Saturday, 9th January 2010

Steve Thoburn, Metric Martyr

The British Weights and Measures Association welcomed, on the 31st December, an announcement that Britain would be able to keep some of its imperial units. In  a press release they said :

British Weights & Measures Association - Press Release 
   (Immediate)
Traditional Christmas Present - for 2010
The Government is on New Year's Day repealing regulations which
would have meant that Christmas 2009 was the last time it was legal
to show the weight of a turkey in pounds and ounces. Now, from
1 Jan 2010 and next Christmas and forever, shops and producers
can still lawfully tell you that you are buying a 15lb turkey, a
five-foot Christmas tree, or a pound of Brussels sprouts.  And you
can still watch the Queen on your new 42-inch plasma TV screens.

Technical info: Amending regulations are statutory instruments 3045 and 3046, 
which omit from the Weights and Measures Act 1985 the expiry date of
31 December 2009 for non-metric supplementary indications.

Actually, the government announcement crowed about their “success” in Europe in getting the agreement. Lord Grayson, Science And Innovation minister, said :"As we enter a new decade it's good to know that traditional imperial measurements like the pint and mile will remain”.

What a bunch of spinning hypocrites! They pursued Steve Thoburn ruthlessly through the courts for selling bananas by the pound from his Sunderland market stall. Steve died at 39 from the stress of the persecution. They would happily have consigned every imperial unit to the dustbin of history if they could. It was only massive public opposition, led by Neil Herron of the Metric Martyrs campaign, and an eventual statement from the EU itself that they didn’t intend the directive to go so far, that the government eventually backed down.

Is spinning in their DNA ?

Metric Martyrs : http://www.metricmartyrs.co.uk/

BWMA Contacts :
Telephone: John Gardner, Director British Weights & Measures Association,

07986 007994; Warwick Cairns Research Director  07711 873 740;
e-mail: Michael Plumbe, BWMA Chairman,  M.Plumbe@BTInternet.com
Post: BWMA, 11 Greensleeves Ave., Broadstone, Dorset BH18 8BJ

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