Finally, today's article has appeared on-site: >Metric sign points to double standard > > WHAT a comical outfit Sunderland city council is > becoming. Having spent �55,000 of taxpayers' money on > prosecuting the greengrocer Steve Thoburn for the crime > of selling a pound of bananas, it now turns out that they > themselves have been breaking the EU metric laws in all > directions. > > At least when they erected a sign saying "700 metres" to > their own fish quay they admitted last week that this was > an offence against the Road Traffic Signs Regulations > 1994 (which lay down that all traffic signs must continue > to be posted in miles and yards) and agreed to replace it; > although this did not prevent a Labour councillor > protesting that the money needed for a new sign would > have been better spent on "improving road safety", unlike > presumably the �55,000 spent on prosecuting Mr > Thoburn. > > In fact Neil Herron, who runs the Metric Martyrs defence > fund, has now discovered two more signs breaking the > law in Sunderland, by referring to kilometres. But more > interestingly, when one of Mr Herron's staff last week > bought cod fillets for a local nursing home at the council's > fish quay, he was again given a receipt, under the city > treasurer's logo, for "one and a half stones of cod fillet". > > In other words, the council itself is perfectly happy to > commit precisely the same criminal offence for which it > took Mr Thoburn to court, But then no one is in a position > to prosecute them, so that's all right.
