B R I T I S H
W E I G H T S
&
M E A S U R E S
ASSOCIATION
PRESS RELEASE
3 April 2000 Immediate release
METRIC CHAOS LIFELINE
The government's metrication drive is in chaos. When Brussels told the government to stop Britons using traditional imperial measurements for trade it made a mess of the law. It is unenforceable.
38,000 traders have failed to scrap their imperial weighing machines and buy expensive metric ones, much to the delight of their customers.
No local authority has dared to prosecute any of these metric rebels. Councils complain that they get no support from the Department of Trade & Industry.
Weighing machine suppliers, who were conned into stocking up with metric machines, have big unsold stocks. They have complained to the DTI but have had the brush-off.
Now David Lidington, MP for Aylesbury, has tabled a Bill, to be debated on the 5 April under the "ten-minute rule", that can get the government off the hook. His motion says:
"That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make the use of Imperial Weights and Measures no longer subject to proceedings for a criminal offence."
If the government supports this Bill then the vast majority of consumers will applaud and this shameful episode will be ended.
Mr Vivian Linacre, Director of the British Weights & Measures Association says, "This whole scam could have been avoided if the government had acted on popular opinion. It knew metrication would be rejected as a hated foreign imposition."
For further information CONTACT: Mr Vivian Linacre, BWMA Director 45 Montgomery Street, Edinburgh EH7 5JX (Tel. & FAX: 0131 556 6080)
Press release distributed by David Delaney, BWMA Hon Public Relations Officer, Mortimers Cross Mill, Leominster, HR6 9PE, (Tel: 01568 708 820, FAX 01568 708 765, e-mail dtdelaney@compuserve.com).
Return to Initial Page: INITIAL PAGE