----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, 2001-03-20 05:10 Subject: [ukma] Lords' motion: report in Scotsman Government faces Lords defeat over metric rules Jon Hibbs Political Editor MINISTERS are braced for an unprecedented defeat in the Lords over metrication tonight that could plunge the government into a constitutional clash with Europe. Tory peers are secretly mobilising their forces to throw out controversial regulations that would finally scrap the use of pounds, ounces and other imperial weights and measures in the UK by the end of the decade. The rebel peers are bent on defying the Westminster convention that the Upper House should nod through regulations already passed by the House of Commons to implement a European Union directive. If the revolt is successful, the government will find itself accused of breaking EU law and could find itself in the embarrassing position of being taken to the European Court of Justice. This is because an elected government cannot use the Parliament Act to get secondary legislation rejected by the Lords on to the statute book, as it can with primary Bills. The potential crisis has come about because of the new mood of restlessness in the Lords following Labour�s decision to press ahead with the abolition of voting rights for hereditary peers. Tory peers believe this has absolved them from observing the traditional practice of automatically accepting statutory instruments, such as the weights and measures regulations approved by the Commons last week. These seek to bring the UK into line with the rest of Europe by preventing traders from selling loose goods like fruit and vegetables in pounds and ounces by 2009, thus forcing them to use only metric measurements. >From January last year it became a criminal offence to sell loose goods in imperial units. It is under this law that Steven Thoburn, the market trader from Sunderland who was dubbed the "metric martyr", is being prosecuted. However, traders are temporarily allowed to use dual sets of scales as long as imperial units are only "supplementary" to the metric measurements. When this exemption expires in 2009 it will be illegal to sell any goods in pounds and ounces, although some imperial measurements will remain, such as the use of milk in returnable pint bottles, and the mile and acre. One Tory said the rebels were pulling out all the stops to get the rules defeated. He said: "This is the best chance we have had to overturn a statutory instrument." However, Kim Howells, the consumer affairs minister, claimed last week that the Tories were only opposing the regulations because they were frightened of losing seats to candidates from the UK Independence Party.
