METRICATION

Appeal Judgement can be found on: http://www.courtservice.gov.uk/judgments/judg_home.htm

Metric Martyrs' Appeal court report: www.BWMAonline.com

BWMA WEB SITES: http://www.footrule.org/ & http://www.bwmaOnline.com

Metric Martyrs web site: http://www.metricmartyrs.com

Metric Martyrs at the Cardinal's Hat

A WARNING FROM ENGLAND : DON’T DO IT!  Under US government policy, transition to the metric system is voluntary in the USA . The law requires labeling for most packaged goods to show both US and metric systems so that consumers can choose which system they prefer. However, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency within the US Department of Commerce, is to propose a bill to Congress that will end the use of inch-pound units for packaged goods. Hints of NIST’s intention appeared in November 2002 when it held a forum to: “…identify areas of work needed to ensure the effective voluntary transition to the use of metric units in all commercial transactions”. To “ensure” something that is “voluntary” is a contradiction in terms! The NIST proposal is now available on the internet. How does it get round US government policy that metric is voluntary? NIST has developed a form of words that describes its proposal as “permissible metric-only labeling”, and which appears to offer a choice for business: Metric and US customary; or Metric IT’S A TRICK! The two labeling obligations proposed by NIST cannot lawfully co-exist. It is impossible for the law to require both systems to be displayed while also stating that only metric need be shown. Accordingly, the only requirement under the NIST proposal is that packaged goods show metric. Producers may print lb/oz/pint equivalents, but such information is surplus to the legal requirement. Decoded, the phrase “permissible metric-only labeling” means compulsory metric labeling, since the word “permissible” actually refers to inch-pound. The NIST proposal, if implemented, will mean the end of US measures as trading units for most packaged goods. It will be legal to describe a carton of milk as “473mL” – but ILLEGAL as “one pint”. The upheaval and costs to business will be huge, since systems and processes will have to change to accommodate metric. (British Weights & Measures Association press release 30 June 2003 )

In a survey by 'Your Home' magazine there were four authorities that ranked as the country's worst recycling blackspots. These local authorities recycled less than 1% of their waste. Three out of the four were Sunderland, Hackney and Cornwall District. Pretty much of a co-incidence that all four Metric Martyrs who received criminal convictions came from these three areas. Had the local authorities spent the same time, money and effort on recycling initiatives instead of prosecuting honest, hard-working traders then perhaps they would not have the tag 'Britain's most wasteful authorities'. Wasteful in more ways than one! (Metric Martyrs Press Release 6th January 2003)

Motorists in Cambourne, the new town now being built in Cambridgeshire, may be perplexed to see speed limit signs reading "19". When Tony Bennett, the founder of Arm (Active Resistance to Metrication), saw them, he at once guessed the reason: this bizarre figure represents the nearest miles-per-hour equivalent to "30 kilometres an hour", which is what South Cambridgeshire council hopes the signs will eventually read. This is yet another example of the hole-and-corner way that our authorities have introduced metrication to Britain over the past 30 years, along with the sort of jobsworth bullying that led to the "metric martyrs" case, now due to be heard by the European Court of Human Rights. (C Booker; Sunday Telegraph 29/12/02)

Bill of Particulars for the Impeachment of Lord Justice Laws. Lord Justice Laws, a Justice of the Appeal Court, was the lead Justice in the appeal of "The Metric Martyrs" against their conviction for using Pounds weight instead of Kilos in the course of business. He was also the main author of the Ruling in the Appeal. Lord Justice Laws is hereby accused of deliberately, knowingly and unlawfully rendering a False Judgement, to wit the judgement in the above-mentioned appeal, contrary to all previous rules of law and of fact and in breach of his oath to render true allegiance to Her Majesty and to administer faithfully Her Justice. Lord Justice Laws’ ruling can be summarised as disallowing the appeal on the grounds that The Weights and Measures Act, 1985, which allowed traders to choose to use Pounds OR Kilos, did not also state that it was repealing or amending the clauses in The European Communities Act, 1972, that make European Law supreme in this matter. The need for specific repeal of the clauses in the former Act was held to be necessary because the earlier Act was, he said, a "Constitutional Act" and therefore was classed above the normal later Act. Lord Justice Laws’ ruling was wrong in fact because he held that the European Communities Act, 1972, was a "Constitutional Act" and wrong in Law because he held that, as such, it could not be repealed or amended implicitly by a later Act as can every other Act. Neither Lord Justice Laws, nor any other Justice of any Court, has the power to invent classes for parliamentary Acts, not even Parliament has that power. There are indeed some "Constitutional Acts" but these are known as such because they contain entrenchment clauses which require special action by Parliament if the Acts are to be repealed or amended. NO SUCH clauses were included in The European Communities Act, 1972, and in fact the originator of this Act, Edward Heath, then the Prime Minister, told Parliament and the Nation that this Act had NO constitutional effects and was merely an Act regulating trade. Parliament passed the Act in this belief. It is therefore NOT a Constitutional Act with special status, no matter how much damage to our Sovereignty was actually hidden in its fine print. The above means that the Weights and Measures Act, 1985, did indeed repeal or amend, implicitly, the earlier European Communities Act, 1972. This was confirmed by Lord Laws’ comments, made public at the time, that Counsel for the Plaintiffs, the Metric Martyrs, "should not try to teach him first year law" when he mentioned that later Acts repeal or amend earlier ones implicitly wherever they disagree. The FACT that Lord Justice Laws refused the request to publish the transcript of this appeal shows that he remembers this comment, that it utterly defeats his ruling, and that he cannot afford to have it confirmed formally. That he knows his ruling to be false explains his refusal to allow it to be appealed to the House of Lords even allowing for the importance of the case. This knowledge also explains the inordinate length of time he took to render this judgement. The time taken suggests a fevered search for some grounds, no matter how bogus, to deny the appeal. The motive for rendering this false judgement is assumed to be threats, actual, implied or feared, to his present position and future prospects, from pro-EU bureaucrats in the Lord Chancellor’s department and pro-EU politicians. NO imputation of bribery is made, only that success for the appeal would have destroyed the whole fabric of our membership of the EU and so, to EU supporters, the appeal had to be defeated at any cost. The dishonesty of the ruling makes Lord Justice Laws unfit for any position in the Judiciary. His impeachment and dismissal will send a strong message to others to maintain British, not EU, law. Bill prepared and presented by Richard Edmund Gore-Lloyd, born and remaining a loyal subject of Her Majesty, and residing at Lower Mead, Deyman’s Hill, Tiverton, Devon. ( 23/12/02 http://www.silentmajority.co.uk/)

The confectionery product Fox's Glacier Mints, owned by Northern Foods, has been downsized as part of a new metric rip-off. Featured below are images of the two versions of the Fox's Glacier Mints bags. To the left is a bag weighing 8 ounces - "227g". To the right is the new metric bag of 200g. Both sizes are priced the same. Given that the 200g bag represented a reduction of 27g or 1 oz in weight, this represented an overnight price increase of 13%. (BWMA press release 24/11/02)

Trading standards bosses, who forced British shopkeepers to go metric, are threatening to prosecute an Austrian theme bar which sells beer in litres. Austrian Andrea Schultz started a bierkeller in Worcester two months ago, selling beer from her home country in earthenware one-litre jars. But trading standards officers have warned she faces prosecution because beer in Britain must be sold by the pint. Ms Schultz, who runs the Cardinal's Hat bar, is threatening to challenge the order in the courts. She told The Sun: "We had a visit from trading standards and I was stunned when I then got a letter. I've been told I'm breaking the law. It's crazy." She believes the beer, which is imported from Salzburg, tastes better in the traditional flutes because the tops are "not so wide and keep in the flavour". She has won support from the Metric Martyrs, a group fighting the introduction of Euro measures on British food. They include Sunderland greengrocer Steve Thoburn, 38, who was given a six-month conditional discharge for selling bananas by the pound last year. Mr Thoburn said: "It was barmy to stop me and it's just as crazy saying that Andrea can't sell Austrian beer by the litre. Again it's a case of bureaucrats trying to slap their rules on traders." Trading standards spokesman John Dell said : "Free flowing beer must be sold by the pint and that measure is here to stay. The only other items which are allowed to be sold in pints are milk and orange juice which is delivered to the doorstep." (9th October 2002 Ananova) 

Metric martyrs refused an appeal to the Lords Britain's five so-called "metric martyrs" were stunned by the perfunctory way in which Lord Bingham last Monday rejected their right to appeal to the House of Lords, without giving any reason other than that their case did "not give rise to points capable of rational argument". The five traders, led by Steve Thoburn, the Sunderland greengrocer found guilty of the criminal offence of selling a pound of bananas, had sought leave to appeal against a ruling by Lord Justice Laws last February that the Government was entitled to use a statutory instrument under the European Communities Act 1972 to repeal an Act of Parliament passed 13 years later. The 1985 Weights and Measures Act, authorising the sale of goods in either metric or imperial, was put through by the Thatcher Government five years after a Brussels directive had imposed exclusive use of metrication on all countries in the European Community. What Michael Shrimpton, the traders' barrister, had hoped the House of Lords might resolve were some of the apparent confusions raised by Lord Justice Laws's judgment. Laws put forward the novel view that the European Communities Act, under which EU legislation is implemented in the UK, takes precedence over normal UK legislation because it is a "constitutional statute", ranking with Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights. But in another case, in 1997, Laws had seemed to argue the opposite, by stating that British law does not recognise any "hierarchy" of statutes, and that all Acts of Parliament must be considered equal. Mr Shrimpton planned to ask the Lords to consider the seeming contradiction between Laws's two interpretations, and also to ask whether it was proper that, last February, Laws had relied on cases to which no reference had been made in the hearings, and which defence lawyers had therefore had no chance to discuss. All this must now remain unresolved because of Bingham's ruling that the defence had no points "capable of rational argument". Another curious feature of the case was that Sunderland council was the only one of the four prosecuting authorities which objected to the right of the traders to appeal. Lawyers for the other councils accepted that the constitutional issues at stake were so important that it was right that the Lords should give a definitive ruling. Even Lord Justice Laws himself, during the earlier hearings, had said it was "shameful" that such a massive change could be imposed on the people of Britain without a new Act of Parliament, and that if he had been presented with the case in a lower court "I would have halted it for an excessive abuse of process". It was wrong, he said, that traders should be prosecuted under laws made so opaque that they would have "to bury their heads in law books" to know what those laws were. After Bingham's dismissal of their case, Neil Herron, the spokesman for the "martyrs", to whose defence fund readers of The Telegraph contributed £70,000, said that the cursory terms in which he refused their right to appeal will be added to the case they will present to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg this autumn. "Article Six of the convention guarantees the right to a fair trial," said Mr Herron, "and when our Strasbourg legal team, led by a Canadian and a French-Portuguese, put their arguments, the refusal to allow us an appeal to the House of Lords will now play a significant part." Meanwhile some 38,000 criminals can shortly expect to face the full wrath of the law: this being the number of traders in Britain who, according to official figures, still allow their customers to use the system of measures they understand. One suspects that the late Lord Denning might have responded rather differently. (news.telegraph.co.uk - Christopher Booker's Notebook 21/07/2002)

Lord Justice Laws was last week deluged with hundreds of emails asking why he refuses to allow the release of a transcript of the recent metrication case. His court clerk said earlier that "only in exceptional cases" were transcripts not released and that "nine times out of 10" judges do allow it. One possible reason for Lord Justice Law's refusal is that he might not wish people to see how outspoken he was during the hearings. "If I had had this case in a lower court, I would have halted it for an excessive abuse of process," he exploded. It was "shameful", he said, that such a huge change could have been imposed on the British people without an Act of Parliament. Another time he slapped down Michael Shrimpton, counsel for the "metric martyrs", for trying to explain that all laws rank equally and that there cannot be such a thing as a "constitutional Act" taking precidence. You don't need to explain that, he said, "we are not in year one of law school". Yet much of his argument in the judgement rested on claiming precisely the opposite, namely that the European Communities Act is a "constitutional act" which takes precidence. It was on this glaring contradiction that the "martyrs" last Friday petitioned the House of Lords for the right to ask the "single question" for which Laws had given them leave. (Sunday Telegraph C Booker 4/3/02)

The so-called metric martyrs lost their legal battle yesterday to trade in pounds and ounces rather than kilograms and grams when the Court of Appeal ruled that they must abide by European law. Lord Justice Laws, sitting with Mr Justice Crane, rejected the men's claim that domestic law provided a loophole that meant European Union directives requiring goods to be sold in metric units did not apply in England and Wales. Lawyers for the five had argued that the 1985 Weights and Measures Act authorised traders to continue using imperial measures, even though Britain had signed up to the 1972 European Communities Act and became subject to European directives. But Lord Justice Laws said: "All the specific rights and obligations which EU law creates are by the European Communities Act incorporated into our domestic law and rank supreme." Making clear that no loopholes existed, he said: "That is, anything in our substantive law inconsistent with any of these rights and obligations is abrogated or must be modified to avoid inconsistency." He added that "our imperial measures, much loved of many, seem to face extinction". Neil Herron, spokesman for the Metric Martyr Defence Fund, said the case showed that an Act of Parliament could be overruled by a "mere directive" from "an entity, a gathering of unelected bureaucrats over which we have no democratic control". (Independent 19 February 2002)

2PASS Your Driving Tests web site Poll:- Should Britain change road signs from Miles to Kilometres? No (1157) Yes (126) Not Sure (15) Total votes:1298 (26/2/02 http://www.2pass.co.uk/index2.htm)

With immediate effect, the government's Department of Weights and Measures will no longer certify scales in pounds and ounces, but only those calibrated in metric units. (Central Somerset Gazette 3.1.02)

The winner of the Teletext Man of the Year poll was Metric Martyr Steve Thoburn, by a long way. He had 47% with 2nd place man on 25%. ( 22/12/01 Teletext page 146)

Neil Herron and Steve Thoburn, known as the British Metric Martyrs, last night in Brussels received the EV50 award as EU Campaigners of the Year. The price was given to the Martyrs at a fashionable gala evening in the Palais d’Egmont in the heart of Brussels, hosted by the newspaper the European Voice. The Metric Martyrs were chosen by some 4000 readers of the weekly newspaper, the European Voice out of 50 nominees and in competition with strong candidates such as European Central Bank Chief Wim Duisenburg. "Ordinary people are being forgotten and also that democracy belongs to the people. That is why we are here tonight," Mr Herron, campaign manager for the Metric Martyrs, said in his speech of thanks. (EUobserver.com 5/12/01)

The heart of the Metric Martyrs' appeal was that the 1985 Weights and Measures Act was still in force and gave equal legal status to metric and imperial measures in trade. The prosecution argument is that that Act was amended by government ministers using administrative orders in 1994, thereby abolishing our system of measures. This to comply with European Community directives. The ministers claimed the power to overturn an Act of Parliament (the 1985 Weights and Measures Act) derived from the 1972 European Communities Act, the Act of Britain's accession to the European Common Market. Mr Michael Shrimpton, representing the five Metric Martyrs, said that Parliament, in passing the 1985 Weights and Measures Act must have done so in the knowledge of the earlier European Directive - 80/181/EEC, which purported to abolish the imperial system. He said the Courts were obliged to assume that Parliament knew. Following the recent disbandment of the "Metrication Board" parliament, expressly, had no intention of doing away with the imperial system. The 1985 Act was simply a demonstration by parliament that it had decided to re-occupy the field of weights and measures from European Community law. It was heading for an obvious clash between the two jurisdictions. Mr Shrimpton convincingly demolished the assertion that the 1972 European Communities Act gave ministers the power to overturn any future Act of Parliament by means of administrative orders, i.e. Statutory Instruments. (BWMA press release on the Metric Martyr Appeal 23/11/01)

The government has allowed a "violation of cultural space" by making it a criminal offence to sell goods in imperial measures, lawyers acting for five "metric martyrs" told a court yesterday. The market traders are fighting convictions and court orders made against them after they defied weights and measures inspectors and carried on trading in pounds and ounces. Their lawyers argue that the 1985 Weights and Measures Act allows them to use imperial measures. But the lower courts have ruled that the traders are under a duty to use metric to comply with European regulations because the UK has signed up to the European Communities Act of 1972. The High Court judge, Mr Justice Scott Baker, yesterday ordered that the appeal hearings should begin on November 20. (Financial Times; Oct 12, 2001)

Anthony Worral Thompson, the TV chef and honorary member of the British Weights and Measures Association, has been told by the BBC that he must use metric measures in his recipes. (Sunday Telegraph 12/8/01)

BBC News Online is of course obsessively "metrically correct". A classic example of this is the recent height record set by NASA's Helios aircraft. Compare the four following accounts of this, in various online news services: http://www.itn.co.uk/news/20010814/world/08nasa.shtml http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_374179.html http://europe.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/08/13/helios.flight/index.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1489000/1489865.stm Yes, you've guessed it. All the others report it in feet (as did NASA) (BWMA e-mail 29/8/01)

Compulsory metrication applies to pricing by the unit (length, weight etc.) of goods for sale, but not to descriptions of goods. So carpet or curtain material sold by length must, according to the regulations, be priced in metric units (for the length, but not for the width, which is only "descriptive"), and the size of a rug or complete carpet need not be described in metric units. As a result, it is still legal (according to the regulations) to sell (described as such) a 1-pound hammer, a 3.5-inch disc, a photograph 8" x 10", a rug 4' x 6', and so on, and even curtain material 60" wide, these descriptive purposes not being covered. (A pack of sheets of sandpaper just bought from Homebase could be described as 11" x 9" instead of, or at least in addition to, 280 x 230 mm). Is the government defying the directives by not requiring metrication for descriptive purposes also? (Private e-mail RBC 28-8-01) The DTI's report on the reappraisal of metrication last year stated that, in due course, it was likely that UK law would be extended to include descriptive purposes. (Reply by JG of BWMA)

A Royal sawmill on the Sandringham estate has been forced to change the way it labels its products after trading standards officers warned it was flouting the law on metrication, it emerged today. Trading standards officials from Norfolk County Council visited the timber mill last week. A spokesman for the Sandringham estate today told PA News that imperial markings had been displayed at the mill - which is open to the public - in large white lettering with the metric in small print. He also admitted that the sawmill had broken the law in failing to keep a metric measuring stick but said they were "in the process of securing one". He said that the sawmill had sought advice from trading standards officials and would from tomorrow be selling timber measured in feet and metres. (PA News 19/8/01)

A new survey by ICM for BWMA shows that 70% of the British people, including a majority of 18 to 24 year-olds, can make sense of weights "only in pounds and ounces ". While 51% of the London middle classes say they are "at home with kilogrammes", of the northern working-class only 18% they have any "real understanding of kilos". While 39% of men claim to be confident in kilos, when put the test only two thirds of those got the calculations right; whereas, only 20% women say they are at home with kilos, in practice 27% of them came up with the right answers. (Sunday Telegraph 8/7/01)

ONE can only marvel at the sense of priorities of Hackney council in east London, all but broke and with the worst educational record in Britain. Hackney was last Wednesday able to celebrate its successful prosecution of Mr Hunt in Bow magistrates' court on nine criminal charges, brought under price-marking regulations brought in under Brussels metrication directives. Mr Hunt's stall, one of 200 in the market, was set up by his mother in 1940 at the height of the Blitz, although his customers these days are mainly West Indian. Just before Christmas in 1999 the Ridley Road market traders received a letter from Hackney council telling them that from January 1 they would have to sell their wares exclusively in metric. The traders dutifully complied, spending between them tens of thousands of pounds on metric scales which can cost up to £600 each. Like a number of other traders, Mr Hunt needed four sets. But the changeover threw the West Indians, Asians and Turks who mainly frequent the market into confusion. Within weeks the traders had to switch back from pricing in kilograms because, as Mr Hunt puts it: "None of our customers had a clue what they were." In September Mr Hunt's stall was singled out as a test case for offering plantains, a banana-like Caribbean vegetable, at "39p a lb". There were additional charges because when the officials posing as members of the public asked for vegetables in kilos from two young assistants, including a 17-year-old girl, supposedly educated solely in metric, they became confused by the conversion, and overcharged by a few pence. The district judge Alan Baldwin found the accused criminally guilty on all counts, giving him a conditional discharge, and gave him 21 days to pay the council's costs of £4,638.48p, far more than Mr Hunt has in the bank and representing several months' profit on the stall. Fortunately for Mr Hunt, Neil Herron, the Sunderland trader who has acted as Steve Thoburn's chief ally, was also in the courtroom. He was able to pay the £546 costs Mr Hunt owed legal aid for his own defence. Mr Herron dedicates his time to running the "Metric Martyr Defence Fund", now organised as a nationwide campaign to take under its wing the growing number of traders falling foul of the unpopular metrication laws. Contributions are still being welcomed via the campaign's website or by cheque to Metric Martyrs Defence Fund, PO Box 526 Sunderland SR1 3YS. Christopher Booker: (http://www.telegraph.co.uk24 June 2001)

The British Weights & Measures Association annual "Metrickery" Award goes to the person, or organisation, which has done the most to promote metrication against the consumer's interest.This year it goes to the Consumers' Association for craven adherence to metrication against the wishes of the great majority of the population. The BWMA has pleaded with the Consumers' Association to help to keep the law that allowed freedom of choice in measures - imperial and metric - lawful from 1897 until 1994. Now European Directives make it illegal to sell goods in imperial measures. BWMA pointed out that 91% of consumers were against the prosecution of the "Metric Martyrs". We also told the CA about the colossal swindle of metric downsizing¹. This has cost consumers £3bn a year through hidden price rises. But the response we get all the time from the CA is that "it will not take a stand on this matter". An abject failure to fulfil the very reason for its whole existence! (BWMA press release 24 May 2001)

Eagle eyed officials from Peterborough's Weights & Measures Department spotted Lynne Gibb's advertisement in her local paper offering to press a 10lb load of clothes for £4.99. They threatened her with a £1,000 fine unless she changed her pricing policy to kilos. (Mail on Sunday 20/5/01)

Two shopkeepers in Camelford, Cornwall have been charged with criminal offences for selling mackerel, pollack, Brussels sprouts and apples in pounds and ounces. Fishmonger John Dove spent £400 on scales that measured in pounds or kilos. But he fell foul of trading standards inspectors by displaying labels showing only the price per pound. Julian Harman faces the same charges for selling Brussels sprouts at 39p per pound and Granny Smith's at 45p a pound. Locals have already rallied round, starting a fund to fight their case and pay any fines. (Mail on Sunday 20/5/01)

Letter to BWMA member:- Mr Hague understands your concerns over the imposition of metrification. It was open for the Government to apply for a further derogation, that is to say a ten year exemption, but they chose not to. Conservative MEPs fought to achieve this but were, regrettably, unsuccessful. The next Conservative Government will look at ways of ending the present lunacy and change the law so that loose goods can be sold in measures that everyone can understand. (S Malin, 21 May 2001)

In a letter to the Telegraph Paul Anderton stated that crack cocaine is being sold in imperial units. A 32nd of an ounce costs £40. He says it is time the police cracked down on these depraved criminals for flaunting EC regulations. (D Telegraph 17/4/01)

A SECOND greengrocer is to invoke his right to freedom of expression under the European Human Rights Convention to fight compulsory metrication imposed by trading standards officers, a court heard yesterday. Peter Collins, 51, is likely to join forces with Steven Thoburn, the Sunderland greengrocer who last month became the first trader in Britain to be convicted for refusing to sell goods in metric measurements, to take his case to the House of Lords. The fruit and vegetable trader has been told by trading standards officers that they have renewed his licence to trade only on condition that he agrees to sell produce in metric weights, which he is taking legal action to lift. He will appeal to magistrates at Sutton, south London, during a three-day hearing in July under the Local Government Act 1990 to lift the condition. Quentin Richards, his barrister, told a pre-trial hearing yesterday that Mr Collins would invoke his right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the convention to advertise and sell his produce in imperial weights. Mr Collins, who trades from a stall in Sutton High Street, said he was warned by trading standards officers from Sutton Council last year that they would refuse to renew his trading licence unless he replaced his imperial scales with a metric substitute, which could cost £500. The warning was issued after an undercover trading standards officer bought a bunch of grapes from Mr Collins in imperial weights. A licence to continue trading was subsequently issued, but only on condition that Mr Collins agreed to comply with compulsory metrication. The trader said he had received "overwhelming support" from his customers, who always asked for produce in imperial weights. (Daily Telegraph 11 May 2001)

So nervous are Millbank spin doctors that the election campaign might throw up embarrassing trick questions after the Sunderland "metric martryr" case that Labour ministers have been briefed with their height and weight in metres and kilograms. (Sunday Telegraph 6/5/01)

But a court case this week in Sutton, Surrey, will give the metrication battle a new twist. Sutton council wants to suspend the license of Peter Collins, a local market trader, because he cannot afford a set of metric scales and wants to go on selling apples and bananas in pounds and ounces. But the defence being offered is totally different from the abstruse constitutional points about European Union legislation at the centre of the Sunderland case. Mr Collins’s lawyer Quentin Richards will argue that, under the European Convention of Human Rights, his client has the legal right of "commercial free speech", to use the system of weights and measures he and his customers understand. (Sunday Telegraph 6/5/01)

 In 1878 M. Pouyer-Quertier, the former French Minister of Finance, states that 'fines and penalties are the only remedy to enforce the Metric System upon those who daily avoid and refuse it, and who openly disobey the law'. More than 120 years later, the same issues persist and Britons have proven reluctant, even in the face of legal penalties, to fully embrace the metric system. (Public Record Office http://www.pro.gov.uk/inthenews/metric/metric3.htm)

The "Metric Martyr" greengrocer convicted of selling bananas solely in pounds and ounces in defiance of European legislation today announced he would appeal against his conviction. The landmark legal case over the sale of a 34p bunch of bananas was labelled a test case which could ultimately decide the future of Britain's weights and measures system. An appeal fund under the banner of Metric Martyrs raised enough to cover defence costs for the initial trial but trustees appealed to the public to help raise more for any possible appeal. Sunderland City Council did not apply for costs of the first hearing but have indicated they could apply for costs at any subsequent appeal hearing. (PA News 27 April 2001) Donations to: http://www.metricmartyrs.com

The cases against Thoburn, and neighbouring fishmonger Neil Herron, have arisen following the introduction of the European Union's 1994 Units of Measurements Regulations into British law on 1st January 2000. Although it remains legal to advertise loose produce in imperial measurements - as the Tescos supermarket chain demonstrated last year - labelling on shelves must give precedence to the metric system and all scales must be solely in metric. When the supermarket re-introduced imperial measurements in its advertising however, customers apparently rose by 10,000 in a week. (Public Records Office, extract from history of metrication 14/4/01) http://www.pro.gov.uk/inthenews/Metric/Metric1.htm

"I was the department of Trade and Industry's junior minister responsible for weights and measures at the time and refused to legislate for compulsory metrication. I was also responsible for deregulation, one of John Major's flagship policies, and argued that it would torpedo our credibility as cutters of red tape to criminalise the use of Britain's ancient weights and measures. So my boss, Michael Heseltine, appointed another minister, Lord Strathclyde, to do the dirty deed. "Sadly, although I showed the government the solution, I was ignored. Officials said we had to change because of a Brussels directive - agreed in 1988 by my predecessor Francis Maude. As a lawyer, trained to examine words carefully, I checked and found that it was easy to avoid this Napoleonic nightmare. The directive makes metrication compulsory only if national legislation compels people to use particular units of measurement. Britain's Weights & Measures Act made it illegal to sell goods in units other than those "authorised". The directive requires all such "authorised" measures to be metric in future. "However, if we abolished the "authorisation" provisions, allowing people to choose for themselves which units to use, we would disapply the directive. the answer was to dereglate. "To prevent short-measure we would still define legally the terms "pound","ounce", "gramme", "kilogramme" etc. but there is no reson for the Nanny State to force us to use either metric or imperial measures. (Letter to Daily Telegraph by Neil Hamilton 15/4/01)

 On Monday 9 April 2001 in court number 2 in Sunderland, district judge Bruce Morgan found Steve Thoburn, market greengrocer, guilty of the crime of selling bananas by the pound. Reading from his 50 page hand-written judgement judge Morgan brushed aside all the legal arguments presented by Steve Thoburn's eminent defence counsel, constitutional lawyer Michael Shrimpton, because they were based upon legal precedent derived from our common law system. District judge Bruce Morgan said that we now operate under a "new legal order". The 1972 European Communities Act intentionally surrendered parliament's sovereignty to the primacy of European law and the European courts. "Every national court must now set aside any national law which conflicts with Community law". He said that all the commentators on the British legal system represent the "yesteryear" and now only describe a "non-binding historical perspective".For the first time ever a British court has spelled out the full implications of joining the European Community, Britain has lost its ancient constitution and must now regard 1972 as the "Year Zero". (BWMA press release 10/4/01)

If a greengrocer loses his weights and measures case, then Europe will have supreme power over British laws, a lawyer claims. Michael Shrimpton heads the defence team of Steven Thoburn, who is being prosecuted for using imperial-only scales. The verdict is due to be delivered in Sunderland on April 9. In his summing up, at Sunderland Magistrates Court, Mr Shrimpton said the case is essentially about "selling a pound of bananas". If it is lost, the country will suffer at the hands of the European Community which will pick away at British constitutional law, he said. He maintained that British statute took precedence over Euro directives. If the court ruled against him, he said it will open the doors for all British laws to be changed. He said that would lead to the loss of such traditions as the pint of beer, the mile and pint of milk which are currently protected. (Annanova.com 3/2/01)

How dare Steve Thoburn sell his bananas for 15p a lb, when Tesco's are selling theirs for 45p a lb (price in kilos in very small writing). Given the power of the main supermarket chains, I find it hard to believe his stance is the biggest issue facing retailing. (Guardian Letters Wednesday January 17, 2001)

The Tories are pressing for a Commons debate to try to block new regulations setting a deadline for the end of most imperial measurements. A Government statutory instrument, in force from today, states dual pricing of goods in metric and imperial units must end on Dec 31, 2009. (Daily Telegraph 8/2/01)

 Last week, in the name of "consumer protection", the Government seemed happy to reinforce a practice which is defrauding Britain's shoppers of anything up to £3 billion a year. The device known as "product shrinkage" is using confusion caused by the metrication of weights and measures to reduce the contents of thousands of brands of canned or packaged foods, while continuing to sell these to unsuspecting shoppers at the same price. Thus a tin of baked beans, on which purchasers could once rely to contain "1lb" (or 454 grams) of beans, has gradually been reduced to 415 grams (14.6 ounces), although the can looks identical. As is confirmed by a study carried out for the British Weights and Measures Association, the end of imperial measures has resulted in a vast range of goods being downsized in this way, by up to 20 percent or more. (Sunday Telegraph 11/2/01)

 While Sunderland city council is prosecuting greengrocer Steve Thoburn on the criminal charge of selling a pound of bananas, the city council of Portsmouth openly admits it is committing multiple criminal offences under the same European Union metrication directives. But it says it will continue to defy the law, apparently with the Government's blessing. The difference is that Mr Thoburn's alleged offence is to continue selling in non-metric measures, because that is what his customers prefer. That of Portsmouth is to erect pedestrian signs in metres and kilometres, even though this is in clear breach of the Traffic Signs and General Directions Regulations 1994. These implement a Brussels directive which states that, as an exception to the EU's general metrication policy, Britain's road signs must remain in miles and yards. (Sunday Telegraph 4/2/01)

Scunthorpe taxi drivers have been told by their Council to measure distances in kilometres. This can cost them up to £250 for a new fare-meter. This instruction was then changed and now they must display their prices in kilometres but the fare-meter can be calibrated in miles. The North Lincolnshire Taxi & Private Hire Association is to challenge this instruction, in court if necessary. (BBC 5 Live Drive 31/1/01)

Napoleon did not like metrication. He said" Nothing is more contrary to the organisation of the mind, of the memory, and of the imagination... The new system of weights and measures will be a stumbling block for several generations...It's just tormenting the people with trivia". (Letter to Telegraph 20/1/01)

 A letter to Second World War veteran Kenneth Mayes from Tony Blair's office when he was Leader of the Opposition in 1995 said this: "[Labour is] determined to ensure shopkeepers can continue to use pounds and ounces to sell goods such as loose fruit and vegetables".(Mail on Sunday21/1/01)

THE trial of a greengrocer for refusing to sell goods in metric measurements was the "most controversial" prosecution in England since the 17th century Witchcraft Act enabled suspected witches to be hung or burned at the stake, his lawyer said yesterday. Michael Shrimpton, a constitutional barrister representing Steven Thoburn, 36, said it was the first time in 300 years that an innocent person had been brought before a court to face such a discredited law. In a long speech to Sunderland magistrates' court, he traced the constitutional background of the case against Mr Thoburn, a fruit and vegetable trader accused of refusing to sell goods in metric measurements, and argued that it was illegal and should be dismissed. On Monday, Mr Thoburn became the first trader in England to go on trial in a test case that could affect tens of thousands of shopkeepers. The case could ultimately reach the House of Lords, such is its constitutional importance. Mr Shrimpton said the European Commission was determined to introduce compulsory metrication to Britain, whereas British governments had traditionally allowed a freedom of choice and a dual system of metric and imperial measurements. He said: "No one in this court would realistically or sensibly suggest that the sweeping away of our imperial weights and measures was a change of a small, minor or insignificant nature." The case continues. (Daily Telegraph 17/1/01)

"There is no more important court case going on in England today." Steve is being prosecuted after he sold bananas to a trading standards officer using scales that weighed them in pounds and ounces. His £25,000 legal bill has been met by public donations, including £2,500 from The Sun. But the council's £40,000 bill and the other trial costs will have to be met by the taxpayer. And the final bill could rocket to £250,000 if either side appeals. The three-day trial was dubbed historic by Steve's barrister Michael Shrimpton as it opened in Sunderland yesterday. He added: "Mr Thoburn is a man of moral courage who has stood his ground in the face of criminal prosecution. (The Sun 16/1/01)

COUNCILS across the country will be asked to help fund a test case prosecution of a greengrocer accused of selling fruit and vegetables in imperial measures. Steven Thoburn, the so-called Metric Martyr, is to appear before Sunderland magistrates on Monday in the first case since it became illegal last year to continue using pounds and ounces when goods are sold. Whatever the outcome, it is likely that appeals will be made to higher courts and both Mr Thoburn and the council could face big costs. Colin Langley, director of administration at Sunderland city council, said there would be a joint application to the Trade and Industry department to fund the case because it was of "national significance". Mr Thoburn, 36, was charged after trading standards officers visited his stall at Southwick Market last July, a few weeks after he had been served with an infringement order. (Telegraph 13/1/01)

NIGEL STAINFORTH CASE Nigel is a new 'Metric Martyr', togther with his partner Penny Senior. An undercover Trading Standards operation discovered that they were selling potatoes etc. from their farm shop in _pounds and ounces_. Whilst Nigel was out of the shop for 10 minutes, a burly TSO (who it is now known from witnesses was waiting down the road for Nigel to leave the shop) came in, intimidated Penny, and took two scales. Nigel returned as the TSO was about to drive away. After a heated verbal exchange, Nigel pressed the button on the boot of the TSO's car. He retrieved the scales and they are _back in his farm shop_ and still being used. The TSO threw the scales into the back of his car and one of the panes of glass on the scales was smashed. UKIP is now helping them to bring a claim in the Small Claims Court for compensation. Meanwhile East Riding of Yorkshire Council has 'invited' them for a Police and Criminal Evidence (PACE) Act' interview and has cited no less than 8 separate alleged criminal offences. Nigel will defend each charge.(UKIP news release 13/12/00)

SUPPORTERS of a greengrocer being prosecuted for selling in imperial measures have accused Tesco of "hypocrisy" for exploiting his campaign. Tesco attracted thousands of new customers by proclaiming a return to imperial weights last July. But the company, which remained within the law, said yesterday: "We never indicated any support for his campaign. We feel no moral obligation to support him." (D Telegraph 25/11/00) http://www.metricmartyrs.com

Sad news to report from Hassan Yusufali, Asian greengrocer from Nottingham. After holding out for months against some of the worst 'bully-boy tactics' from Trading Standards seen anywhere in Britain, a threatening Recorded Delivery letter one day, followed by his being 'doorstepped' without warning by Trading Standards and verbally threatened by them the following day - on an occasion when one of his family was unwell, Hassan capitulated and agreed to replace his Imperial scales in the shop with metric ones. The Imperial ones will return the moment Steve Thoburn - or Peter Collins (Sutton) - wins their cases. (UKIP alert 29/11/00)

A LOCAL authority which is prosecuting a greengrocer for selling goods in imperial measures has been accused of failing to enforce metric weights on itself. Sunderland city council has brought the first case of its kind against Steven Thoburn, 36, for using scales which measured fruit and veg in pounds and ounces. One of his fellow "metric martyrs" has found evidence that the same local authority is failing to practise what it preaches on metrication. Neil Heron, a fishmonger, was recently sold prawns weighed by the stone when he visited the council-owned Fish Quay in Sunderland. Mr Heron said: "I couldn't believe it when I got the receipt. I thought there must be some mistake. Here we have a council trying to ruin a man's livelihood by impounding his scales and taking him to court for selling a pound of bananas and they are doing the same thing. They are hypocrites." (D Telegraph 14/11/00)

'You and Yours' did a piece this morning about the Sunderland greengrocer. They asked a group of young people if they supported his stand against the imposition of metrication. The impression given was that they did not care, since they had all been taught metric at schools, promoting the view that metrication was something that only the old folk were concerned about. There was not one dissenting voice under 30. Given that around 80% of the under 30s, when polled, opposed the introduction of the Euro, the views of this representative sample of young people surprised me. The cynic in me would say that all these pro- metric folk were hand picked for their views. Goebbels would have been proud of his proteges within the BBC. (Eurofaq posting 7/11/00) In official surveys the 15-24s - 57% - (nearly six out of ten) disagree with compulsory metrication, while only 17% agree. - Ed

Peter Collins is a street trader in the London Borough of Sutton. He is a popular figure who has never been in trouble. However, he has committed the cardinal sin of refusing to comply with the "compulsory" metrication regulations. The way in which his local borough has handled his situation is quite beyond belief. Rather than face a head-on court case based on non-compliance with metrication (a case which they well know they are likely to lose) the unsubtle and un-civil servants of Sutton have opted instead to take away Mr Collins' living. On 20 March 2000 Mr Collins received a letter from the grandly titled Head of Health and Trading Standards, Mr Tony Northcott. In this letter Mr Northcott says: "My reason for writing to you is to remind you that a condition of your street trading licence is that you comply with all fair trading and consumer protection laws. This includes the Weights and Measures Act 1985". The 1985 Act expressly allows the use of Imperial measures! Then on 4 July 2000 Mr Northcott writes: "I have to inform you that there are grounds for the Council to consider refusing your application for renewal of your licence for the following reason that by virtue of Section 25(6)(b) of the [London Local Authorities Act 1990] you are on account of misconduct relating to trading standards legislation unsuitable to hold a licence" (BWMA Web site),URGENT APPEAL THE DEFENCE FUND BWMA welcomes donations to the Defence Fund for all traders against whom legal proceedings are being brought by their respective local authorities. Please send your cheques (payable to BWMA) at 45 Montgomery St, Edinburgh, EH7 5JX.

Although it was reported on Ch4 News (7.11.00) that the case was "adjourned" this is not in fact correct. The preliminary hearing of the Thoburn case took place at Sunderland Magistrates' Court on 7.11.00. Michael Shrimpton QC appeared for Mr Thoburn and Eleanor Sharpston QC appeared for the City of Sunderland. With the approval of the court a timetable was agreed for all necessary preparations for the trial, dates for which have been agreed between the parties to commence on Monday 15th Jan 2001. Three days have been allocated for the trial. The elements of the case have been refined to a historic decision: is a European Union directive superior to Parliamentary law? (BWMA web site 8 Nov 2000) See also main article in The Times7/11/00

Sunderland City Council said it will prosecute Steven Thoburn, who is refusing to convert to Euro-approved metric measures and sell his goods in kilos and grammes rather than pounds and ounces. The legal wrangle flared in July when police and local authority trading standards officers raided the 36-year-old's market stall and confiscated his imperial scales, claiming he was breaking the law. The council claimed he had failed to comply with a notice issued by its officers to convert to metric measures. Mr Thoburn's stall, in Southwick Market, Sunderland, was packed with shoppers when the four-strong squad arrived and took away three sets of scales. When the father-of-two objected he was warned that he could be arrested for a breach of the peace if he continued to remonstrate. An unrepentant Mr Thoburn today told PA News he would welcome his day in court and was happy to be part of the legal test case. "I'm prepared to be the person who tests the law on this matter because it's very important for my business and the country as a whole," he said. "It has been proved over and over again that British people want their food in pounds and ounces and I welcome this court case so that it can finally be settled once and for all." Mr Thoburn has won massive support for his campaign to have his scales returned and recently presented a petition with 5,000 signatures at Downing Street. (PA news release 6/9/00) Sunderland Council issued its intention to summons Mr Thoburn by way of a press release. It was only after his solicitor demanded an explanation of the press announcement that they were officially informed of the intention to take him to court. At the time of writing no summons has been issued - Ed (29/9/00) There is now a direct fighting fund to which the public can make donations: Make your cheques payable to "Steve Thoburn, Metric Martyr (Defence Fund)" and send them to PO BOX 526, Sunderland, SR1 3YS Payments can also be made at any NatWest branch to account 36457469, sort code 55-61-11. THE SUMMONS IS NOW ISSUED and was delivered to Mr Thoburn's solicitors on 6.10.00 (BWMA web site )

Patchwork quilt makers use imperial graph paper to trace out traditional designs to make templates for cutting out material. Thanks to metrication, imperial graph paper is no longer available. It can be imported from the USA at great cost, £1 a sheet. A helpful Frenchman has put a free programme on the Internet that allows any sort of graph paper to be printed. Quilters are thankful users. The web site is: http://perso.easynet.fr/~philimar/graphpapeng.htm (Personal communication 31/8/00)

The road signs on the Siemens estate on Tyneside were in kilometres. Now that the nice Germans have done a runner (with significant portions of our taxes as a sweetener), these signs have reverted to imperial. (Eurofaq posting P Martin 9/8/00)

Every year Britain’s archers buy hundreds of bows and thousands of arrows, imported from two firms in Holland and Belgium. In keeping with international standards, these have their length etched into them, measured in inches. The bow’s strength is similarly marked in pounds. Despite EU directives to enforce exclusive use of metric measures, there is nothing in Dutch or Belgian law to prohibit making bows and arrows to a non-metric standard. However, under British law it is now a criminal offense to sell them. (Sunday Telegraph 30/1/00)

TESCO is to return to selling food in pounds and ounces after a survey showed that few shoppers understood metric measures. The company said it would introduce imperial weights on packaging and on shelf labels alongside metric weights to "turn the scales in favour of the British consumer". Advertising boards in stores will show only pounds and ounces, while scales at the fruit, vegetable and delicatessen counters will include both systems. The move came after a survey of 1,000 shoppers showed that 90 per cent of consumers still thought in pounds and ounces, with three quarters saying they wanted imperial weights to be displayed alongside metric measures. Mistakes made by customers of Tesco's home shopping service highlighted the problem. One customer ordered 3kg of broccoli rather than 3lb, while another was left with 2kg of prawns after confusing the two systems. Tim Mason, Tesco marketing director, said that the plans were not in breach of EU regulations, which require that products sold at shop tills are weighed in metric units. (Telegraph 18/7/00). Budgens Stores plc said they will also revert to imperial units (BBC R4 Today19/7/00)

A LOCAL authority is reviewing its procedures after a legal challenge to its seizure of imperial weighing scales from a market stall. Two trading standards officers, accompanied by two policemen, confiscated three scales from Steven Thoburn's fruit and vegetable stall in Southwick Market, Sunderland, on Tuesday. Mr Thoburn, 36, contacted the UK Independence Party which says it is prepared to use its Metric Martyrs' Fund to finance a legal challenge to Sunderland city council's action. The party has demanded that Mr Thoburn's imperial scales are returned to him by next Thursday, that the £1,304 cost of buying dual metric-imperial scales is refunded and that Mr Thoburn is paid £250 in compensation. It has told the council that unless its demands are met it will put the matter before the county court. The party claims that the council has exceeded its powers, with Section One of the 1985 Weights and Measures Act allowing traders to sell loose goods in either imperial or metric weights. Tony Bennett, legal adviser to the party, said: "You can't contradict an Act with a regulation. That is accepted law. The law of the land as far as this is concerned is still Section One of the Weights and Measures Act." He added: "The trading standards department served me with a notice and I knew there was a possibility of being taken to court. But for them to come in here in such a heavy-handed way shocked me and my customers. I am prepared to put my business on the line to make a stand against these ridiculous people who insist we abandon British traditions. I have had incredible suport from the length and breadth of the country. My phone hasn't stopped rining. People are outraged." A Sunderland council spokesman said: "The council is now reviewing the circumstances surrounding the case and will take no further action until the review is completed." (Telegraph 8/7/00)

The seizure of the scales by police is itself a nice piece of symbolism. For scales are the symbol of British law. This too is under threat, from Napoleonic 'charters of rights', and from a bureaucracy which scorns the individual and demands passive conformity. (From a letter by Aidan Rankin in The Craven Herald 14 July 2000)

Said Jeffrey Titford MEP: "We have received the plainest possible advice that both Sunderland Council and Sunderland Police have acted well beyond their powers. We are currently discussing two legal options: 1.) An action for "trespass of goods" in the Sunderland County Court for return of the scales, a full refund and compensation, with a claim for exemplary damages for "serious constitutional misconduct". 2.) A private prosecution in the Magistrates Court against employees of Sunderland City Council Trading Standards Department for illegal harassment and intimidation under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and Section 241 (1) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1992. To fund this litigation I will now be making available the funds in our "Metric Martyrs Fund", to which the general public have contributed very generously in anticipation of a test case such as this. More funds are needed, however, and I now make a public appeal for more donations to the "Metric Martyrs Fund". All donations to that fund will be used only for legal and associated expenses involved in fighting compulsory metrication." "Sunderland Council's position is hopeless. They've harassed and intimidated Steven Thoburn and stolen his goods. Yet his friend Neil Herron, a fishmonger in a nearby Sunderland market, is happily carrying on selling in pounds and ounces to his customers. How can it be right to swoop on Steven Thoburn and yet allow Neil Herron to carry on selling in pounds and ounces?" (13/7/00 Press Release from the U.K. Independence Party)

A GREENGROCER has had three sets of weighing scales impounded by trading standards officers because they gave imperial measures. Steven Thoburn, 36, sold fruit and veg from his market stall in pounds and ounces instead of European-approved metric weights. His stall was crowded with shoppers when two officials backed by two policemen swooped. They picked up the three offending sets of scales and carried them out of Southwick Market, Sunderland, to the annoyance and astonishment of Mr Thoburn. When he objected he was warned that his behaviour could lead to arrest for causing a breach of the peace during an operation that he described as "frightening and heavy handed". Mr Thoburn, whose father ran the stall before him, said: "I can't believe that they came storming in and took my scales away. I was treated like a criminal. I don't know what this country is coming to when this can happen because you refuse to give up British weights and measures." He had been served with a notice by Sunderland city council's trading standards department warning him of court action unless he complied with metric measures. Mr Thoburn said he was shaken and angry by the seizure."The stall was packed because the ladies had just turned out from the bingo hall and came to the market to get their groceries to take home on the bus. The officers told me they were being seized as evidence and walked away with them, leaving me with one set of metric scales." He had to tell four of his 10 staff to stay at home the next day because there were no scales for them to work on and he will now have to spend more than £1,300 for three new sets. Mr Thoburn added: "I should not have had to spend money to keep my business going when all I have done is stick by traditional British measurements. "I have always sold my produce in pounds and ounces and I shout my prices around the market. It would sound ridiculous if I started shouting about grams and kilos and people don't respond to it. Folk know what they are getting when you are talking pounds and ounces. I have no intention of changing." (D Telegraph 7/7/00)

HAMPSHIRE C.C. VS. RUSSELL DUKE, British butcher: 22 Mar 2000: Infringement Notice H.C.C. to Rusell Duke of Chandlers Ford: "Under the Weights and Measures Act [sic] it is a legal requirement to sell meat, fruit and veg. etc. by metric units (i.e kg). Imperial units are no longer permitted...all scales should only read metric weighings. Imperial weighings are not permitted. Please rectify all matters within 28 days". - 18 Apr 2000: A.E. Langstone, Chief Inspector of Weights and Measures, H.C.C. to Russell Duke: "The County Council will take no further action in this case pending clarification of the legal situation. Legal advice is currently being sought. The issue has also been raised with the Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs, Dr Kim Howells...I shall contact you again in due course." (UKIP posting (ukipeast@globalnet.co.uk) 19/4/00)

Metric downsizing - off-licence Bottom's Up sell "snacks", produced by "Grocelle Ltd": Yogurt Raisins £1.30 Rice Crackers £1.35 Honey Roasted Cashews £1.99 Bombay Mix 99p Pistachios £1.48 Salted Mixed Nuts and Raisins £1.05. All have 4" by 10" signs with "PER QTR" in the bottom right hand corner. They have metricated by simply putting white "PER 100g" sticky labels over the top, thus making a 12% price rise in real terms. (BWMA research 2/8/00)

In 1999 a small can of Pringles crisps weighed 56 grams (2 oz) but later the pack weighed only 50g. Pringles Customer Relations stated: "The 56g can was downcounted to 50gm a year ago, there are 3 less crisps per can, we didn't increase the price, but believe that Pringles still provide good value." (19/4/00 ukpringles.im@pg.com)

Asda sells standard pork sauages in 454g bags (ie 16oz) for £1.49. However, their "30% less fat" pork sausages, sold in very similar wrapping, weighs only 400g (14oz) - yet, the price is the same - £1.49. "Less fat" should mean less fat - not "less sausage"! (BWMA posting 15/5/00)

The front page of the Hampshire Chronicle published a story headed "Butcher ready for jail over metric issue" and included the paragraph "The shop, in business for 30 years, was visited a fortnight ago by trading standards officers who ordered Mr Duke to remove imperial measures from his scales, which currently give a read-out in both imperial and metric". Also printed in the paper the following report: Alresford & District Conservatives. "This committee believes that the Government's ban on the use of Imperial measurements has no place in a free society. it notes that the USA, the largest market in the world, has no plans to replace their use. It deplores the creation of a new criminal offence for traders who sell goods in pounds and ounces and welcomes the news that constitutional lawyers have pointed out that such legislation is fatally flawed. It further deplorres the Government's ceaseless attacks on British institutions and the British way of life and, until all question of the legality of the legislation with which traders are being threatened has been settled, the Committee pledges its support to all businesses in Alresford and the surrounding district who continue to respond to the public demand to buy in imperial measures". After the meeting, a spokesman for Alresford Conservatives, David Samuel of Broad Street, Alresford, told the press "The motion arose following disquiet that local butchers and green-grocers, amongst others, faced criminal convictions and up to £5,000 fines under new Brussels-driven legislation if after January 1 this year they persisted in selling meat, fruit and vegetables and other produce by the pound rather than in kilos. Many traders all over the country are defying the latest edict following an opinion from prominent constitutional lawyer, Michael Shrimpton, QC, that the Weights and Measures Act 1985, supposedly amended by way of statutory instrument to provide the new criminal offence, is not susceptible to amendment by other than a further Act of Parliament. Our motion is on two levels, firstly, we want to support and encourage local businesses that see no reason why they should have to spend more money on yet further changes that their customers are clearly not demanding and, secondly, we want to send a signal to the Government that there are some people in Alresford who have noticed that every time there is a move towards EU harmonisation in any sphere it is Britain that must change, and bear the costs of such change, rather than our so-called 'partners'." (Fri.7th April Hampshire Chronicle)

"Now the Cross of St. George is defiantly fluttering over a Hampshire butcher's business in a snub to European red tape.".. Chandler's Ford butcher Russell Duke said: "People are getting fed up with being pushed around by Europe and we feel persecuted as small traders". Mr Duke admitted he had been taken aback after being told his scales could be confiscated, he could be fined up to £5,000, he could "lose his business" (these were the actual words used by a Hampshire Trading Standards Officer) and face imprisonment. "But after contacting the U.K. Independence Party, he decided to make a fight of it and launch a petition against compulsory metrification. "'In the course of a week we get about half a dozen people asking for produce in grams and kilograms - but 99.9 per cent of our customers ask for pounds and ounces'". (5/4/00 Southampton Echo)

UK Weighing Federation publish regular monthly statistics on the 'progress' of metrication. They failed to announce their figures at the end of December and again at the end of January, on different pretexts. In their latest statistical reports they claim there are: A total of 96,000 non-supermarket, non-multiple retail (i.e. 'independent') outlets, of which: 58,000 are now metric 38,000 (just over 40%) are still imperial. (UKWF 28/3/00)

The Conservative Party fundraising gift catalogue, Conservative Heartland, is notated entirely in metric. Also, the prospectus for taking a display stall, or table, at the Conservative Party Conference is also specified solely in metric. And this is supposed to be the party that has seen the error of its ways and is committed to applying to Brussels for a further 10 year derogation for the use of imperial measures! (Personal communication 16/8/00)

On Wednesday 5 April 2000, Conservative M.P. for Aylesbury Mr David Lidington will introduce a 10-minute rule bill with the following proposed resolution: "That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make use of Imperial Weights and Measures no longer subject to proceedings for a criminal offence". (BWMA 28/3/00). The full text of his speech is on Hansard at: Weights and Measures (Amendment) (5 April 2000) The Bill failed to gain a reading in Parliament.

Advert for Roast Beef in Iceland Foods - "£2.18 a kilo", then lower down in half size print, "or 99p a pound to you and me!" ( Personal communication 14/3/00)

The Imperial Traders Register tells you where you can buy goods in imperial measures and now has traders on it from 55 different Counties - rising by about 12 to 15 a week at present. They include a major South Coast fish wholesaler (Network Fisheries) who converted completely to metric last November but returned to Imperial-only trading in February when sales slumped by one third due to marking up fish at £3.99 a kilo instead of £1.89 a lb. (UKIP posting 6/3/00)

McDonald's Corp on Friday dismissed a press report that bureaucrats had threatened to ban its famous Quarterpounder burger on grounds the name contravened new EU metrication rules. "The only change we have to make is to add the metric weight of the Quarterpounder burger on the menu boards just for clarification," a McDonald's spokeswoman told Reuters. "We have not formally been advised of any requirement for change. Quarterpounder is a product name as opposed to selling a pound of beef or mince." She said the Quarterpounder -- a million are sold every day in Britain -- weighed 113 grammes. Britain's top-selling Sun tabloid had said trading standards chiefs had claimed the burger's name contravened European Union rules requiring restaurants and shops to list weights in grammes. (LONDON, March 3 Reuters)

The Beamish Museum's 1913 Jubilee Confectioners working museum has been told that it must stop using Imperial Measures and go metric in line with European Union rules (D Telegraph 3/3/00)

Councils are not issuing proper "infringement notices" with a deadline to comply with the metrication regulations. They are trying to cajole traders with "advice" notes and threats. One village shop owner, after explaining to Trading Standards that he will not change his imperial weighing machine then received a very threatening visit from the public health inspector who promised dire action against so-called infringements that had never been remarked upon before. The shopkeeper later obtained a retraction from the head of the department. (Personal communication CAS 25/2/00)

Questions asked by Cllr Spencer of Hackney Council 23/0/00: 1) Is the council aware of the expert legal opinion of Michael Shrimpton, QC, that the enforced metrication directives are void and illegal? 2) What measures are the council taking to enforce the dubious metrication directive and how much are these measures going to cost? 1) Answers: 1) They were aware of the opinion. 2) The council had no plans for prosecuting offenders. Cautions will be handed out to those who transgress and the council may, on advice from the Home Office, prosecute those who continue to offend. (Eurofaq posting 24/2/00)

THE explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes is throwing his weight behind a campaign to allow market traders to sell their wares in imperial measurements, rather than accept the EU directive to turn metric. Joining him in this quest are the actor Edward Fox and Sandy Gall (The Times Diary 3/02/00)

The Gestapo have been active in Pembrokeshire. One sturnbanfurher walked into our local corner shop, and , when he saw the blackboard with the prices of the green grocery priced in Imperial, the little ******* got out his rag and wiped the board clean. He then told the shop-keeper that he had twenty-four hours to comply with the law, or he would be closed down. The shop-keeper phoned the suppliers of the scales, as he did so the sturnbanfurher grabbed the telephone and began giving orders to the scales merchants. So much for being a public servant! According to my friendly shop-keeper he felt angry and abused. (Private communication/Eurofaq 6/2/00). A Lancashire Trader was browbeaten into buying metric scales before Christmas. He decided to invest £500-plus in some dual-priced scales. However, an Obersturmbahnfuhrer from Lancashsire County Council 'caught' him on Friday using the pounds and ounces display for an old lady buying some meat. The immediate result? - an Infringement Notice plus a severe telling off. "You're only supposed to use the metric display now". (UKIP briefing 8/2/00)

Michael Shrimpton, of Gray's Inn, Barrister - Opinion Dated this 22nd day of December 1999: The Weights and Measures Act 1985 8. Schedule 3 is headed "Measures and weights Lawful for Use for Trade" and again expressly refers to Imperial linear, square, and capacity measures and Imperial weights. It is clear beyond a peradventure of a doubt that the use of Imperial weights and measures for all purposes has been expressly authorised by the Imperial Parliament at Westminster. No amending Act has been introduced. Under the Law of the Constitution no Act of Parliament may be amended save with the authority of Parliament. I turn now to consider what Parliamentary authority there might be for the 1994 secondary legislation.... I advise that the Weights and Measures (Unit of Measurement) Regulations 1994 are ultra vires, null and void and of no legal effect whatsoever. I need hardly go on to consider the vires of the Weights and Measures Act (Metrication)(Amendment) Order 1994, because the prosecution would be left in such an impossible position once the first set of regulations had gone that they could scarcely continue - indeed no prosecution should be commenced and any local authority which did so would be engaged in unconstitutional defiance of parliament. The draftsman of the second set of regulations was so clearly labouring under the delusion that the first set were valid that it is a strongly arguable that they fall a fortiori. (http://www.silentmajority.co.uk/eurorealist/Weights.html)

From Jeffrey Titford MEP's Office - Q.What help is being given to traders who want to continue trading in Imperial measures? (1) To date, four barristers have offered free legal representation to anyone who may be prosecuted for an alleged breach of the relevant regulations - the Weights and Measures (Units of Measurements) Regulations 1994 (2) UKIP will contribute to other legal expenses incurred by traders who may be prosecuted - using UKIP's special fund for victims of the European Union (3) UKIP will make a contribution to any fines handed down by Magistrates under these Regulations - again using its 'EU victims' fund (4) Jeffrey Titford will immediately refer the case of any trader fined for using British customary weights and measures to the European Commission on Human Rights under Article 10 of the European Commission on Human Rights which protects "freedom of expression".(UKIP report 6/1/00 e-mail: ukipeast@globalnet.co.uk)

INFRINGEMENT NOTICE served on Mr Dave Stephens and Ms Mandy Reilly 6/1/00. This morning at around 11.00am, Trading Standards Officer Mr D. Slipper of Southend-on-Sea Borough Council attended the premises of Mr Dave Stephens and Ms Mandy Reilly of Mandy's Chop Shop. He served an "Infringement Notice". This gave him a maximum of 28 days to convert all his scales (he has six sets of scales) to metric measurements, with the wording: "Six weighing machines to display in metric units". If he does not comply, his equipment will be held to be illegal and stamped as such. Mr Stephens' machines are currently stamped in lead with a 'seal of approval' by Trading Standards Officers, which just happens to be a 'St. George's Crown'. If they are found to be Imperial and not converted after 28 days, the Trading Standards Officer has a new piece of stamping equipment; instead of a crown, it has a 6-pointed star. If Mr Stephens uses his weighing equipment after that moment in trading he will be committing an offence of using illegal equipment (under the various 1994 Weights and Measures Regulations) and will be summonsed to the Magistrates Court accordingly. (UKIP report 6/1/00). The 28 days have passed and Trading Standards have taken no action. (UKIP report). The Council have stated that they do not intend to prosecute Mr Stephens (Personal communication 25/2/00)

Mandy's Chop Shop Protest. Around 70-80 UKIP members and supporters participated in the protest. All the foreign camera crews recorded Jeffrey Titford MEP buying the symbolic pound of Olde English sausages. Jeffrey was also interviewed at some length by most of the foreign crews. Jeffrey received the 3,000-signature petition. This was handed in at the DTI just after 2pm. We had a meeting with DTI officials. Jeffrey spent about 1 hour with them. Each of the Regional Networks put out an item lasting 2 minutes or so, with excellent coverage of Dave Stephens and Mandy Reilly; the BBC version showed a Dutch journalist attempting to buy half a kilo of sausages, Dave then turning his back on him, and the Dutch journalist walking out of the shop with a glum face, a shrug of the shoulders, and of course without his half kilo - indeed without anything! (UKIP Report: 11 January)

Colin Gabell, Head of Trading Standards at Southend Council, said today: "We are taking an understanding view of the changeover. If shopkeepers are in the process of buying new scales, we will give them time to change. "However, if a trader is seen to be blatantly breaking the law, we will have to act. It seems as though Mr Stephens and the U.K. Independence Party are doing things for joint publicity. But the time for publicity is over. My job is to enforce the law. "Mr Stephens has got an unfair advantage over his competitors. Most are complying or are about to comply and Mr Stephens is obviously not going to comply". Dave Stephens replies: "I will not be dictated to..."(Leigh Times 12/1/00)

"Not content with making the stallholders display their prices in Kilograms, and buy new metric scales into the bargain, zealous council officials at Kingston-on-Thames are forbidding them from shouting out the cost of pounds or ounces". Greengrocer David Knight". They seem to have banned the word pound from the market. The weights and measures officer came round and told us we're not allowed to shout out in pounds and even the customers aren't supposed to ask for a pound, apparently...I feel very sorry for our elderly customers who just can't get to grips with it" Greengrocer Paul Sainsbury: "The Trading Standards guy told me we were not allowed to call out in pounds any more...I have slipped up a few times and called out pounds as old habits die hard..." Trading Standards Officer David Booker said: "The old songs will have to change to make sense with the new system..." (Daily Mail 15/1/00)

Anti-metric campaigners are prepared to risk fines and even jail to defend Imperial measurements. Noted Euro-sceptic Dr Richard North set up a "Pound of Flesh" stall outside the Trago Mills store at Newton Abbot, Devon, where he sold apples, potatoes, English sprouts and fudge weighed in pounds and ounces. Receipts carried the address of trading standards officers, and customers were encouraged formally to report him as a scoreboard kept a running total of his offences. With a fine of up to £2,000 for each offence Dr North -- who was wearing a prison uniform -- was hoping to make a symbolic total of 2,000 sales and land himself with fines of up to £4 million. Bruce Robertson, 46, chairman of Trago Mills and the biggest retailer in the West Country, has already said he is prepared to go to jail to defend yards, feet and inches. Mr Robertson, who is also chairman of the British Weights and Measures Association, himself donned a prison uniform and helped on the stall. He said vast numbers of retailers were "incredulous" at being found on the wrong side of the law. "What happens next will depend on how quickly we can get ourselves into court," he said. "There is a growing consensus amongst the most eminent constitutional barristers in the country that the law is ultra viresl and if it is a court will have to acquit. (PA News 16/1/00)

Update on Cerne Abbas Stores : Trading Standards Dorset County Council issued the following Advice note to Andrew Farrow:- "RE 1. Weights & Measures Act 1985 2. Food Safety Act 1990. Please be advised that:- 1 'Loose' sales of products by weight are now required to be made over a metric scale. The Loin 22lb x 1/8 scale currently in use no longer complies with the requirements of the Weights & Measures Act 1985 and shall be converted to indicate in metric terms or taken out if trade use. Also price indications of 'loose' products should be given in metric terms. The equivalent price lb may also be give provided that the metric indication is the more prominent. 2 Please display the meat content of non pre-packed meat pies. Signed Alan Jones - Authorised Officer 01305 224134" ENDS (3/2/00)

More than two-thirds of the British public (67%) disagree with the law making metrication of shops and markets compulsory, according to a new survey. Only 16% support the legislation to any degree, and only 7% say they agree strongly, the study found. Women were particularly hostile, with 71% disagreeing with the law, and 52% strongly disagreeing. Only 12% of women agreed with it, and only 4% agreed strongly. There was a clear majority against compulsory metrication across all ages, even including the 15-24s (57% disagreed while only 17% agreed), and the 25-34s (65% disagreed, 16% agreed). People were asked, "This year, under the new metrication law, it became a criminal offence - punishable by a fine of up to 2,000 or even a possible prison term - for shopkeepers to measure out goods like fruit and vegetables in pounds and ounces. Do you agree with this law?" A spokesman for the British Weights & Measures Association (http://www.british-weights-and-measures-association.co.uk) said: "This survey confirms that the growing number of traders defying the new metrication law are simply giving their customers what they want." :: Some 1,015 adults aged 15-plus and selected to represent an accurate cross-section of the public were interviewed by BMRB International between January 14 and 16. (PA News 21/1/00)

The new year saw the demise of a number of common Italian words indicating measures, namely 'chilo', 'etto' (short for 'ettogrammo', 100g), and 'chilometro', to be replaced universally by 'kilogrammo', 'ettogrammo' and 'kilometro'. Strictly speaking, from now on people asking for 'un etto di prosciutto' could be prosecuted, though it's the everyday word, and I expect it will remain so. The ch- spelling is now illegal in all official and formal texts. The old measure 'quintale' (100k) also got the push. (Eurofaq posting 6/1/00)

TONY HOWARD runs a village store and petrol station in Withypool on Exmoor. The 1950s petrol pumps measure and dispense fuel only in gallons, although the equivalent litre price is given. To comply with the new law, he would need to install new metric pumps at a cost of about £10,000. Mr Howard, 31, says this is far beyond his means since he makes only a small profit from petrol sales, which are essentially a public service for the remote villages of Exmoor. However, if he wanted to stop selling petrol, it would still cost him nearly £9,000 to fill in the tanks under health and safety regulations. (Telegraph, 31 December 1999)

NASA is now reporting that the $125 million spacecraft that was destroyed on a mission to Mars "was probably doomed by the embarrassing failure to convert English units of measurement to metric ones." Apparently this resulted in a navigational error because acceleration data was calculated in pounds of force rather than newtons. (South Western Measurement Association 1/10/99)

A NEWBORN baby died after a "simple mathematical error" by a hospital doctor resulted in the administering of a massive overdose of a heart drug, an inquest was told yesterday. Dr Christian Slabbert was advised to prescribe 10 micrograms of the drug per kilogram of body weight for Benjamin Adams who weighed 7lbs 1oz. The baby had breathing problems. But in doing the calculation, involving translating imperial weight to metric, he miscalculated by a factor of 10, and a nurse gave Benjamin 320mg of the heart drug Digoxin instead of 32mg. The inquest, at Kidderminster, was told of the moment when the "terrible realisation" of the error dawned on Dr Slabbert and a colleague as they fought to save the baby's 13-hour life. (Telegraph 6/3/99)

In the directive on metrication 80/181/EEC, which is now EU law, all units of measurement are banned except those listed in the Annexe which "must be used for expressing quantities". With reference to indications of time, the Annex includes four units: the second, minute, hour and day. The Annex does NOT include the week, month, year, decade, century or millennium. These units of time are now illegal for "economic and public administrative purposes." Item written on Eurodate 729,851 AD

Pounds and inches would be able to continue in official use until 2010 under a Commission directive. This would extend the transitional period during which imperial and US units of measurement can be indicated alongside the metric system. European and American companies said that having a shorter period for switching to metric only labelling in the EU would have posed difficulties and added costs because of the need for different labels in the EU and US markets. (The Week in Europe 11 February 1999). The Commission refused grant a similar derogation for the use of imperial measures for loose foods. Probably because our government did not ask for one. From January 2000 it will be a criminal offence for traders to sell apples by the pound.-Ed.

AMERICA is rapidly abandoning metric weights and measures, having decided that people prefer the imperial system. Louisiana, Missouri and Illinois scrapped kilometres on road signs last Easter, bringing to 18 the states that have reverted to miles. Fairfax County, Virginia, yesterday reverted to feet and inches in building codes, dropping its rule that plans had to be submitted in metres and centimetres. Seaver Leslie, director of a lobby group called Americans for Customary Weight and Measurement, said: "It's a small victory, but a great victory. The latest attempt to impose this unnatural system on us has been a fizzle, a failure and an expensive flop." After spending at least $70 million (£46 million) on abandoning the old ways, it seems likely that all states will soon throw out the new. Congress tacitly removed the five words mandating the use of metric measures in federal contracts last year.(Daily Telegraph 30/6/99)

EC derogation to extend the use of dual metric/imperial units on packaged goods: The House of Commons Scrutiny Committee concluded, as follows: (4.14) "We appreciate that the proposal from the Commission applies to certain provisions only of the Directive. It is uncontroversial, but we note that the Government has not taken advantage of this amendment to attempt to negotiate a further extension of the derogation permitting the continued use of imperial units in the UK for purposes such as the sale of fruit and vegetables 'loose from bulk'. The issue has been considered by Parliament and debated on several occasions over the years, but the representation from the British Weights and Measures Association suggests that there is still opposition to this provision of the Directive. (4.15) We ask the Minister whether the Government considered seeking to negotiate an extension of the derogation concerned, to comment on the points made by the British Weights and Measures Association, and to tell us what steps it intends to take to raise public awareness before the legislation comes into force at the end of the year. (4.16) Meanwhile, we do not clear the document. (19^th Meeting, 12 May 1999 House of Commons EU Scrutiny Committee -Hansard). Later the Minister, who claimed that no derogation was necessary for loose goods, deliberately misled them so they approved the directive - Ed

Despite thirty years of government pressure on the population to think metric, a poll released yesterday found that most young people prefer shopping in pounds and ounces. When Britain adopts the European Union directive, shopkeepers will face up to six months imprisonment, or £5 000 fines if caught selling vegetables fruit or meat in these weights. (Guardian 1 April 1999)

The UK metrication order is a typical example of European law. Every system of measurement is forbidden except for a tightly defined set of metric units, and pints of beer and milk, or miles on road markings. For any other units of measurement to be legal, a law would have to be passed. (BWMA Conference March 1999)

The 1985 Weights & Measures Act gave lawful authority to the use of Metric AND Imperial weights and measures as co-existing systems. A European Union directive making metric the only authorised system was approved by the Council of Ministers in November 1989. Douglas Hurd, Lynda Chalker and Francis Maude of the Foreign Office represented the UK. They did not have the support of the Department of Trade. The directive was approved in Standing Committee in November 1994; it made the future use of imperial measures illegal. It was "nodded through" the House of Commons the next day by means of a Statutory Instrument. This SI used the 1972 European Communities Act as its authority. It is ultra vires because it is over-ridden by the 1985 Act. Compulsory metrication became law on the 1st October 1995. It is ultra vires because the 1985 Weights & Measures Act superseded all previous legislation in this area. Compulsory metrication is therefore illegal and any action taken by Trading Standards Officers must be resisted. It is significant that no proceedings against traders for infringing the Act, and there have been many, have ever gone to court. (BWMA Annual Conference, March 1999)

The below paragraph is taken from a European Parliament report by the German Social democrat Erika Mann. The report - and the paragraph - will most likely be adopted:

31. Remarks that the implementation of the Metric Directive 80/181 results in high costs for European businesses exporting to the US; calls, therefore, for an initiative with a view to encouraging the adoption of the metric system by the US. (Eurofaq posting 21/11/98)

In any event BWMA's view is that ultimately, any ban on supplementary indications is illegal because it violates Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights relating to freedom of expression. Put very simply, the EU may impose an obligation to use metric units, but it cannot also prohibit the expression of their equivalent in imperial terms. (Extract from a letter in European Voice 17/9/98)

A powerful lobby group in the United States headed by major electronics companies such as IBM and Hewlett Packard, is pressing for the EU to lift its ban on non-metric units on goods imported into the EU from outside. They have woken up to the fact that they were no longer be permitted to include non-metric measures on packaging or other material accompanying the products. It will cost US firms millions of pounds to rewrite labels, and inventories and instruction manuals in metric measures only. The best concession to Commission could offer was a possible amendment to the directive further extending the deregulation until 2010. But the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament must approve this, where powerful voices will be raised against any further concessions. (Sunday Telegraph 29 March 1998). The Commission hopes to issue an amendment to allow dual marking for at least ten years. It depends on the European parliament agreeing before the long recess for the next elections. (E Voice 16/7/98). Commissioner Bangeman is reported to favour only a three, or five, -year delay before outlawing dual metric and imperial marking. (European Voice 10/9/98)

The Trans Atlantic Business Dialogue Meeting Briefing Paper for the meeting on the 5-7 November 1998 states the following: Potentially exposed to increased costs from the metric-only labelling requirement is annual bilateral trade of more than $118 billion in consumer goods and $142 billion in capital goods. Compliance with the Directive will require companies engaged in US-EU trade to create separate packaging and labelling, manuals, product information inserts, software, design and engineering drawings, as well as maintain separate warehousing and inventory systems for metric and non-metric markets. Significant and unnecessary costs will be imposed on manufacturers on both sides of the Atlantic, for many exceeding tens of millions of dollars/ECU annually, that will have to be passed on to consumers. The additional costs could force some small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) out of the transatlantic marketplace or discourage their entry. The metric-only labelling requirement could significantly compromise packaging and waste reduction objectives in the EU. For some industries there are serious safety concerns. The elimination of inch-pound measurements in design and engineering drawings and instrumentation could compromise product integrity and safety.

Berry Bros. & Rudd is Britain's oldest wine and spirit merchant. For the last 15 years it has been striving to re-introduce something quintessentially British, the pint bottle of champagne. It is a most convenient size providing four glasses of wine. It was once part of life, like the pint of milk. A ruling by the EU now states that we are no longer allowed to have imperial pints, or 50cl bottles for fizzy wine. We are still allowed 50cl bottles for claret and sauternes. Veuve Clicquot have produced 50cl bottles but only for sale in Switzerland and Asia. (The Times 14/2/98)

Width restrictors on roads in London have been relabelled with metric units. The signs warn vehicles over 2.13 metres wide not to pass. They used to say the limit was 7 feet. Since the change several vans have collided with the width restrictors (Free Life Commentary 11/12/97)

A nation-wide opinion survey showed that 74% of the population prefer imperial quantities, including 82% of women. Only 7% want exclusively metric measures. (Sunday Telegraph 21/12/97) (Guardian 2/1/98)

It has been legal to use metric units since 1897 but now the Government has made it a law and order issue, metrication will become complete in the year 2,000. From then it will be a criminal offence to sell a pound of apples, or anything else (S Tele 24/7/94). Grocers face jail sentences if they sell unpacked food in pounds and ounces (S Times 26/2/95). ). Since October 1995 it is illegal to sell a pint of shandy, it must be called 568 millilitres. The penalty is six months in jail. Directive 89/617 outlaws imperial measures except for beer and cider, so you won't go to jail for selling a pint of beer. Mixed drinks have to be metric. (S Telegraph 27/11/94). As a compromise shops can mark goods in metric units as the "authorised unit" and Imperial as "unauthorised units" on the same label (Guardian 11/11/94). From 1999 it will be illegal to sell 3 1/2-inch floppy disks for computers except as 8.89-cm discs.

Wiltshire resident Andrew Heron appealed against the local council's refusal to allow him to build a conservatory. He submitted an appeal to the DoE. The officials threw out his appeal, not on planning grounds, but because he broke the EU law that bans Imperial measures, he had used acres The DoE refused to do the simple conversion themselves. (D Mail 13/3/95).

The EU Commissioner responsible for metrication said that the Directive makes no mention of using the criminal law for enforcement. UK officials added this. (BBC R 4 30/9/95).

In Germany pipes and taps are calibrated in inches but sellers do not face criminal proceedings (FT 5/10/95). In France imperial measures are popular. Units commonly used, without the threat of imprisonment, are : Knot (noeud) for speed of boats, Nautical mile (mille marin) Nautical league (lieue marine), Hand (paume) for the height of a horse. (BWMA The Yardstick March 1997)

Although it is customary to round a decimal 5 upwards the German Bundesbank rounds down numbers that end in 5. In order to resolve the dispute the European Monetary Institute has set up a consultative committee on the issue (Indy on Sunday 15/9/96)

The landlord of the Gladstone Arms in Peterborough refused to change his optics to new metric measures. Trading Standards Officers, following the Minister's advice to go easy on metrication defaulters, have confiscated the optics so the pub can no longer sell whisky and other spirits dispensed with optics. The landlord said "none of my punters gives a monkey's about Brussels". (S Telegraph 29/10/95). Cambridgeshire Trading Standards are now considering prosecution (Independent 19/2/96)

From 1 January 1997 horses must be measured in metric form. It will be illegal to measure them in hands and inches, even in brackets. Vet Ian Stretch has started a campaign against the rule called Hands Off Hands. (Horse & Hound 12/12/96). Dual metric/imperial marking of heights will be allowed from 1998 following pressure on the Joint Measurement Board of the British Equestrian Centre by Hands off Hands. (FT 4/11/97)

It is a criminal offence under the EU's metrication directives to sell Christmas trees in anything other than metric sizes. Offenders face a £5,000 fine. (Sunday Telegraph 12/1/96) DTI guidance says traders can describe their trees in imperial measures but must sell them in metric units (S Telegraph p15, 12/4/97)

Although road and railway signs are exempted from metrication, waterway signs have to be changed to metric units, to two places of decimals. On the Norfolk Broads 5,000 cruisers will have to have their speedometers recalibrated, or changed. On the Trent the speed limit is now 9.65 kph (5.99 mph) but when turning off at Meadow Lane Lock the limit is 6 kph (3.72 mph). (The Yardstick April 1997)

Since 1995 The Police Gazette has had to adopt metric units when describing wanted criminals. An offender previously described as 5' 10 and 14 stone has become 1.78 metres and 88.9 kilograms. Few understand these measurements. (The Yardstick April 1997)

Brewers are forbidden to use the gallon any more. But they can use barrels, kinderkins and firkins. These are termed established trade terms that can be used indefinitely. (The Yardstick April 1997)

A restricted road where the speed limit applies is one where the street lamps are 185 metres apart. (The Yardstick April 1997)

At Thorpe Park persons under 0.9 metres are admitted free.(The Yardstick April 1997)

Meccano is made to imperial standards in France, where they are not illegal...But how long before the import into Britain of Meccano to imperial standards is forbidden? It would be disastrous, for example, if the 5/32" Whitworth thread, which has no metric equivalent, was changed to the metric M4 thread, its closest approximation. These two threads are visually similar, but when a bolt of one is screwed into a nut of the other, both parts become irrevocably damaged. (The Yardstick March 1997)