 10 years, but even then this normally cases of substandard insulation, not the total lack of it.

Also the Building Energy Rating (BER system came into force for all new buildings that have gained planning permission since January 2007, and all domestic building for sale or let after the 1st of January 2009. This is an energy rating certification giving an energy rating from A (Best) to G (Worst) in a similar format the energy ratings seen on electrical appliances in the EU. This gives buyers and renters an idea of the energy efficiency of a building and should help, in time, improve insulation values in buildings.

As for the Green Party, while I'd consider myself fairly environmentally conscious, I've never been a fan of the Irish Green Party. A large amount of their support seems to come from NIMBY issues. Becoming part of the coalition government has, in my opinion, been good for them. It has forced them to become more pragmatic. They have plans as far as I'm aware to increase the Part L building requirments over the next few years.

It really sounds like you've an axe to grind here, while it's true that heating systems can be badly designed and installed, labelling all the plumber and builders in Ireland as incompetent seems a little extreme. There are many very competent builders and plumbers in this country

Note I'm not involved in the building industry in any way or means, so I don't have professional pride at stake.