I'll say one thing!! If nothing else, Neil Herron deserves a medal for trying!!
In today's 'Echo Letters' in the Sunderland Echo, he responds to a letter sent in by a Mr Don Collin!! Strangely, he starts off with a refreshing bit of honesty, stating that: "Steve Thoburn was charged with using scales which did not bear an official stamp, upon which a bunch of bananas was weighed by reference to the imperial pound (following a test purchase by undercover officer Lynda Hodgson)." "The stamps had been removed by a Trading Standards Officer, Mr Fallon, on a previous visit." "The stamps were removed because it is an offence to use imperial measures for trade." Well, whatever happened to the line that Thoburn was prosecuted for selling a pound of bananas?? He goes on to accuse councillor Colin Anderson of saying it was alright to use imperial measures and that this is wrong; and this would be true if that is what councillor Anderson actually said!! He did NOT say it was alright to use imperial measures, in fact, he quite rightly pointed out that the original prosecution was for using illegal scales!! What councillor Anderson actually said was that it was alright to SELL imperial measures, i,e, the exact metric equivalent!! If it was illegal to sell a pound, why are Mr Herron and Mr Thoburn allowed to display, supplementary to metric, prices in pounds and ounces?? Or indeed, why does the legislation clearly state that a customer can ask for a pound and the trader may weigh out the metric equivalent?? Mr Herron is again playing with semantics!! Is a pound no longer a pound when it is weighed out on a metric scale?? The customer can now and possibly always will be able to ask for a pound and receive the metric equivalent of a pound!! The legislation is chiefly concerned with the trader, not the customer!! In another attempt to bend the truth, he states that it is an offence to use dual-purpose scales in the imperial mode!! As he well knows, this isn't quite the case!! It only becomes an offence if said scales are left too long DISPLAYING the imperial mode!! The man could have used these, weighed out on scales graduated in ounces and, as long as they were not left in the imperial mode for too long, he would have been able to weigh on an imperial scale and STILL stay within the law!! He then goes on to his oft-repeated line that a set of metric scales were in the shop and that if someone requested an item in metric, he would have weighed them on those instead!! I could be wrong, but I find it hard to believe that Mr Thoburn would have taken the trouble to walk over to another scale, switch it on to especially serve certain individuals!! I just find it hard to believe that's going to happen!! Why should a customer have to request the use of a different set of scales in any case?? If Mr Thoburn, as he repeatedly claims, has NO problem with metric, then why didn't he use a perfectly legal metric scale to give the customer what he requires and stay within the law?? He complains that the law has been imposed on them by force!! Excuse me, but hasn't all weights and measures legislation been imposed by force to some degree?? Regards, Steve. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
