--- Pat Naughtin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >>I am perfectly happy to use the metric >>system, have no difficulties with it, >>but for many reasons prefer the imperial system >>as a measure of space, distance, weight and >>liquid, especially when I am buying >>provisions. You use yours, I'll use mine. >>But the government forbids mine with penal laws.
Thanks Pat for posting that. Unfortunately, I made a mistake and sent my reply to your personal email account. Peter Hitchens is a journalist for the Mail on Sunday. He is repeating a falsehood about the legal situation. He says that the imperial system is forbidden but that is not true. The metric system has been made compulsory, but the imperial system has not been forbidden. A = Imperial capability, B = Metric capability 'A' is legal: Therefore "A is an offence", "they were convicted for A" are false statements. Example of a false statements: "On February 18th, 2002, two judges dismissed an attempt by five Metric Martyrs to overturn their criminal convictions for using pounds and ounces." [it is not a crime to use pounds and ounces and therefore no such conviction took place] BWMA http://www.footrule.org/ Honorary member Peter Hitchens This falsehood was widely distributed: "We reported in February that Steve Thoburn, a greengrocer in the north of England, was to be prosecuted for selling a pound of bananas-a pound, not a kilogram." http://www.britannica.com/magazine/print?content_id=286921 'B' is compulsory: Therefore "no-B is an offence", "they were convicted for no-B" are true statements. Whether compulsory B is a good thing or a bad thing is another matter. Steve Thoburn was convicted of two offences of using weighing equipment that was not stamped by a Weights and Measures Inspector. The stamps had been obliterated because the scales were not capable of weighing in the metric system. [scales must now be capable of metric measurements requested by customers, previous approvals for imperial-only scales expired] Colin Hunt was convicted of six offences of failing to display a unit price per kilogram. In addition, he was convicted of four offences of delivering a lesser quantity of goods than corresponded with the price charged. John Dove was convicted of two offences of failing to display a unit price per kilogram and of two offences of using a scale that was only capable of weighing in the imperial system. Julian Harman was convicted of two offences of failing to display a unit price per kilogram and of two offences of using a scale that was only capable of weighing in the imperial system. Peter Collins appealed against conditions on his street trading licence. These conditions, in effect, required him to sell his goods in metric quantities but also permitted him to use imperial quantities as supplementary units. http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/cgi-bin/newsitem.cgi?file=pres0154.txt&area=pres __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Try FREE Yahoo! Mail - the world's greatest free email! http://mail.yahoo.com/
