10 February 1999

The European Commission has grudgingly allowed dual metric/imperial marking on labels for a further ten years.

This announcement gave the impression that imperial measures generally had won a reprieve until 2009. Nothing could be further from the truth. This concession is simply to avoid disrupting trans-Atlantic trade; the Americans are never going to go metric.

From the 1^st January next, less than ten months from now, it will still be a criminal offence, comparable to assaulting a police officer, to sell apples by the pound, or hamburgers as quarter pounders.

Despite the overwhelming desire of the majority of the population to keep their traditional imperial measures Brussels has decreed them to be unlawful for use in Britain. The British government has ignored the wishes of the people and connived with the Brussels dictat. Thousands of shopkeepers who heard the announcement about dual marking gained the impression that they would not, after all, have to spend millions of pounds on new weighing machines. They have been sadly misled.

The British Weights and Measures Association campaigns for choice in measuring systems. It says that metric and imperial weights and measures should be allowed to co-exist side by side. The British Weights & Measures Association calls on the UK government to abolish criminal penalties for trading in imperial measures.

For further information CONTACT: Mr Vivian Linacre, BWMA Director

(Tel. & FAX: 0131 556 6080) 45 Montgomery Street, Edinburgh EH7 5JX.

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