Metric Martyrs

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The Metric Martyrs are a group of British food sellers and anti-metrication campaigners in the United Kingdom.

The pressure group was formed when several soon to be members were fined for several offences, including not displaying metric signage as well as Imperial, and for using illegal weighing machines. In Thoburn v Sunderland City Council they fought the fines in a two-year court battle (2000-2002) which they ultimately lost, on the grounds that British law does not prohibit the use of imperial units when selling loose goods, but metric units must be displayed simultaneously.

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[edit] Defendants

Steve Thoburn, the main defendant in the case, was convicted of two offences under the Weights and Measures Act of using weighing equipment that was not stamped by a Weights and Measures Inspector[1]. The stamps had been obliterated because the scales were not capable of weighing in the metric system as well as Imperial, and hence were no longer permitted for commercial use. Thoburn died of a heart attack in 2004.

Colin Hunt was convicted of six offences under the Price Marking Order 1999 of failing to display a unit price per kilogram. In addition, he was convicted of four offences under the Prices Act 1974 of delivering a lesser quantity of goods than corresponded with the price charged.

John Dove and Julian Harman, were both convicted of two offences under the Price Marking Order 1999 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 was not convicted of any criminal offence. He appealed to the magistrates court to have laws on his street trading licence removed. These laws, which all traders are subject to, required him to label his goods in metric quantities with imperial quantities allowed only as optional, and less prominent, supplementary units .

[edit] Pardon campaign

Current (since 2001) EU weights and measures legislation requires the use of metric units for grocery goods, but continues to permit the use of dual-labeling of goods in both metric and non-metric units until the end of 2009. It also provides an exception that permits the exclusive use of imperial units for draft beer, cider, bottled milk and road signs in the United Kingdom and Ireland, without any fixed deadline.[1] In 2007, the European Commission announced that it plans to postpone the 2009 deadline indefinitely, primarily due to concerns that phasing out dual labeling would create a trade barrier with the United States, where dual labeling is still required.[2]

In response to UK media reports that misrepresented the EU's announcement as an end to the existing requirement for metric labeling of grocery goods, the Metric Martyrs have asked for a posthumous pardon for Steve Thoburn, who passed away after having his last appeal to the EU denied.[2] However the pardon was denied, on the grounds that an offence was clearly committed under the law which was in force at the time. The 2007 EU announcement anyway was not about a change to existing (as of 2001) legal requirements; on the contrary, it merely abandoned plans for a future change of the law in 2009, thereby making the rules that the Metric Martyrs violated permanent. Moreover, the Office for Criminal Justice Reform pointed out that even if the law were to be changed, there would still be no case for a pardon "as citizens are expected to comply with the law as it is at the time".[3]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Council directive of 20 December 1979 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to units of measurement (80/181/EEC), including amendments up to 2001.
  2. ^ Your pint safe in EU hands, press release by EU Vice-President Günter Verheugen, Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry, 11 September 2007

[edit] External links

[edit] Pro-metrication groups online

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