I understand what is being said but I really feel that "convictions" and
"offences" on people just for supplying information in ways that people are
used to sounds rather odd (and a bit scary) to me.
Saying "we always have had such laws" is not enough - not when everyone is
used to the system they know. That argument is fairer put when measuring of
items could cause fraudulent situations.
Take the metric/imperial argument out of the equation and I'm sure you'll at
least get close to seeing what I mean. If there were no such thing as
imperial then fair enough it would be a way to protect the consumer - but
seeing as imperial has been used (and continues to) before, as well as, and
despite metric then these rules appear to ban words rather than protect
customers.
I repeat - drop the imperial/metric argument and look at this situation with
fresh eyes and you might begin to see where I am coming from.
From: "Terry Simpson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Subject: [USMA:33309] Re: A Pound of Bananas
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 22:29:02 +0100
In order to keep within the law a trader has to be able to sell fruit and
vegetables to their customers by metric weight. But, for example, prices
can
still quite legally be displayed as a price per pound provided that the
price per metric unit of weight is also displayed with equal or greater
prominence. Where items are sold by number, not weight, then no metric
measurement is required.
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.
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.
