Today's IoS has an article on the forthcoming Sunderland court case,
and how the BWMA has a number of high-profile 'celebrities' supporting
their cause.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/This_Britain/2001-01/bananas070101.shtml
Letters can be sent to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Celebs back grocer in court for selling bananas by the pound
>
> By Louise Jury
>
> 7 January 2001
>
> The signatories appear to have little to unite them
>other than a possible
> tendency towards bloody-mindedness and a gutsy
>determination. But
> one cause has brought together characters as diverse
>as Clive
> Anderson, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, JK (Harry Potter)
>Rowling and Antony
> Worrall Thompson.
>
> The naturalist Richard Mabey, actor Edward Fox and
>lyricist Sir Tim
> Rice have also taken up the cause, as have cricketer
>Ian Botham,
> astronomer Sir Patrick Moore, and writers Richard
>Ingrams, Keith
> Waterhouse and Jilly Cooper. And what they are
>agitated about are
> the rights and wrongs of selling a pound of bananas.
>
> They are part of a group of around 40 writers,
>sportsmen, actors and
> scientists who have agreed to become honorary
>members of the
> British Weights and Measures Association (BWMA),
>founded to
> defend imperial measurements.
>
> If that sounds archaic, their current dispute is
>very much an everyday
> one. The BWMA is leading the battle to defend Steve
>Thoburn, a
> greengrocer who appears at Sunderland magistrates'
>court next
> Monday facing the threat of a £5,000 fine and six
>months'
> imprisonment for selling fruit in pounds and ounces
>instead of kilos.
> Hundreds of members of the public have sent in
>donations for his
> defence fund. Up to 400 supporters will attend a
>fund-raising dinner in
> Sunderland this Saturday. Enough money has been
>raised to pay for
> the magistrates' proceedings but another £200,000
>will be needed if,
> as predicted, the case goes to the House of Lords.
>
> The hearing rests on whether the European directives
>that imposed
> the use of metric measures for the sale of loose
>goods are legal.
> (Metric has been used for packaged goods since
>1995.) Campaigners
> claim the case examines a fundamental point of law.
>Although the
> Lord Chancellor's Department was unable to comment
>yesterday,
> campaigners believe the case will, for the first
>time, test whether
> European regulations introduced in Britain through
>statutory
> instruments � secondary legislation � can supersede
>more recent
> primary British legislation.
>
> With an ICM poll last month finding 91 per cent of
>people opposed to
> the prosecution, Mr Thoburn's supporters believe
>that a decision
> against him could inflame anti-European sentiment
>just as the
> Government faces a general election. Clive Anderson,
>the barrister
> and broadcaster, said that although his support
>stemmed principally
> from a sense of nostalgia, the prosecution of Mr
>Thoburn seemed like
> "taking a sledgehammer to crack half a pound of
>nuts". He said: "I
> follow the logic that the metric system is a
>standardising thing, but
> have never understood why if you want to sell a
>package in a pound
> system you can't." Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the
>explorer, said he felt very
> strongly about the issue, particularly as European
>officials objected to
> the imperial system because it gave Britain a
>competitive advantage by
> being shared with the United States. "You don't need
>to start doing
> this in a forceful fashion. You could let this part
>of the EU gradually
> phase itself out of the imperial system," he said.
>
> Robin Page, the former presenter of One Man and His
>Dog, said: "I
> think it's a huge infringement of civil liberties.
>It's amazingly childish and
> pathetic that an official should be so small-minded
>as to prosecute a
> man for selling a pound of bananas.We are having
>every feature of
> our lives dominated by this undemocratic state of
>Europe."
>
> Neil Herron, 37, a Sunderland fishmonger and Mr
>Thoburn's friend and
> official spokesman, said they had ignored the rules
>when they were
> first introduced because "a businessman had to
>honour the wishes of
> his customers". "It isn't the responsibility of
>shopkeepers to educate
> the public. In 16 years, nobody has ever asked me
>for a kilo of fish."
> They were not opposed to the metric system, he said.
>"If some
> businesses find that metric is better for them then
>all well and good.
> But the criminalisation of ordinary hard-working
>traders because of a
> rule from Brussels is wrong. We feel like Davids and
>Goliaths. The
> people we're fighting have as much money as they
>need from the
> public purse."
>
> Vivian Linacre, director of the BWMA, said the last
>Act of Parliament
> consolidating English law on weights and measures
>was introduced in
> 1985. That authorised the use of metric and imperial
>measures on an
> equal footing. "Mere regulations enforced in
>compliance with EC
> directives cannot overturn an Act of Parliament," he
>said.
--
Chris KEENAN
UK Metrication: http://www.metric.org.uk/
UK Correspondent, US Metric Association
