(USMA 19946). "Despite all this, the government recently promulgated a Regulation which will make it a crime even to mention pounds and ounces in British shops after 31 December 2009"
What balderdash! Never has anybody been prosecuted for *mentioning* illegal units in a shop and it will never happen! "But apart from those two exceptions, all British road and pedestrian signs, even those on private land to which the public have access, must be in British units only - under the Road Traffic Regulations 1994." They talk about 'illegal' metric signs. In the first place, why does a country that has signed the Metric Convention and is a member of the BIPM outlaw metric units for any purpose? Such a country may not be acting against the letter of the Convention, but surely it acts against the spirit of this treaty. And why don't such people campaign for the withdrawal from the Convention and the BIPM? The BWMA does not even care about this issue! If I were British or American and was against the metric system and I knew that my country was a member of the BIPM I would campaign for withdrawal! If these Road Traffic Regulations 1994 really ban the use of metric signs on private land to which the public has access, then expect sooner or later the first prosecution of a private person who dares to put up a sign saying that his or her B&B etc, is 500 m up that small road! At present the BWMA, UKIP, etc. are forcing authorities to remove metric signs. Their next step might well be forcing the authorities and the legal system to prosecute private people who have put up metric signs. In that case, they will be shown as the hypocrites they are. I have seen several private metric signs in Britain; all these persons may find themselves in front of a magistrate one day. And of course, these shining knights of human rights, freedom of speech etc. will either be deafeningly silent or scream out in delight when a citizen, as distinct from a trader, is fined 3000 pounds or jailed for 6 months for putting up a metric sign. Never has any private person in a metric country (democracies and dictatorships) been prosecuted for using illegal units. Han Historian of Dutch Metrication, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
