I've just found the following on the Sunderland Echo's Web site (from
Dec 21):
METRIC FIGHT A 'PETTY DISPUTE' 'PETTY DISPUTE'
IS anyone else getting rather sick and tired of hearing about the
so-called "metric martyrs" Steve Thorburn and Neil Herron?
This "metric martyrs" farce is being portrayed as a fight against the
dark forces of the EU trying to usurp British democracy and the very
fabric of the British way of life, to which I must reply, for the want
of a more fitting Anglo-Saxon expletive, codswallop!
Restricting free movement from place to place challenges democracy, as
does denying free speech and peaceful protest. Denying stallholders
selling in imperial instead of metric most definitely does not.
This is a petty little dispute that has escalated out of all
proportion because of the intransigence of Sunderland City Council,
who have stuck to the letter of the law and prosecuted instead of
leaving it to the shopkeepers' discretion as other council's have. As
a result, we have every anti-EU organisation coming out of the
woodwork, jumping on this bandwagon and riding it for all it's worth.
I don't remember anyone picketing petrol stations when the pumps
changed from gallons to litres. Similarly, I don't recall anyone
waving placards outside shops and supermarkets when products were sold
in kilograms and millilitres rather than pounds or fluid ounces.
Stephen Davis,
Rye View,
Ryhope,
Sunderland.
Chris
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