The YardstickJournal of the British Weights and Measures Association

Number 15 ISSN 1361-7435 August 2001

PatronsLord Monson

Rt. Hon. Lord Shore, PCVice-Admiral Sir Louis Le Bailly, KBE, CB

Sir Patrick Moore, CBE

Honorary MembersPeter Alliss

Clive AndersonTrevor Bailey, CBEMichael Bany, OBEChristopher BookerIan Botham, OBE

Max Bygraves, OBEBeryl Cook, OBE

lilly CooperFred DibnahRoy Faiers

Sir Ranulph Fiennes, OBEEdward Fox

Dick Francis, CBEGeorge MacDonald Fraser, OBE

Sandy Gall, CBECandida Lycett Green

Simon HeiferPeter Hitchens

Sir Julian Hodge, KStG, KSIJJools Holland

Prof. Richard Holmes, CBERichard Ingrains

Dr lames Le FanuBernard Levin, CBE

lonathan LynnDr Richard MabeyLeo McKern, AO

Norris McWhirter, CBEChristopher Martin-lenkins

Robin PageR W F Poole, MBE

Sir Tim RiceAndrew Roberts

I K Rowling, OBEDavid Shepherd, MBE

Dr Charles H Sisson, CH, DLittFritz Spiegl

Quinlan TenyF S Trueman, OBE

Keith Waterhouse, CBESir Rowland Whitehead, BtAntony Worrall Thompson

BWMA records with gratitude the honorarymembaship of the late John Aspinall

Nirad Chaudhuri CBE & Jennifer Paterson

ContentsAttacking from Four Quarters 2AGM and Conference 3More ‘Metric Martyrs’ 4Canada in the real world 4The United States too 5The End of the US Metric Road 6The Thoburn case 6Spreading the gospel 10The BWMA handbook 11The new brooch or tie-pin 11Opinion Polls 11Press Releases 12General Election 14More body language 14More on metric signage 14‘Guard the Yard’ 15Seeing Sense 16Free Spirit 17Metrication madness 17‘The Oldie’ 18Gold stars 18All Done with Mirrors 19142 years ago 20Merchandise 20

Attacking from Four QuartersSince our last (April) issue, four events have occurred — fully reported in these pages — each of them a victory in the battle against compulsory metrication. The fight has now been carried to the enemy. If we can sustain — and, where possible, intensify — this offensive, we could celebrate a favourable outcome to the war within the next year or two.

The first event was the arrival of the written judgement following the Thoburn trial. This seems so flawed that the forthcoming Appeal looks more hopeful. Two defects in the judgement are readily apparent. One is the outrageous statement that “It would be difficult to have a common market with two ways of measuring mass”. That assertion is irrelevant and wrong. In establishing a single economy, a common system of weights and measures is a low priority. The highest priority is surely a common currency, yet Britain has not yet decided to adopt the euro. Several other national currencies will also flourish within the EU — as well as the highly valued US dollar and Swiss franc — even after the euro goes solo next year. Furthermore, the EU recognises eleven different languages for internal use. So to declare that a monopoly in methods of measuring mass is a prerequisite of a common market is ludicrous. This obvious bias must render Mr Thoburn’s conviction unsafe.

The other defect was the judge’s insistence, on the one hand, that in consequence of the European Communities Act 1972 the UK ceased to exist as a legal entity and therefore EU regulations take precedence even over UK primary legislation, yet on the other hand that Parliament could restore legitimacy to imperial measures simply by repealing that Act. But that is self-contradictory: for if Parliament is free to repeal the Act then it must still be sovereign, in which case repealing the Act is unnecessary! Conversely, if the UK legislature is subordinate, then it has no power to free itself from the superior legislature! Either way he’s talking nonsense.

The second event is the Peter Collins case at Sutton, following on the independent national opinion poll which provided conclusive proof of the public’s very poor understanding of metric units — even in the youngest age group — and overwhelming preference for imperial. Yet the Council’s only justification for revoking Mr Collins’ street trader’s licence is that metric conversion is an essential requirement of “fair trading” and “consumer protection”! What madness! His Appeal is in progress as we go to press.

The third event is the appointment of Neil Herron as full-time Executive Director of the Metric Martyrs Fund, which has evolved from the Steven Thoburn (Metric Martyr) Fund, in order to monitor cases and co-ordinate defences nationally, stimulate public support and media interest, and appeal for donations world-wide. Independent Trustees administer the Fund and Elaine Page is the first of several celebrities to be named as Patrons. With Neil Herron working permanently from the Fund’s new office (do McKenzie Bell, Mr Thoburn’s Solicitors in Sunderland), collabo-ration with BWMA will be even closer and the whole campaign given a huge boost.

The fourth event is Tony Bennett’s promotion of direct action against illegal metric-only road signs throughout the country. Typical of his spectacularly effective campaign is a letter to

Islington’ s Director of Highways advising that “17 illegal metric road signs in the City Road/Old Street areas of the Borough have now been removed by a local ‘Signswatch’ team” and adding that “as your authority has incurred expenditure on these road signs which was ultra vires, we have notified the District Auditor and asked him to investigate.” Likewise, a letter to the responsible Project Manager of a civil engineering contractor advised that “A total of 54 signs.. .on some 15 separate roads have now been dismantled by the Kent Signs- watch group and placed in safe custody. As the signs are illegal, you will clearly have no need of them.” When officialdom is in the wrong, it has no answer to such audacity! To join Tony’s vigilantes, you can reach him by telephone on 01279 635789 or by e-mail at ajsbennett@hotmail.com.

In his address to our Annual Conference — also reported in this issue — Sir Patrick Moore urged that we should concentrate on exposing metrication to ridicule. For many years, defenders of the imperial system had to withstand the ridicule of the metricators, but now we have wrested that powerful weapon from their grasp and can use it against them. That is a sure sign of success.

AGM and Conference

The new venue, the Quality Hotel in Brighton, proved a success with Members and guests on Saturday 19 May, for the 6111 AGM and Conference. The views of Members — whether they attended or not — concerning the merits or demerits of this location and choice of venue for 2002 would be welcomed.

The Chairman, Bruce Robertson, opened proceedings at 11.00 a.m. The Minutes of the AGM were taken as read, since a full report had been published in the September issue (No.12) of The Yardstick. A full financial statement was circulated and presented by the Hon. Treasurer, Fabian Olins. This showed (briefly) an increased income from £9,068.00 for 1999-2000 to £13,924.00 for 2000-2001 and increased expenditure from £7,348.00 for 1999-2000 to £10,518.00 for 2000-2001, producing an increased excess of income over expenditure from £1,720.00 to £3,406.00. These figures reflect a growth in BWMA’s activities generally. It was emphasized again that office-bearers give all their time freely and bear their own — in some cases very heavy — expenses on (e.g.) travel and telephone. Fabian stressed, moreover, that these healthy figures were distorted by one exceptionally large donation. Furthermore, our finances remain fragile, despite appearances, because of the ever-growing difficulty (and administrative cost, most of which falls on the office-bearers concerned) of chasing subscription renewals.

(Members are earnestly requested to renew their subscriptions without the need for issuing reminders. It’s only £10.00 a year and all that’s needed is a glance at last year’s bank statements to see when it’s due! Trawling through records and producing reminders, which then have to be inserted in the individual copies of the appropriate number of The Yardstick, is a terrible waste of Committee Members’ time and energy.)

The balance sheet showed a credit balance of £6,650.00, which is highly satisfactory, but it was pointed out that BWMA is now embarking on the most intensive phase of its long campaign, incurring heavier outlays on press releases, opinion polls, publications, etc., and more direct involvement with government and trade bodies as well as the media. Fabian also attached a separate ‘Metric Martyrs’ account, showing income of £19,064.00 plus unbanked receipts of £530.00, totalling £19,594.00, from which £12,307.00 had already been given to Steven

Thoburn’s solicitors, leaving £7,287.00 still held in reserve for contribution towards the defence costs in other forthcoming cases. It was emphasised that, in addition, many cheques had been (and were still being) received, made out to ‘Thoburn Appeal Fund’ — or similar — which were simply forwarded in batches to Neil Herron for payment into the central Steven Thoburn (Metric Martyr) Defence Fund, details of which are given elsewhere in this issue. Members and their friends are urged in future, please, to make donations directly into that fund.

John Gardner presented a review of the campaigns which he had been master-minding: principally two — one to expose ‘product shrinkage’ or ‘down-sizing’ and the other to combat illegal metric road signs. These initiatives are proving highly effective — i.e. both in achieving actual results and attracting valuable publicity.

The Chairman then presented a general review of the year’s activities and a lively discussion ensured from the floor. Then followed the election of office- bearers. After four years’ inspiring service, Bruce Robertson retired as Chairman. He will always remain a dedicated and active supporter, but was reluctantly obliged to relinquish office in order to devote all his efforts to running Trago Mills, which is a very big business that, located in the far South-West, had suf-fered severely from the effects of the foot-and-mouth epidemic and consequent collapse of tourism. He also needed to spend more time with his family and on other commitments in the region. Tributes were paid to Bruce from all sides for his immense contribution to the cause. Publicly, his Chairmanship had greatly enhanced the status and influence of BWMA, while, domestically, he had made the organisation far more efficient and harmonious. The meeting was reminded that he was the very first recipient of the ‘Inch Perfect’ Award, and that, for his flagrant defiance of metrication, he should have been the first ‘Metric Martyr’, but, of course, because his company is a major employer in a depressed part of the country, it could never be prosecuted!

Michael Plumbe was unanimously elected as the new Chairman. The following were re-elected: Vivian Linacre (Director), John Gardner (Research & Retail Liaison Officer), David Delaney (Press & Publicity), Fabian Olins (Treasurer), Robert Carnaghan (Editor & Membership), Robert Stevens (Assistant Editor & Publications) and Bill Peters (Hon. Members). The additional Committee Members were re-elected en bloc: Graham Bostock, Sheila Eustace, Professor Flew, Simon Hooton, Derek Norman and Philip Pitt and Pamela Shaw-Hesketh.

The afternoon Conference was hugely enjoyable and informative. What value for money: Sir Patrick Moore, Christopher Booker, Michael Shrimpton and Neil Herron — all for a flyer! It was a great honour and joy to have Sir Patrick with us. He gave a rousing speech, calling on traders everywhere to defy metrication and on the BWMA and the public generally to defeat these stupid regulations by the sheer force of ridicule. Christopher Booker gave us a unique insider’s history of metrication — an informal and updated version of the account given in his book A Castle of Lies. Michael Shrimpton, while impressing upon us that he was speaking off the record and that he could not comment on any current cases, conducted a wide-ranging review of the issues — with special regard to the grounds for the forthcoming Appeal in the Thoburn case, which is of course the test case — and with frequent inimitably Shrimptonian digressions into maritime and aviation accidents and the lunacies of EU regulations. (These main grounds of Appeal are incorporated in Vivian Linacre’s article in Freedom Today.) Neil Herron’s speech was, by turns, intensely moving — especially his tribute to Steve Thoburn — and hilarious, particularly his brilliant impersonation of a BBC radio racing commentator, shouting all the measurements — not in miles and furlongs, lengths, necks and short heads — but in their metric equivalents. His review of forthcoming prosecutions perfectly complemented the Shrimpton discourse.

As reported elsewhere in this issue, Bill Peters presented BWMA’s Annual Awards and Vivian Linacre launched the new handbook. The Conference closed, after tea, at 5.30.

More ‘Metric Martyrs’

Events on the judicial front are unfolding so rapidly that it is impossible, as we go to press, to give an accurate, up to date, account of current proceedings. BWMA does put out press releases regularly, as does Neil Herron on behalf of the ‘Metric Martyrs’. We all have to be careful, naturally, not to breach the sub judice rules.

Following a Pre-Trial Hearing in the joint cases of the two Camelford traders prosecuted by Cornwall County Council, Messrs Harman (fruiterer and greengrocer) and Dove (fishmonger), at which they were represented by Michael Shrimpton accompanied by Neil Herron, the trial date was fixed for 17 August.

The case of Colin Hunt from Hackney was tried at Bow Court on 20 June. He was convicted but granted a conditional discharge, although the prosecution’s costs of £4,500 were awarded against him. Naturally, notice of Appeal will be duly served. Again, he was represented by Michael Shrimpton with Neil Herron in attendance. The Evening Standard quoted from Colin Hunt’s defiant speech in Court, and Christopher Booker reported on the trial in The Sunday Telegraph on 24 June.

The case of Peter Collins, who is appealing against the London Borough of Sutton’s decision to revoke his street-trader’s licence on the grounds that he had not converted to metric units, will be heard over three days from 9-11 July, after this issue has gone to press. His barrister is Quintin Richards — this being a civil rather than a criminal case — although essentially it is the same legal conflict.

BWMA is closely involved with the victims and their legal advisers throughout.

Canada in the real world

One Antonio Iafolla launched a vitriolic tirade via the Internet (marco@sympatico.com) on 21 December against our system of customary measures and opponents of metrication in general and, in particular, the article, So Canada is now metric? which was published in our issue No. 10 and supplemented in No. 12. His main thrust was that Canada is virtually metricated while we are all stuck in some primeval swamp! But he had met more than his match in Sam Malin (sam.malin@usa.net), who had supplied much of the material for our original article, and who posted a masterly reply on the 23rd in the form of a letter to “Dear Antonio”. It is so definitive and entertaining as to warrant (much abridged) reproduction for the benefit of all our readers.

“Let’s walk together from my apartment on Burdett Avenue in Victoria. As we leave the drive we pass the 5mph sign on the left. Ah, there’s the entrance to the Law Court’s parking lot: “Max Height 6’7 (1.98m)” is marked. I offer you a coke ‘on tap’ at the Macs: 8oz or l2oz or l6oz? Shall we drop into Safeway — you show me lots of metric packaging — often with exact equivalents of Canadian units: e.g. 568ml, 454g. But then I draw your attention to the Lucerne butter in a

plastic container labelled 1 lb. And I drag a reluctant you to the loose fruits and vegetables where, like everywhere else in Canada, they are priced and sold in pounds and ounces — with kg /g sometimes indicated.

You are pretty upset and say “Let’s take the ferry to Vancouver to get away from these ‘imperial’ units. You notice that the distances to the ferry terminal and intermediate towns are given in miles as well as km. At the terminal, the boards stating the fares restrict vehicles to 20 ft in length (no metric equivalent). On the other side, driving to Vancouver, we pass some small farms for sale — 25 acres, 45 acres, but no hectares. In Vancouver, large roadside notices placed by the city concerning rezoning, give dimensions in feet only. Signs advertising office space and apartments quote feet only. We cross Vancouver to take the Skyride up Grouse Mountain: the new information board at the bottom states that the vertical climb is 4,500 ft—only.

Let’s go and have lunch with my friend Blair, an architect. Inevitably measurement comes up. You are fishing for an ally. I almost feel sorry for you as Blair says that on occasions that he gets metric plans he translates them into Imperial, so the carpenters and other builders can make use of them. It’s a lot easier as lumber is sold in — dare I say it? Yes, I will! — IMPERIAL (Sorry, Antonio)! Let’s go fishing: we can compare the weight of catch with everybody else fishing — all the talk is in pounds and ounces. Shall we go diving at Deep Cove? Even the up-to-date internet site gives all the depths in fathoms.

Antonio, I could go on and on. The point is that Imperial is our culture, our language, our system. Metric has been forced on Canadians against even the will of the engineering profession. It has gained some currency where the government has a measurement monopoly — e.g. speed limits. Wherever people have a choice they stay with imperial. I know, Antonio, that word bothers you. The British Empire has long gone, but the word came about because the measurements are those as standardised throughout the Empire. However, the Weights and Measures Act does not use the term ‘imperial’ (though it is commonly used by ordinary Canadians) but prefers the term ‘Canadian’. I imagine you know that a Memorandum to that Act in 1985 froze metrication in Canada.

The next few paragraphs are based on the ‘freedom2measure’ web-site.

Accuracy Where a metric unit exists alongside a standard Canadian equivalent, neither one nor the other is more accurate.. .The Space shuttle program runs with customary units as does every Boeing coming off the assembly line today. Too American? O.K., as does every Bombardier aircraft coming off the assembly line today.

Decimals and fractions Decimals and fractions are not mutually exclusive: they are both useful and available for use. If something is 0.197 inches long, many may prefer to write 0.197 rather than 197/1000. Conversely, many may prefer to write 1/3 (or say one third) than 0.33333... The Canadian system remains decimal friendly; but the fact that 12 and 16 can be more easily divided into convenient fractions is more fraction friendly than the metric system.

The base 10 myth The fact that metric units are base ten has virtually no relevance either to day-to-day life or to scientific and engineering manipulation. This is because conversion between units of the same dimension (e.g. centimetres to kilometres) is rarely necessary or useful. If you are working in a unit, say miles or kilometres, you stay with that unit. So if a distance is 121% miles you do not also think that it is 213,400 yards any more than you bear in mind that

121.25km is also 121,250m. If Canadian units are so complicated, how did our parents and grandparents and their ancestors manage when they did not even have calculators? Now we have powerful technical mathematical tools — calculators, computers, etc — none of which, interestingly enough, use base 10! This is because 10 can be divided by so few other numbers. So computers use the binary system — which is so compatible with the basis of customary measures.

Temperature We do not convert between different scales of units of temperature. Thus, base ten enters the Centigrade /Celsius system only in that there are 10 x 10 degrees between the freezing and boiling points of water. But Celsius is not part of the metric system: the metric scale for temperature is kelvin, and within the Systeme International water freezes at 273.16K. Different countries using metric units show preferences for different — often non-S.I. — units. For example, in France, agricultural production is often measured not in kilograms or grams but in “qx” — metric quintals! Our traditional units, standardised by international agreement in 1959, are more stable than metric units.

The writer Perhaps, Antonio, you think I’m some out-of-touch old artsy guy. So I better let you know that I’m in my thirties and a geophysical engineer who has lived in various countries around the world. Unsurprisingly, I’m fully capable of working in the metric system. In fact, I’m probably more at home with a wider variety of metric units than most people who have used the metric system since birth. I am not against voluntary use of the metric system. I accept that in certain scientific and engineering realms it is widely used. However, I am not comfortable with it, least of all in my everyday life. And I take exception to the suggestion that Canada is happily and anywhere near fully metricated.

The United States tooJohn “Johnny English” Ciambrano (as his name appears on his business card) wrote from Philadelphia on 9 April: “Enclosed is a photograph from our cheese shop in Philadelphia’s Italian Market, which shows only a small selection of the many cheeses we carry from the British Isles. St George’s Cross is proudly perched atop a small tower of Nottinghamshire Stilton and flaps in the draught whenever a patron opens the door. You can make out, as well, that all of the sign-pins stuck in the cheeses are of course solely in Imperial. Our three scales, as well as every scale of every greengrocer, butcher and fishmonger in the Market only use Imperial measurements. What is more, our extensive line of imported groceries all use Imperial first and in some cases only Imperial, even if there is almost no English on the label to indicate what it is!

For example, Bauli’s panettone from Lombardia has six languages on the box translating the ingredients, but next to the Italian tricolor near the bottom is displayed ‘Net Weight 35.3 oz (2 lb 3.3 oz)’ then below that ‘Poids Net 1000g’. All Delverde pasta from Abbruzzo package their products as ‘16 oz (1 lb — 453g)’; and the Toschi company from Italy have no English on the label of their Regina Al Brandy except ‘Net Contents 15.2 fl.oz’ and ‘ Net Weight 9.2 oz’, with no metric afterthought whatsoever.... I delight every day using the measurement system with which I was raised. It pains me to hear of the Eurobolshevism being inflicted upon Britain and I will do anything I can to stop it coming here...

Once a year I come across an enthusiast chirping about how wonderful metric is as it’s based on units of ten, global unity, and other twaddle. But I win over any onlookers as metric has little relevance and is a nuisance when trying to convert from the Imperial we already know. Luckily

the Highway Code only uses the Imperial and the kilometres on the speedometer of my 1988 Buick (probably for Canadians) are so small that I couldn’t read them if I wanted to.

Enclosed as well for your enjoyment is a catalogue from the Bloomingdale’s department store, whose flagship is in Lexington Avenue, New York City. A mad orgy of fine china, kitchen appliances, cookery utensils, perfumes, clothing, furniture, linens, etc, Bloomingdale’s — and other large and small stores — uses nothing but Imperial to sell its wares. I cannot see the country going metric at this rate! Keep up the good fight on your side. Unfortunately, there is no press whatsoever in the mainstream about this nonsense going on in the UK, but don’t believe any porkies about the States metricating!”

The End of the US Metric Road

To clarify the position for future reference — and to rebut false propaganda from UK and EU authorities — the facts are that The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials used to run a ‘Metrication Clearinghouse’ whose stated mission was “to facilitate the adoption of the metric system by highways agencies”. It ceased operation on 31 December 1998.

The Federal Highway Administration Metric Conversion Plan had been approved by the Department of Trade Secretary in October 1991. This Plan proposed a five-year transitional timetable with complete conversion by September 1996. The mandatory conversion date was first delayed and then removed altogether on 9 June 1998 by the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. (States each have flexibility now, to choose if and when to implement metric conversion, although the FHA itself continues meantime to use SI units in its own daily activities.) Consequently, the sections of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, which had mandated every Federal Agency — some nineteen principal agencies, of which Highways is only one — to implement metric usage in its procurement, design specification and accounting, became redundant.

Avery Berkel Salter, which enjoys a near monopoly in the production of weighing machines in Britain, was recently acquired by the US giant Weigh-Tronix, based in Providence, Rhode Island, which on 30 May announced its results for the year’s fourth quarter, ended 31 March. The Report included the following statement: “Within the Rest of the World division, the retail-weighing sector, particularly in the UK, softened significantly compared to the prior year. Increasing opposition to the weighing machine metrication conversion program in the UK further dampened sales in the second half.” What a shame!

Continuing the USA theme, wasn’t it wonderful that Buzz Aldrin, the astronaut, was flown in to London for the Bafta Awards, in order to present a Special Award to our Patron, Sir Patrick Moore? Particularly gratifying was the reminder that, for the Moon landings, NASA had used Patrick Moore’s maps — with every dimension shown, of course, in miles and yards.

As an irresistible footnote, here is a quotation from a film review in The Spectator of 26 May. “These days, no matter how sheltered a life you lead, chances are you’re familiar with the basics of the drug trade from even the most casual acquaintance with motion pictures: the Ziploc bags with white powder, exotically weighed by kilo, the only metrically-measured product on the US market...” How appropriate, that the only metrically-measured product on the US market is something so evil!

The Thoburn case

Among the numerous editorial articles that appeared in the world’s press condemning the Sunderland judgement, three were so perceptive and eloquent as to merit reproduction here for general interest and future reference. The first was a leading article in The Daily Telegraph on 10th April, headed “Bananas -

“The conviction of Steven Thoburn for selling bananas by the pound is outrageous on so many levels that it is difficult to know where criticism should begin. Leave aside, for a moment, the matter of why a new system of measures is being imposed on consumers who have never asked for it. Disregard the fact that a decision of this magnitude should have been properly debated in Parliament, not slipped through as secondary legislation. Forget the question of whether Sunderland City Council could not have found a better use than this for its council tax-payers’ money. Ignore, if you can, the issue of what any of this has to do with Brussels.

Clear all these things from your mind, and focus instead on the sheer nastiness of what is going on. An otherwise honest man now faces a criminal record for no worse offence than continuing to offer his customers a service that they want. What on earth could Sunderland’s councillors have been thinking of when they authorised this prosecution? The authorities have revealed that peculiar blend of cowardice and viciousness that sometimes characterises municipal Britain in its dealings with the little man. Had the council lost, it would have expected the DTI and other local authorities to contribute towards its costs. Having won, it refuses to rule out claiming huge costs against a lone market trader: a statement yesterday spoke ominously of not serving a cost order “at this stage.”

We hope that Mr Thoburn will indeed challenge the decision, and that the many Daily Telegraph readers who have supported him financially will continue to do so. For yesterday’s judgement marks a defeat for Britain — not just in the literal sense of confirming the supremacy of EU law over domestic law, but also in the wider sense of striking at the values of freedom and fair play on which our own justice system has always rested. The gradual continentalisation of our legal system is also infecting our attitude to government. There was a time when a case such as this would never have been brought: it would have been seen as an unthinkable infringement of liberty. That it should have been carried through to a conviction says nothing good about us as a nation.”

The second (abridged here) was a feature article, headed “A Pound of Flesh — Not an ounce of sense”, in the leading New York newspaper, The Wall Street Journal on 11th April:

“For most Britons, the case of the “Metric Martyr” pits petty legalism against common-sense. Here they have the highest crime rate in Europe, and their police are busy nabbing a fruiterer for selling bananas by the pound. Britons are just as pugnaciously attached to the pound-weight as they are to the pound-sterling — a currency whose original value derived from a pound of silver. And this decision seems another pushy, culturally insensitive imposition on British daily life from clinical Continental bureaucrats. Yet those British Luddites are not being merely sentimental. Quantity, size and fair value for money have an objective and subjective aspect; they rely not only on scientifically calibrated scales but also, if you will, on feel. According to a survey of 1,000 customers of the British grocery giant Tesco last year, 90% of consumers still “think” in

pounds and ounces. Thus most British shoppers mentally translate ‘one kilo’ into ‘2.2 pounds’, a quantity that however awkward is still more meaningful. But while dual labelling remains com-mon in supermarkets, as of 2009 putting imperial measurements anywhere on the label will be against the law.

You can force new measurements onto packages, but you cannot force them into the way people think. The U.S., for example, has tried repeatedly to install the metric system, starting with Thomas Jefferson, then smitten with all things French. But after spending some $70 million on the latest push toward metric in the 1990s, most states are turning back the clock. Kilometers are dropping from road signs, metres and centimetres from building codes. The U.S. Federal Highways Administration’s plan to spend $100 million on interstate-highway signs has been scrapped after widespread interest. Current federal legislation mandates additional inch-pound labelling for metric imports, so America’s European trading partners might think twice about that metric-only labelling in 2009.

What truly matters about units of measurement is that we understand the amounts and distances to which they correspond. If you have a good feel for the size of an ounce without doing any calculations, it doesn’t matter that dividing a pound by sixteen is inconvenient. As Mr Thoburn despaired on his arrest: “I shout my prices around the market. It would sound ridiculous if I started shouting about grams and kilos. Folks know what they’re getting when you talk pounds and ounces.” Mr Thoburn’s customers know that 25 pence per pound for bananas — about 37 U.S. cents — is a good price. Isn’t that the point?”

The third was Richard Northedge’s column in Sunday Business on l5th April. “Steve Thoburn’s big mistake was not that he sold his bananas in pounds rather than in kilos — it was that he did it in Southwick market in Sunderland, rather than in one of the City’s many markets. The EU metricators’ writ may rule in every British superstore and fruit-and-veg market, but it is completely ignored in the markets of the City.

If Thoburn popped into the International Petroleum Exchange near Tower Bridge, he could buy a barrel of oil — each barrel containing exactly 36 imperial gallons. Petrol may be in litres when it comes out of the pump, but it is definitely in gallons when it comes out of the ground. And if he drove over to the London Metal Exchange in Leadenhall Street, he could buy some silver. But it will be sold in troy ounces — each ounce comprising 12 pennyweights (not eurocentweights) and each pennyweight comprising 24 grains. Or, back by Tower Bridge, Thoburn can buy or sell natural gas futures — trading in therms, even though metric-minded scientists have abandoned them in favour of joules. As every schoolboy knows, a therm equals 100,000 British Thermal Units. Note that, Brussels: they are British thermal units.

So will the flat-footed Sunderland trading standards officers descend on the imperial City and prosecute London’s wicked market traders? I suspect not: the markets in the Square Mile are too large an example of commerce to be made an example of — and it is still the Square Mile. Anyway, it would also be necessary to charge the Bank of England for auctioning our gold in ounces. If only Thoburn had been selling Brent crude or sterling silver from his market stall instead of Granny Smiths and King Edwards, he might have avoided his criminal record.”

There was also a nice strip cartoon, illustrating a dialogue between a solicitor and a barrister who are clutching papers marked ‘Metric Banana Trial’. The former says, “This trial’s a bit of a

sledgehammer to smash a nut”, to which the latter replies, “Society must have a constant standard of weights and measures. Enforcing the law is worth every guinea of our fee.”

The BBC, as usual, did its very best to ignore the whole issue. As Steve Tamblin pointed out, the 10 p.m. national news on the night of the judgement mentioned it in a single line, seven stories up; News- night didn’t mention it at all; C4 news at 7 p.m. treated it flippantly; and the next morning’s edition of Today on Radio 4 gave it five minutes out of two hours, “talking to Steve Thoburn and Neil Herron in the same way that Esther Rantzen’s That’s Life once dealt with ferret racing or naked hang-gliding and other such eccentric British rural habits.” (One of the metric es-tablishment’s favourite tricks, forever played by the BBC, is to treat young people’s alleged incomprehension of the imperial system as a virtue but older people’s difficulties with the metric system as sheer stupidity. Political correctness and ‘progressive’ education regard ignorance of customary measures as something to boast about, but ignorance of the metric system as something to be pitied. One of Steven Thoburn’s most valuable characteristics as an imperial hero, is that, at only 38 years of age, he cannot be dismissed as an old fuddy-duddy!)

A marvellous article by the renowned anthropologist Desmond Morris appeared in The Times on 4 May. It was headed “How customs are excised by the EU” and opened: “The current buzzword among conservationists is ‘biodiversity’. But what about cultural diversity? Who is protecting local customs?” It ended: “The idea that an honest English grocer is being treated as a criminal because Brussels will not allow him to mark up his produce in pounds, rather than in some vile metric units, has been enough to turn me against the European Union. I am now forced to re ject it totally, seeing it only as a great idea that has been reduced to homogenising folly by a bunch of ignorant, freeloading Eurocrats.” Has anybody ever put it better? This is no xenophobe but a world-famous scientist who, as mentioned in the article, had visited 23 different countries in the first four months of this year. We must quote his powerful statement at every opportunity.

David Delaney had an article on the Thoburn judgement published in the April issue of The European Journal. He also had this letter published in the 19-25 April issue of European Voice — the influential English weekly newspaper, owned by The Economist, published in Brussels: “David Heathcoat-Amory wrote (Letters, 12-18 April) about how the political class is out of line with popular feeling by causing a greengrocer to be found guilty in a British court of selling bananas by the pound. The real significance of the trial was the statements by the judge about the UK’s loss of sovereignty. He said: “Parliament surrendered its sovereignty in 1972.. .the ancient principle, that where two laws are incompatible the later one is good, is no longer relevant.. . European Union laws have overriding force.. .the chapters on the supremacy of Parliament are now only of historical perspective, they are non-binding.” These comments, stated in a court of law, come as a deep shock to most Britons. In 1971 we were told by Prime Minister Edward Heath that “there was no question of any erosion of essential national sovereignty.” Some remember the 1975 referendum “Say Yes!” pamphlet issued by the Labour government of the day, sent to every home, which said: “Another anxiety expressed about Britain’s membership of the Common Market is that Parliament could lose its supremacy, and we would have to obey laws passed by non-elected ‘faceless bureaucrats’ sitting in their headquarters in Brussels.” The judge has lit the touch-paper — now stand back!”

Yet now Judge Morgan has stated that “it would destroy the concept of a union if member states could go off on legislative frolics on their own.” So that’s what a thousand years of democracy is reduced to — a ‘legislative frolic’! This directly contradicts the great Judge Megarry’s dictum. (in the case of Manuel v Manuel 1983 — i.e. ten years after the UK’s entry into the EU) that

“Parliament is omnipotent save in its ability to destroy its own omnipotence”. As a Mr D R Bourne said of the Sunderland magistrate, in a letter in The Daily Telegraph on 12 April, he “confirmed that he was sitting in what had previously been one of the Queen’s courts, where her law had previously been supreme, only to find that this was not the case. Here was Her Majesty’s judge acting on behalf of a foreign power under the false impression that it was an English court room adjudicating in accordance with a law, foreign in origin, thus breaking the Queen’s Coronation Oath.”

Furthermore, Mr Richard Sheringham’s letter in The Times on 11 April: “The right to buy and sell in our traditional weights and measures was described by a judge... as a “legislative frolic” that could destroy the concept of a European Union. What about the far more prolific legislative outpourings of the EU itself? These are often introduced by bureaucratic directive based on the most limited form of democracy as we understand it. District Judge Bruce Morgan appears to accept that they can be allowed to destroy the United Kingdom. “Frolic” is normally associated with ideas of cheerful merriment, but EU legislation lacks any such playfulness. Indeed, it penetrates, in a sinister manner, the nooks and crannies of our nation’s life and freedoms.”

Michael Plumbe, our Chairman, had this letter published in the same issue of The Tunes: “This is the first time a judge in England has specifically ruled that an Act of Parliament (The Weights and Measures Act 1985) must be disregarded in favour of EU regulations. Our Houses of Parliament might as well disband for all the power they have left.”

It was not only Prime Minister Edward Heath’s assurances that have now been given the lie by Judge Morgan — or, alternatively, that make a nonsense of his judgement. His co-signatory of the accession treaty was Geoffrey Rippon, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, who said in the House of Commons (Hansard, 15 February 1972, page 270): “The House as a whole may therefore be reassured that there is no question of this Bill making a thousand years of British law subservient to the Code Napoleon.” Furthermore, this was reinforced by the Lord Chancellor in Command 3301 on “The Constitutional Implications of British Membership of the EC” (1967): “There is no reason to think that the impact of Community law would weaken or destroy any of the basic rights and liberties of individuals under the law in the United Kingdom.” The Prime Minister later emphasised that: “It is important to realise that Community law is mainly concerned.. .with corporate bodies rather than private individuals. By far the greater part of our domestic law would remain unchanged. The constitutional rights and liberties of the individual such as habeas corpus and the presumption of innocence will, of course, not be affected, nor in any material sense will our criminal law.” Then, writing in support of the “Yes” campaign in the 1975 referendum, Roy Jenkins said: “The position of the Queen is not affected. English Common Law is not affected.” And the great Lord Denning, in a later judicial interpretation of the European Communities Act, declared that “the [EC] Treaty concerns only those matters that have a European element; that is to say, matters which affect people or property in the 9 [now 14] countries of the Common Market besides ourselves. The treaty does not touch any of the matters which concern solely the mainland of Britain and the people in it.”

So which is it: were the Prime Minister, and the Minister responsible for negotiating the treaty of accession, and the Lord Chancellor, Home Secretary and Lord Denning — as well as every other government spokesman in both the Heath and Wilson administrations — all liars, or is the prosecution’s argument, on which the Sunderland judgement was based, fatally flawed? We trust that the forthcoming Appeal against Steven Thoburn’s conviction proves that the latter is correct.

For as recently as 21 July 1993, the Speaker of the House of Commons issued this reminder to the Courts:

“There has, of course, been no amendment to the Bill of Rights.. .the House is entitled to expect that the Bill of Rights will be fully respected by all those appearing before the Courts.” And even more recently, in 1997, Lord Wilberforce declared in the House of Lords: “Perhaps I should remind noble Lords of what our essential civil rights, as guaranteed by common law, are: the presumption of innocence; the right to a fair hearing; no man to be obliged to testify against him-self; the rule against double jeopardy; no retrospective legislation; no legislation to be given effect contrary to international law...; freedom of expression and freedom of association … firmly secured already by the common law of this country, and not intended to be superseded or modified by new interstate obligations” [our emphasis].

While researching Hansard, we also came across the following passage (11 April 1989, page 842 — edited) from the debate on the EC directive, which Francis Maude, the junior Foreign Office Minister concerned, was piloting through Parliament. How ironic that the Tory spokesman responsible for introducing the metric regulations is now, as the Shadow Foreign Secretary, leading the opposition to all such EU domination, whereas the objections he had to overcome eleven years ago came mainly from Labour and Lib.Dem. leaders who are now unashamed Europhiles! In fairness, however, a few exceptions such as the leading Lib.Dem. Alan Beith (quoted here), have always attacked the metric tyranny.

“Mr Beith: Given that weighed-out loose goods, weighed out from bulk in front of the consumer, are not items which are traded across the Community, what possible reason can there be to require a small shop-keeper to refuse to serve a consumer 5 lb of potatoes or 1 lb of peas from bulk goods? What will happen to the shop-keeper or consumer if, after the set date, the customer asks for, and the shop-keeper serves, 5 lb of potatoes?

Mr Maude: [after much waffle] The consequence of this directive would be that at the appropriate time — which, if this proposal remains in the directive, would not need to be until the end of the century — we would have to amend our domestic legislation according to these proposals.

Mr Beith: What is the answer to my question?

Mr Maude: The hon. Gentleman may not be aware of the fact that it is possible now for the trading standards authorities to prosecute people now who sell goods in quantities and units which are not authorised under the legislation. There is nothing novel about that. [Interruption] Amendments have been made continually to the list of such authorised units over many years.

Mr Beith: Is the Minister seriously saying that he envisages that weights and measures inspectors will prosecute little old ladies for buying 5 lb of loose potatoes after 1999?

Mr Maude: It cannot be a criminal offence for the customer to buy goods in those circumstances. It would be, as it is now, a criminal offence for a trader to sell goods in units which are not authorised. . . [more waffle] If he is asking whether trading standards officers will do it, my answer is that it will be a matter for those officers. But I should be surprised if, on the day after these measures come into operation, trading standards officers will be stamping around the streets trying to find people selling goods in pounds and ounces. If the hon. Gentleman believes that is a

possibility, he has a lesser view than I do of the enforcement officers.” [Maybe he’s changed his mind since then!]

Patricia Nugent, one of our most active Members, wrote a letter on 9 April to the following MPs: Chris Mullen of Sunderland South, Bill Etherington of Sunderland North, Alan Campbell of Tynemouth, Stephen Byers of Tyneside North, Nick Brown of Newcastle East & Wallsend, Jim Cousins of Newcastle Central, Douglas Henderson of Newcastle North, Fraser Kemp of Houghton, Stephen Hepburn of Jarrow, David Clark of South Shields, and Joyce Quin of Gateshead, as well as her own MP, Graham Brady, asking each of them what (s)he intended to do to help Mr Thoburn. For good measure, she also sent suitably modified versions to Messrs Blair and Hague. Among the responses (mostly feeble) was this positive assurance from Graham Brady: “I am pleased that my party’s manifesto will pledge to do something about this appalling state of affairs.” Now that we have a new Parliament, will all Members please write to their local MPs now, asking what they will do to support the forthcoming Appeal?

John Gardner, with invaluable help once again from Brian Mooney, sent a letter to over 1,500 newspapers and other media on 19 April, explaining that the Sunderland judgement “is wholly unconstitutional” and is bound to be appealed; and inviting donations “payable to the Steven Thoburn (Metric Martyr) Defence Fund, to be sent to P0 Box 526, Sunderland SRI 3YS, or over the counter at any NatWest branch, quoting sort-code 55-61-11 and account number 36-457-469.” It also draws attention to additional information on his website: www.bwmaOnline.com. This letter has been published in dozens of newspapers from John O’Groats to Land’s End, and widely referred to elsewhere.

Spreading the gospel

One of the many welcome and highly relevant enquiries received on one of our other two websites, www.footru1e.org, was this from a Mr Thomas J Egan: “I am a US law student currently attending King’s College on an exchange program. I am working on a paper/presentation of the Thoburn case as an issue of Freedom of Expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and comparing it to the likely interpretation under the US Constitution, namely the First Amendment. I’ve very much enjoyed your web-site and found it an invaluable resource. I would very much appreciate any additional information...” We have responded suitably.

Dr Basil Purdue, Senior Lecturer and Consultant at the Forensic Medicine Unit of Edinburgh University’s Medical School, also wrote with congratulations on our web-sites. He pointed out that the first part of the human small intestine, the duodenum, gets its name from the Latin word for twelve, duodecum. He added that “There is a double link here, because the Romans very sensibly used human digit-based units that varied with the size of the patient. So the duodenum is so called because it is about twelve of its owner’s fingerbreadths in length. While I wouldn’t argue for variable units in any other context, it is important once again to acknowledge that the things we use ought to be measured in units that suit the human frame. The cm is not nearly as useful as the inch in that context, and where’s the foot-equivalent in the metric system? I know of no-one who routinely uses the decimetre (‘about four inches, about three of which make a foot’) — it’s a dead letter of a unit and that’s about the nearest they can get to that most useful of all human-sized units. This is the important point: the core of the argument is that we should base

what we do on the dimensions of our own bodies. Powers of ten don’t make for convenient application to the world we live in.”

He added: “The saddest aspect of the whole sorry business is that pressure from the government has become overwhelming at the very time when electronic calculators and computers have become readily available to enable people to convert their units at the touch of a button, and automatic scales give an illuminated read-out as the item being weighed sits on the scales. So the old objection to converting units longhand no longer holds.” [Although generations of elementary school-children managed easily enough!]

He concludes: “I am a pathologist, so I use the metric (SI) system for my technical reports, but I adhere to imperial measure for everyday use and always quote the height and weight of my patients in both systems. In that way, I can be understood in courts of law by jurors of all ages. As you say, the USA gets along quite happily with both systems. So why can’t we?”

Christopher Fildes in his Daily Telegraph ‘City and Suburban’ column was equally devastating: “I admit it. I am in the criminal habit of ordering Lancashire cheese by the pound. I just hope that my cheesemonger is not run in. I suppress his name, for I am at least an accomplice in this flagrant use of Imperial measurement, so we might finish up in the same cell, where we would expect to enjoy some superior food parcels... .In a free market, and for that mater in a free country, if I want to buy cheese by the pound and my cheesemonger sells it, that is our business and not the police’s. It is not from his benevolence, as Adam Smith so nearly said, that I expect my dinner — but... governments try to keep Smith and his principles out of the food market, preferring to regulate it, direct it, manipulate it and police it. I am for bringing his principles back.”

The summer (June) number of The Salisbury Review includes a long article by Vivian Linacre entitled “Sundown over Sunderland”. The whole of this number, indeed, is of great interest to most BWMA Members, other major articles being by Frederick Forsyth, Sir Richard Body and Dr Richard North. (Enquiries for copies to: 0207 226 7791) Vivian published another long article in the July-August number of Freedom Today, entitled “Appeal Pending compulsory metrication, and the EU itself, in the Balance”. Photocopies are available upon request (for one of each, please send 2 x 27p stamps)

Our invaluable Honorary Member, the great countryman, journalist and author R W F Poole, devoted his page in the 10 May edition of Horse & Hound to an imaginary discussion on metrication in his village pub. This was mostly an entertaining and highly effective recycling of material from both our ‘product shrinkage’ campaign and Warwick Cairns’ article in our issue No. 14 on “How to submit a planning application in British measures (and not have it sent back to you!)”.

The BWMA handbook

Review copies of “A Guide to customary weights and measures” had been released prior to its launch at the Brighton Conference. Among the immediate responses was this letter from Richard Sharp, a Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford: “I have read it from cover to cover. It has reminded me of much and taught me more. Congratulations on a splendid achievement. The essential argument is not just that our ancient Imperial measurements are Brit-

ish, but that they are truly universal. We refute the metric system not because it is ‘foreign’, but because it offends all our instincts. Like its begetter, Revolutionary France, it demonstrates how the perverse exaltation of merely human reason impoverishes us all, supremely by depriving us of ‘the means of grace and the hope of glory’. Like Revolutionary France, again, we see it today as the instrument of infidelity, bureaucracy and tyranny. It is this that our souls revolt against: indeed, metrification can best be seen as just one aspect — though a central one — of the whole post- Enlightenment, rational-Utilitarian, debasement of Western European life.”

Here are some notable views:

George MacDonald Fraser: “Congratulations and many thanks for your excellent book — an invaluable work of reference and a splendid counterblast to the Continental fabrication.”

Sir Tim Rice: “it is an extremely useful and fascinating book.”

Fritz Spiegl: “Splendid stuff! All good wishes and renewed congratulations.”

Sir John Hoskyns (Prime Minister Thatcher’s first Head of the Downing Street Policy Unit and former Director-General of the Institute of Directors): “... thank you so much for sending me that fascinating book. I have dipped into it already and immediately found it difficult to put down and get on with the other things I have to do!”

John Ciambrano from Philadelphia, USA (see ‘The United States too’ on page 6), wrote: “What a marvel of history and common sense!” He went on: “Having never been educated in metric and never having a need for it in my catering studies at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, I would be honoured to be of service in the most noble endeavour of propagating the importance of imperial measures here in the States... Our new arrival of house-blend olive oil from Sicily is advertised and promoted in 17oz and 33oz bottles!”

The book has already been favourably mentioned in the press and praised in Freedom Today, This England and The European Journal and will be the subject of an editorial article in the September number of The Salisbury Review. Copies of the book are available from Edinburgh at prices (incl. postage) of £7 for 1 copy, £18 for 3, £30 for 6 and £48 for 12 copies: cheques payable to Vivian Linacre, please.

The new brooch or tie-pin

Thanks to José O’Ware’s enterprise. BWMA now has its own brooch or lapel badge or tie-pin. Attractively designed in gold-coloured metal with black edging and lettering — the message reads “BWMA LET’S CHOOSE OUR OWN RULERS” - it has a pin-fastening protected by a swivel catch and measures 1¾ inches long by 3/8ths of an inch wide. It is available at a price, including postage, of only £2.00 or three for £5.00 (cheque or loose stamps to that value or over), from our Chairman, Michael Plumbe, at: 6 Swan Terrace, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 3HT.

Opinion Polls

‘YouGov.com’, the political research organisation in Westminster, conducted its own survey on 29 March. The question was, very simply: “Would you rather use metric or imperial weights?” The answers were: 35% prefer metric, 64% prefer imperial and 1% undecided.

The Evening Standard in London asked readers: “Should shop-keepers be allowed to use pounds and ounces?” The answers were, dramatically: 90% YES and 10% NO. What is so startling about this overwhelming result is that the same newspaper carried a blatantly pro-metric article a few days earlier!

An opinion poll conducted by ICM for The Ecologist Magazine (edited by Zac Goldsmith) was published on 30 May, showing that: 75% of the British public say they would support shop-keepers who continue to sell goods in pounds and ounces in defiance of the law; 70% believe it is up to shop-keepers and their customers to decide whether to measure their goods in metric or imperial; 74% tend to think in pounds and ounces rather than kilos and grams. The full results of the survey were published in the magazine’s July issue.

An independent, nationwide opinion poll was organised by Warwick Cairns of AMVBBDO, the leading firm of advertising agents, and conducted by 1CM Research Ltd. who interviewed a random selection of 1,000 adults aged 18 upwards, by telephone between 8 and 10 June, asking them the following two questions:

Q. 1. How would you describe your understanding of the weight of goods like vegetables and meat, in kilos? Either: (a) I find it easy to think of weight in kilos; or (b) I have some understanding of kilos but I need to convert the weight to pounds and ounces to make sense of it; or (c) I don’t understand kilos. I only think in pounds.

Q.2. If you bought a bag of regular eating apples weighing one kilo, roughly how many apples would you expect to get in it?

The answers prove conclusively that (Q.1.) the vast majority of people are happier with weights in pounds than in kilos, including most of even the youngest age group — contrary to the incessant propaganda from the authorities — and that (Q.2.) generally the public have a poor perception of metric weights and consequently are vulnerable to deception, such as the ‘down-sizing’ or ‘product shrinkage’ as exposed in John Gardner’s reports.

In answer to Q.l., overall, only 29% answered (a), 38% answered (b) and 32% answered (c). So less than 30% of the population find it easy to think of weight in kilos, nearly 40% have to convert to imperial to make sense of prices and almost one third of the total don’t understand kilos at all. What an indictment of the whole policy of compulsory metrication! (Of course, the nearly 40% in category (b) must assume that they do know how to calculate the mental conversion accurately, which is not necessarily the case. Indeed, the answers to Q.2. below suggest that many will get it wrong.)

The oldest age group (65+) is worst affected, of course. Only 15% are happy with kilos, 39% have to convert and no fewer than 44% don’t understand kilos at all. Thanks to a “caring, compassionate Government”!

Even among the youngest age group (18 — 24), all of them metrically educated, only 43% find kilos easy, while 25% have to convert into imperial and — perhaps the most astonishing figure of all – 28% think in pounds and don’t really understand kilos! So more than half don’t understand kilos at all or have to convert into pounds in order to make sense of them. This once and for all gives the lie to the official argument that the young are fully metricated and no longer understand imperial. BWMA will certainly be giving these results maximum publicity.

Q.2. revealed a general lack of perception as to the quantity represented by a kilo. 17% of people thought that it would contain 4 apples or less, 30% 5 or 6, 28% 7 to 9, 8% 10 to 15, 2% 16 or more, while as many as

15% simply didn’t know — i.e. couldn’t even guess. A range of over 10 times — anything from only I or 2 to 20 apples in a kilo! This proves that the introduction of metric measures has caused general confusion. After 35 years of metric education and government pressure on business and industry to adopt metric measures, the people remain unconverted.

Perhaps the most startling differences in understanding of metric arise from the socio-economic and regional analyses. At either end of the metric-comprehension spectrum sit two geo-demographic extremes. At one end are the Northern working class, who are almost exclusively non-metric, with only 18% claiming confidence in dealing with kilos and almost 60% admitting to no understanding of kilos at all. No wonder Steve Thoburn enjoyed such strong local support. At the other end are the Metropolitan Elite — the up- market urban classes of the South-East — the sort of people who think that manual labour has something to do with natural childbirth. Here the figures are almost reversed, with only 15% admitting to no understanding of kilos and 51% boasting familiarity with metric usage. Yet, even here, it is significant that they represent only a bare majority. Nevertheless, this contrast goes some way to explaining the amused condescension shown by the political classes and most of the media towards what they see as the laughably pro-vincial and Little Englandism of the anti-metric campaign — and the marked difference in the coverage of the Thoburn case between that of papers like the London Evening Standard and those like the Sunderland Echo.

Press Releases

Thanks to David Delaney, BWMA has sent out five more press releases in recent months.

One arose from an independent national opinion poll, again commissioned by AMV BBDO and conducted by ICM Research Ltd, based on the question: “Thinking about TV and radio weather forecasts, which of the following kinds of descriptions of weather do you prefer — rainfall, wind-speed and visibility in inches, mph and yards or in mm/cm, kph and metres?” 74% of those expressing a preference said that they wanted imperial. Women feel even more strongly, with 78% preferring imperial. Virtually all range ranges prefer imperial. Even the youngest, the metric-educated age group (18-24) is finely balanced, with 48% preferring imperial. Of the 25-34 age group — also mainly metric-educated — no fewer than 64% prefer imperial. This evidence contradicts the BBC’s ludicrous assertion that ‘The majority of people under 40 years old do not understand imperial measurements’.

The real reason for the BBC’s arrogant attitude is revealed in a remark by Jonathan Amos of BBC News Online: “We are now in the bosom of Brussels”. This gives the lie to the assurance given by Sir Christopher Bland who, as BBC Chairman wrote to BWMA: “We are not in the business

of imposing anything on the public.” It is high time the BBC and weather forecasters in general took notice of what the public wants, renewing priority to our traditional measures. David subsequently wrote to the head of weather forecasting at each TV channel, impressing the results of this opinion poll upon them.

Another BWMA press release — headed “Imperial Finale, or the abolition of history” read: ‘Taliban are condemned for destroying their history, dynamiting ancient statues. Our government, at the bidding of the European Commission, is just as guilty. On 14 March, parliament had the chance to debate the final and total annihilation of the last vestiges of our popular, traditional and customary system of measures. The Weights and Measures (Metrication Amendments) Regulations — Statutory Instrument no. 2001/85 — makes it a criminal offence even to mention imperial measurements in trade, public health, safety and administration, after the year 2009. No helpful information may be given to the shopper, patient, or public servant, except in metric quantities.

The consequences of a society criminalised for using familiar weights and measures must extend beyond market stalls, retail outlets and the market place generally. Educationally and culturally, society is intended to convert to metric, inducing a national amnesia about traditional measurements. This will make an outcast of our historical archives that very largely consist of references to imperial measures. A researching public, ranging from academies to householders consulting records — title deeds and registers, charters, maps and house plans, etc. — will be confronted increasingly by information that has become illegal and of which they will have little or no knowledge or awareness. One of the most effective ways of subjugating a people is to destroy its sense of identity and one of the most effective ways of doing that is by cutting it off from its history.

The government had refused to make any application to the European Commission for permission to extend indefinitely our right merely to continue using imperial units for supplementary indications — aIongside but subordinate to the primary metric units. In the Commons debate, the Trade Minister Dr Kim Howells jeered at the Opposition, accusing them of objecting only because they were afraid of losing their seats — thereby demonstrating the government’s contempt for public opinion!’

Yet another press release was headed “Incitement to Crime — local authority incites tourist centres to break the law”. It read: ‘The Sedgemoor District Council’s leaflet entitled Design Guide to Directional Advertising specifies metric distances on tourist signs. Under the 1994 Traffic Regulations and General Directions it is unlawful to display signs that do not show distances in miles or yards. This applies to both road traffic signs and pavement signs for pedestrians. So, while Sedgemoor District Council is inciting owners of tourist attractions to use illegal metric road-signs, Sunderland City Council has prosecuted a greengrocer for using allegedly illegal imperial measures when selling bananas. This is typical of the hypocrisy of local authorities in regard to our popular traditional system of measures. Once again, the authorities have slipped on their own banana skin. The council tax payers of Sedgemoor should bring a private prosecution of their own Council for inciting criminal offences.”

(Vicki Gardner visited the Sedgemoor Council Offices, saw a stack of these leaflets on the public counter and scooped up the lot, informing the astonished staff that she was about to bin them because it was an illegal publication.. She says that “the look on their faces was delicious!”)

Following our Conference in Brighton on 19 May, David Delaney issued a press release on “The BWMA Annual Awards”. Here is the text. “The BWMA’s ‘Metrickery’ Award goes to the person or organisation which has done the most to promote metrication against the consumer’s interest. This year it goes to the [so-called] Consumers’ Association for craven adherence to metrication against the wishes of the great majority of the population. The BWMA has repeatedly pleaded with the Consumers’ Association to support preservation of the law — from 1897 until 1995 — that allowed freedom of choice between imperial and metric. Now the European Directives make it illegal to sell goods in customary measures. BWMA pointed out that 91% of consumers were against the prosecution of ‘metric martyrs’; and also informed the CA about the colossal swindle of ‘downsizing’ (shrinkage of weight on metric conversion of food products) which has cost consumers £3bn a year through hidden price rises. But the response from the CA is always the they “will not take a stance on this matter.” An abject failure to express the very reason for its whole existence!

The ‘Inch Perfect’ Award is presented to the person or organisation in recognition of outstanding resistance to compulsory metrication. This year it goes to José O’Ware, the celebrated Enfield retailer of curtains and blinds, for sticking implacably to dealing in imperial measures for her customers despite the most appalling threats from Trading Standards Officers.”

Then on 4 June David Delaney issued a press release headed “Sunderland ‘Metric Martyr’ judgement prejudiced and incompetent”, attacking the “outrageous abuse of judicial authority” by Judge Morgan in expressing the gratuitous, erroneous and irrelevant personal opinion (on which we could not comment earlier because printed copies of his judgement had only just been released) that “it would be difficult to have a common market with two ways of measuring mass”, which “clearly betrays a prejudice and thereby invalidates his judgement.”

General Election

Matthew Parris reported in The Times on 16 May that, during a walk-about in the street-markets of Camberwell and Peckham, Charles Kennedy, leader of the Europhile Lib Dems, asked a fruit-seller, “displaying his wares in imperial measures: ‘Good business today? Could I have some bananas?’ The fellow cut a bunch. ‘Our bus is called Big Banana, you know’, remarked Kennedy. The fruit-seller handed him his bunch, wordlessly.” [If only his party were liberal or democratic, they would support our cause!]

All change at No. 1 Victoria Street! The revolving doors at the HQ of the DTI have spun yet again. Out go Secretary of State Stephen Byers, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Competition Policy & Consumer Affairs) Dr Kim Howells and Mrs Barbara Roche (Small Businesses) and in come, respectively, Ms Patricia Hewitt (Leicester West), Ms Melanie Johnson (Welwyn Hatfield) and Nigel Griffiths (Edinburgh South).

More body language

The Times reported on 29 May: “In one of the silliest legal disputes to hit even the San Fransisco area, two conceptual artists are feuding over who first came up with the idea to make thousands of bras into a ball. In one corner is Emily Duffy, 43, with her 3½ft bra ball that weighs 650lb and

consists of 5,850 bras. In the other is Ron Nicolino, 61, whose 5ft ball weighs in at 1,200lb and uses 14,000 bras.”

The journal of the Scottish ‘gay’ community recently carried this enlightened though unexpected announcement: “ScotsGay is supporting the campaign to retain traditional weights and measures and will not be printing any Metric units in our personal advertisements. As we shall be rounding down to the nearest inch (in the case of linear measurement) and up to the nearest stone (in the case of weight), advertisers may find it in their own interests to submit only in Imperial measure.” Bravo! This community is, at least, philosophically consistent in demonstrating its belief in freedom of choice.

More on metric signage

Chris Robinson sent two sets of photographs of “Weight Limit” road signs at a junction on the busy A6 through Stockport town centre: those before his attack on the Town Hall showing ‘250 metres ahead’ and the new ones showing ‘270 yards ahead’. This sort of success is invaluable, not merely as a victory over metric bureaucracy but more especially because thousands of motorists and pedestrians will see these signs every day!

Mrs Radcliffe from Parbold in Lancashire wrote of another victory, resulting in adhesive tape being used on contractors’ roadworks signs to cover the metric distance with imperial. The excuse, as usual, was that the metric signs had been “ordered in error” [but we are never told by whom or why!] and were now “temporarily corrected” [whatever that might mean!].

Kenneth Burton of Thetford in Norfolk (see the item on page 5 of our Number 14) has scored a second goal against the Brecks Countryside Project, based in his town. This concerned their use of metric measurements on signposts and in their leaflet ‘Building on Success’. They wrote: “We are very grateful for drawing this to our attention. The correction will be made when we reprint the leaflet.” But they added, further to their previous correspondence, that, according to the Highways Department of Norfolk County Council, “the Traffic Regulations and General Direc-tions of 1994 apply only to metal — i.e. aluminium — regulatory, warning and informatory signs only. The wooden signs and finger posts installed on rights of way such as footpaths, bridleways and byways do not need to comply with the Traffic Signs Regulations.” That is a common, and very dubious, official excuse. Nevertheless, they concluded by confirming that “finger posts showing only metric distances was [sic] an error on our part. This will be corrected during our programme of maintenance.”

Similarly, Mr R G Tye received a letter from Mr Sam Mullins, Director of the London Transport Museum, in reply to his complaint concerning the presentation of dimensions on exhibits in metric-only form, confirming that: “Our house style is to quote both metric and imperial dimensions if the object concerned was built to an imperial standard. I have to concede that this has not been followed in the labels at the Museum Depot and this will be remedied over the coming months as new labels are produced.”

Steve Fenn extracted a reply dated 13 June from Bar- net Borough Council to his dated 9 April complaining about a sign on Cat Hill by East Barnet Village pointing to ‘toilets 50M’. As Steve pointed out, “As, on British roads, “M” signifies ‘MILES’, I find it hard to believe that you would erect a sign indicating that the nearest toilet is 50 miles away.”

The reply, from the Chief Highways Officer, stated: “Apologies for the delay in replying. Instructions have been issued to the contractor to replace the sign within 10 days.”

Rosemary Nixon received a letter from the Christ- church Council’s Highways Inspector (Operations Unit), in reply to her complaint concerning a ‘Give Way 185 metres’ sign in the town, in which he advised that “A replacement sign reading ‘Give Way 190 yards’ will be erected as soon as it has been constructed. Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention.” If the illegality of local authorities’ metric signs is politely pointed out, they will almost always ‘Give Way!’

Sometimes, however, extreme perseverance and diplomacy is required. Bruce Robertson, for instance, found that he had embarked on a saga after writing to the Torpoint Ferry & Tamar Bridge Joint Committee, drawing their attention to an illegal road sign within their jurisdiction. Their reply advised that the matter had been passed to Plymouth City Council, who in turn responded by advising that the correspondence had been passed to the Highways Agency. Bruce meanwhile wrote directly to the City Council to reinforce the point that the sign is illegal. Then he received a letter of acknowledgement from the Highways Agency, advising that the correspondence had been passed to the Driver Information and Traffic Management Section. At long last, Bruce received a letter from the Highways Agency, stating: “We agree that the signs warning drivers of weight and width restrictions on Tamar Bridge are incorrectly formatted. The signs were erected for the Tamar Bridge Widening scheme, for which the Highways Agency is not responsible. However, as the signs are sited on the trunk road, the Agency should ensure that they comply with signing regulations. I have already discussed this issue with Tamar Bridge Authority and required them to submit, for Highways Agency approval, a compliant design for the signs, without delay.”

The Daily Mail on 28 May reported that retired airline pilot Roy Shaw had succeeded in persuading Arun District Council to remove metric distances from pedestrian signs on the sea-front at Littlehampton and was considering whether to replace the signs altogether or simply substitute the imperial equivalents on the existing signs.

‘Guard the Yard’

It would not matter if it were the Communist Party campaigning against metric signs, BWMA would support them. As it is, Tony Bennett’s UKIP ‘Guard the Yard’ campaign deserves special praise and our whole-hearted collaboration. Indeed, Tony himself has become a ‘Metric Martyr’ in his own right. With his permission, we reproduce his letter dated 11 June to Mr John Lamb, Transport and Access Manager, Planning Department, British Airports Authority, at Stansted Airport.

“On Saturday (9 June), I encountered an unauthorised, and therefore illegal, metric sign at the Setting-Down Point at Stansted Airport. The sign read: “Traffic Merging: 50 metres”. I got out a can of black aerosol paint and neatly obliterated the illegal metric part of the sign. I was subsequently arrested and charged with criminal damage.

I have been involved in the Party’s campaign to remove illegal metric signs for the past few months. I understand that you are the person responsible for the erection of signs on the roadways in the airport. If so, you should be aware of the following:

1. The erection of highways signs is governed by the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 1994, of which I have a copy.

2. These detailed regulations do not permit metric measurements to be used on any road distance signs. The signs must be Imperial, i.e. in miles and yards. The only exceptions to this strict rule refer to possible dual Imperial and metric signs for road widths and bridge heights, and even then under very limited circumstances only.

3. Mr John Prescott, former Transport Minister, has stated in writing.. .that it is impossible for there to be dual road distance signs as they would be ‘confusing’.

4. You would have needed written authority from the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions to erect a sign not in accordance with the Traffic Signs Regulations 1994 within the curtilage of Stansted Airport and clearly you do not have such authority, as the Department would under no circumstances have authorised a road distance sign in metric distances.

It is also a fact that all other road signs in Stansted Airport, both permanent and temporary, so far as I am aware, use British, Imperial, road distances only. Indeed, there is one giving a distance of ‘100 yards’ only a short distance from the illegal metric sign. To suddenly have one in metres is ‘confusing’, as Mr Prescott’s letter of last year quite rightly concedes. In many other cases where illegal metric signs have been reported to us, local authorities and private owners of highways have readily conceded that their metric signs are illegal and have either removed and replaced them completely or over-labelled them.

The solution in this case is surely very simple. You should immediately over-label the sign in yards, presumably 55 yards (the equivalent of 50 metres), if you have not already done so.

Since you would have had to do this anyway, there is no question of ‘criminal damage’; indeed, my actions have removed an illegality for which you were responsible. You could have faced High Court action ordering you to remove or replace the illegal sign. Under the circumstances, I invite you to consider that a prosecution would be both inappropriate and unjustified.

For your reference I enclose a leaflet: ‘Guard the Yard’, produced by the UK Independence Party on the subject of illegal metric road signs and a similar information leaflet from the British Weights and Measures Association. I look forward to hearing from you. Yours etc, Tony Bennett (Campaign Manager: ‘Guard the Yard’, UKIP)

cc. North West Essex Magistrates Court.”

On 14 June, the Harlow Magistrates Court adjourned the case for a pre-trial hearing, which was later fixed for Tuesday 17 July. He wrote again to Mr Lamb, requesting his consent to attend Court as a witness. He also wrote similarly to the Highways Manager and responsible Highways Technician at Stansted Airport, as well as to Ms Julie Ferebee, Head of Traffic Signs Policy Branch, Traffic Management and Tolls Division, Zone 3/21, Great Minster House, 76 Marsham

Street, London, SW1P 4DR3, citing them all as witnesses. In addition, he wrote to the Head of Transportation and Operational Services at Essex County Hall in Chelmsford, acquainting him with the case, requesting confirmation that “you have taken all reasonable steps to ensure that there are no illegal metric signs anywhere within Essex, and serving notice that, if any illegal metric signs are discovered anywhere in Essex, one of three remedies will be deployed: Oblit -eration by black aerosol paint of any reference to ‘metres’; Physical removal of the offending sign; or Application to the High Court for a mandamus injunction ordering removal and replacement of the offending sign and payment of the Applicant’s (Mr Bennett’s or his associates’) costs. [This issue will have gone to press before 17 July, but the outcome of the pre-trial hearing will no doubt be widely reported nationally.]

Seeing Sense

Roger Dykes reported that in a butcher’s shop in the West Riding he saw, hanging above the counter, a glossy new sign, officially produced by the Environmental Health Agency, giving guidance on cooking times for various meat dishes, all in pounds and ounces per minute! He asked the assistant when it had been supplied, to which the answer was: “Only this year”! Have any of our readers seen this sign elsewhere?

Roger also sent the front page from the April issue of East Riding News, the Council’s official newspaper, which was devoted to a campaign by a group of Councillors to raise money for the British Heart Foundation — and promote a healthier life-style — by seeing how much weight they could lose. All the results were given, in both the text and a picture — in pounds!

The Nissan ‘Almera’ model is advertised using the slogan: “With its storage pockets and nets, at least you can keep 13’7” x 5’6” of Britain tidy!”

Simon Stoker has pointed out that the general specifications for the Skoda Fabia model are given imperial with metric afterwards in brackets. Thus: engines in HP (kw); weight in lbs (kg); speed in mph (km/h); fuel consumption in mpg (litres/l00km); torque in lb.ft/rpm (Nm/rpm). What will their VW masters in Brussels say!

Michael Plumbe drew our attention to two letters in The Times on 17 April; one, from a Mr Galliano in Gibraltar, reading: “After reading reports and opinions in your newspaper on Mr Steven Thoburn, the “metric martyr”, it was refreshing and to a certain extent perplexing to turn to another page on which Luciano Pavarotti and his ‘successor’ Ambrogio Maestri have their height and weight stated in feet and stones respectively, with no concessions to recent legislation. The other, from a Mr Freer, read: “A hundred years after their revolution which introduced the metric system and sixty years after it was officially enforced in 1840, the French were still reluctant to use it. In his presidential address to the members of the Institution of Electrical Engineers on 12k” November 1903, Mr Robert Gray told his audience:

“In France, precious stones are today bought and sold in carats; firewood in cordes; milk in pintes [sic]; gravel in toises; grain, potatoes and charcoal in boisseaux; wine in barriques, feuillettes, demi-setiers and chopines; wood for construction in pieds, pouces and lignes; beer in canettes and pots; sugar and coffee, among the poor people, in livres, demis-livres, etc. Cattle dealing is in pistoles and écus, and not in francs. Finally, the French government has just issued a twenty-five centime piece, doubtless because it represents a quarter of a franc.”

Another of Mike Plumbe’s snippets from The Times was this story on l8

April: “Daniel Wright of New Wearswick, near York, beat a field of 35 to win the World Coal Carrying Championships. Mr Wright, 23, ran 1,200 metres uphill carrying a sack of coal weighing 8 stone in four minutes 21 seconds.” Why ‘8 stone’ instead of 1 cwt is unclear. Why ‘1,200 metres’ instead of 3/4 mile is even less clear!

A letter in The Times on 23 April from a Mr David Binns read: “I am pleased to note that The Times caters for all ages. The report on the gigantic halibut (April 20) contains the following measurements: tonnes, three times; kilograms once; stones, eight times; pounds four times; metres, three times; feet, four times. Keep up the good work!

We were delighted to see a report in The Sunday TeIegraph on 22 April, that began: “Leeds Castle, one of Britain’s most celebrated fortresses, is being forced to erect 21 ~ century ramparts to defend it from a modern menace — motorway traffic. The trustees of the Norman castle, near Maidstone, Kent, have ordered the construction of a 20ft-high earthwork, 600ft long and 100ft wide, to shield the building and its 500-acre park from the constant roar of traffic on the M20, which passes only a few hundred yards away.

They hope that the project, which will take two years to complete and require 25,000 tons of soil....” [and so on, all in unadulterated imperial! ]”

Fabian Olins has provided the transcript of part of the script from the Channel 4 TV programme, on the Roman Colosseum (more properly, the Flavian Amphitheatre), in the “Empires of Stone” series, broadcast on 11 June. It was by Janet DeLaine, Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Reading, describing the quantity of travertine stone used in the construction. She said: “100,000 cubic metres, now that’s an unimaginable sum — but if you turned it into feet, and thought of a block a foot by a foot by a foot [accompanied by corresponding gestures] and you strung these cubic feet blocks out side by side they would stretch for 700 miles.”

Free Spirit

Simon Kirby sent a beautiful post-card, with a picture of the Kings Head in Islington, which is a public house at the front and a small private theatre at the back. The owner, Dan Crawford, still charges in £.s.d. — “especially after midnight”. He uses a wonderful, ornate National Cash Register with a wind-up handle. Simon enjoyed a pint costing two guineas. Gin, vodka and rum were priced at £1/l0s/-, crisps at 10s/-, cigars at 14s/-, etc. How refreshing!

Metrication madness

This was the title of a feature article by Bernard Levin in The Times on 15 August 1995 — yes, six years ago! For he was one of only two leading journalists who were alive to the evils of the metric regulations before they came into effect. The other, of course, was Christopher Booker, who was the first to investigate and expose the Euro-Whitehall conspiracy that plotted and enforced compulsory metrication, whereas Bernard Levin was inspired simply by sheer outrage at its tyranny and cultural vandalism.

That prophetic article had passed us by, because BWMA’s campaign got under way a month later, in September 1995. But every word of it is as true today as it was then. Not only that, but it reminds us that the lies characterising the process of implementation throughout the intervening six years of our campaign were merely a continuation of the several earlier years of lies that had characterised the inception and enactment of these regulations. After two general elections, this reminder is timely. We therefore reproduce these excerpts now.

“We all knew that this government lies to us, that it has always lied to us and that it will continue to lie to us... We also knew that this government ignores our wishes, has always ignored our wishes and will continue to ignore our wishes. Nor is that all... For we all knew that this government has cheated us out of our heritage, has always cheated us out of our heritage and will continue to cheat us out of our heritage. In short, this government is based on nothing but mendacity, cowardice, arrogance, bluster and desperation. But the worst is yet to come. And it comes in the form of metrication...

When did the British people give permission to change — and overnight — from their age-old imperial measures to the metric ones? When did the British people accept the criminalisation of half a pound of cheese? When did the British people allow themselves, by the total loss of any kind of guard, to be entirely open to crooks and scoundrels? When did the British people deny their Britishness?

Do you seriously believe that if this government had come out and told the truth about what was imminent we would have allowed it to happen? But the deeply rooted culture of lying by which this government lives has so sprouted that it towers over everything. If you think I am making it up, let me tell you that when the secret, the hidden agenda upon which the British people are now impaled, was revealed and our rulers were asked why they bad not come out with the truth at once, they said it was not necessary because the British people had already agreed — in 1965.

Please understand that I am not trying to call down lightning upon the heads of the European Union. But what would anyone deduce from the lying and cheating and hiding that the British government is so prone to? There could only be one answer: that the British government is doing something dirty, and the dirt is inevitably going to be found on the British people. For otherwise why would there be any need for secrecy? Only, of course, because if there were no secrecy the truth would be bared.”

Steve Tamblin from Wellingborough sent a copy press release from Railtrack, dated 9 March, which seems to reflect the muddled state of that company. It concerned a contract between Virgin Trains and Railtrack for the upgrading of parts of the Cross Country network. It states that “The Cross Country routes cover some 5,300 track miles” but that “The project will see the replacement of over 3,400 metres of track, 24,400 metres of ballast and 7,300 sleepers...” Quite apart from the conflicting use of imperial and metric units, ballast is a measure of weight or volume — not of length — and why boast about “over 3,400 metres of track” which is only a little more than 2 miles?

James Bye was amused when, watching ‘Trading Up’ — one of those ubiquitous house ‘makeover’ style TV programmes — he saw the normally very politically correct presenter proudly displaying some amazingly inexpensive material she was about to use, declaring that at a cost of only so much per square metre, she could afford to use “yards and yards” of it.

And Christopher Pierpoint was amused, during the intensely exciting final drama of the US presidential election, to see the ghastly weather forecasters on British TV, predicting temperatures in miserable Celsius numbers, followed directly by the latest news from sunny Florida, with reporters announcing that “it has been another glorious day here — not too hot — in the mid-70’s all day.” If our weather forecasters were still watching, it must have made them sick with envy! Of course, references to the weather during golf commentaries from the USA are equally refreshing.

Christopher Pierpoint also sent an article from The Daily Telegraph on 14 April, entitled “The perfect cup of coffee”, containing this incredible paragraph: “Your cup should contain between 1.0 and 1.2 fluid ounces of coffee, which should have been delivered at a water pressure of “9 Bar” and a temperature of 90 degrees celsius. Any milk added to the drink should be warmed to a temperature of between 155 and 160 degrees fahrenheit.”

Mr G F Goodwin, a Member from Brighton, received an unusual response to his complaint about metricated BBC weather forecasts, in the form of a telephone call directly from a young man in the Met Office at Bracknell, who accused him of being a ‘Little Englander’, insisting that they must deal in international units because this is an international business. “But”, pointed out Mr Goodwin, “you don’t deal in international units. You have recently changed from an international measure — knots for wind-speed — to a British customary measure — miles per hour.” Spluttering at the other end!

‘Private Eye’ (1 June) high-lighted the madness of metric pricing by reproducing a supermarket advertisement which read: “aubergines [but spelt ‘aubergenes’ — some superior variety of genes?] 0.395kg @ £2.31kg”. How many shoppers could work out in their heads that this represents 91.245p? What would the customer actually be charged — 91.00 or 92.00p? What is the point of measuring the weight of fruit or vegetable to the thousandth of 1kg when the price has to be rounded up or down to the nearest penny? Indeed, how many shoppers would even realise that 0.395kg equals 395g? Is not this mystification calculated to harm consumers’ interests? When BWMA Members notice this type of price ticket, will they please bombard their local Trading Standards Officers with these questions and let us see their replies!

A glossy brochure published by the Overseas Placing Unit (Employment Service), as a guide to European citizens working in the UK, includes an imperial/metric conversion table, the top line of which reads: ‘1 inch = 2.45cm’. Clearly, this should have read ‘2.54cm’. It was especially stupid, because the next line correctly stated “1 foot = 30.48cm” and obviously 2.45 x 12 = 29.40 which is far short of 30.48! As Vivian Linacre pointed out in a letter dated 31 May: “This cannot be dismissed as a simple typographical error, for the text must have been vetted and approved by several sets of eyes through the many stages of production. It shows yet again that even those in authority are unfamiliar with the most basic conversion factors.” Needless to add, no reply has been received.

The Oldies

The June issue of ‘The Oldie’ devoted half a page to a story borrowed from pages 13-14 of The Yardstick No. 11 headed ‘Romans and railways’. The Editor not only acknowledged the source in the text but also sent a generous cheque for the right to use it. You may recall that it explained the origin of the 4’8½” standard railway gauge, dating from the ruts in roads caused by Roman

chariots; so that even the size of rocket boosters at the US Space Center — that have to be transported in couples on flat trucks through a narrow railways tunnel — are dictated by the breadth of the backsides of pairs of Roman horses!

Gold stars

Sampford Farms, Near Wellington, Somerset, TA21 9QN (www.wessexpork.co.uk), sell everything in imperial units, which are also used exclusively on their recipe cards.

Likewise, the mail order catalogue from Two Wests & Elliott Ltd, Unit 4, Carrwood Road, Sheepbridge Industrial Estate, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, 541 9RH (www.twowests.co.uk), gives details of all their gardening equipment in imperial.

All Done with Mirrors

Having delivered a lecture on the history of weights and measures at the Oxfordshire County Museum at Woodstock on 1st November last year, Vivian Linacre visited the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford the following morning, when he met Dr Michael Vickers of the Department of Antiquities. Vivian told Dr Vickers about the forthcoming book, “All Done with Mirrors” by his friend John Neal, of which he had seen a draft. He urged each of them to get in touch with the other. The outcome was a letter dated 19 April to Vivian from John Neal, saying: “I had given up any thoughts that Michael Vickers had a continuing interest in my work and, but for your encouragement to do so, would not have contacted him of my own accord. We struck up a correspondence whereby I sent him a series of essays that comprise my web page [johnneal@secretacademy.com]; he found them “persuasive” and requested a copy of the book. He had recently been asked to write a commentary on the works of two respected scholars that were being reviewed in the prestigious science magazine ‘Nature’. He noticed similarities between their findings and my work on linear measure; therefore he wanted to get my work reviewed in the same organ.

“Well, Vivian! Had I been asked to write my own review I could not have done better. Because he had a prior grasp of the subject, he immediately recognised the correctness of my reasoning and, within the space available, he has been remarkably informative of the general theory. Thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction.”

Because of the importance of this review in ‘Nature’ (page 1030) in relation to the pre-historic origins of our customary measures — following on the great interest aroused by Robin Heath’s article in our issue No. 14— we are reproducing it here.

“Thanks to John Neal’s remarkable new book, ancient metrology — once the playground of Newton but now largely ignored even by archaeologists — should cease to be a pariah subject and regain its place at the centre of the study of antiquity. In the past, the widely attested variations in ancient reported linear measurements have been put down to sloppiness on the part of our ancestors. But Neal is able to show that such variations belong to a logical, elegant and cohesive system partially based on divisions of the Earth’s surface at different points on the longitudinal meridian. The Earth is not a true sphere, but is subject to polar flattening, which means that the longitudinal meridian, or the great circle through the poles, is essentially el liptical.

The distortion is minute, but it creates a measurable variation from degree to degree. Degrees nearer the poles are longer than those at the Equator. Thus, a widely accepted value for the Greek foot of 1.0114612ft proves to be 1/360,000th part of the longitudinal meridian degree at just under 38º latitude — the same latitude as that of the Aegean.

Elaborating a scheme first noted by the philosopher and historian John Michell*, Neal observes that feet (or cubits) stand in a ratio of 175:176 to larger units in a series. This at once explains the Roman architect Vitruvius’ account of an odometer — an instrument for measuring the distance travelled by a wheeled vehicle — that contained a mechanism designed audibly to release a stone into a box every mile; in his case, 400 revolutions of the 12½ft perimeter to the 5,000ft mile. If Vitruvius’ 4ft radius l2½ft perimeter, or 3.125 pi ratio, was strictly adhered to, there would have been a discrepancy of more than 28ft in every mile. But if the shorter Roman foot of 0.967680ft was used for the diameter of the carriage wheel, and the longer Roman foot of 0.9732109ft used for the perimeter, the calculation of the mile is accurate in terms of the longer measure. The difference between 22/7 and 25/8 can be expressed as 3.142857 = 176, while 3.125 = 175 (both values of pi were used in the ancient world)… There was thus a practical purpose underlying variational fractions between the ancient standards (and this is but one of many) and they can no longer be put down to carelessness or error.

Although the system is complex, it is blindingly obvious once it is tabulated. Roman, Greek, Egyptian and Babylonian measures are seen to be inter-related. Life is breathed again into Alexander Thom’s ‘megalithic yard’, a unit of measurement Thorn found to have been consistently used at many prehistoric megalithic sites. As Neal points out, “not only is the megalithic system largely ignored by archaeologists, it is opposed — even by the numerate among their ranks.” This position is now untenable, as it can be shown that the megalithic yard shared an origin with the Sumerian cubit. And the foot-measure used in England — equivalent to a Greek foot — proves to have played a pivotal role in the whole metrological system. It is ironic that just as it is being thrown on the scrap heap of history, its historical importance is beginning to be recognised.” [our emphasis] The review concludes: “...this is a sober and thoughtful analysis with far-reaching consequences for the study of the past. More than that, it is a major contribution to the history of science.”

*John Michell is a close associate of John Neal, and likewise a supporter of BWMA.

John Neal’s book, ‘All Done with Mirrors’ (ISBN 0-9539000-0-2) is available directly from the author (johnneal@secretacademy.com), price £25.00. An excerpt from it appears in the BWMA handbook, ‘A Guide to Customary Weights and Measures’

The Spectator on 9 June published a review of John Neal’s book by (guess who!) John Michell, of which this is worth quoting: “the old measures... express the dimensions of the earth and moon within a rational code of number. And from this same code are derived also the measures and ratios of music, geometry, astronomy, chronology and physics. John Neal’s discoveries give firm ground to the Pythagorean world-view that ‘all is number.’ There have been many systems of measure throughout the world, but all of them, including the units extrapolated from Mexican monuments, are related to the others by simple fractions, and together make up a single universal system. At the root of all, the basic unit of reference is the ancient foot that we are now in the process of discarding. The best arguments against that process are in the findings of this book.”

John Neal has very generously undertaken to insert into every copy of his book an A5 ‘flyer’ headed “Do you care about preserving our traditional systems of weights and measures?” followed by a paragraph beginning “If so, why not become a member of the British Weights and Measures Association?” and continuing with details of membership, our three web-sites, etc.

142 years ago

‘The Builder’ magazine of 15 October 1859 contained a long report, from which here are the opening paragraphs: “The papers have announced that the fourth general meeting of the International Association for Obtaining a Uniform Decimal System of Measures, Weights and Coins, will be held on Monday, 10th of October, at 4 o’clock, in St George’s Hall, Bradford, Yorkshire, and that M. Michel Chevalier, Vice-President, will take the chair. This meeting has for its object the adoption of the metre, the gramme and the litre, that is to say, substantially, the adoption by England of the French decimal metrical system.

If this system has not been put in practice here, it is undoubtedly because people perceive that it is far from being perfect, and that if it unites certain advantages compared with the existing anomalousness of weights and measures, it presents, also, great inconvenience. In fact, each unit of weight or measure, as well as its multiples and sub-multiples, cannot be divided without fractions by a fourth, and without a remainder either by a third or sixth. This system comprises neither the geometrical measures not those of time. It is evidently defective and incomplete, and M Michel Chevalier, with all his science and Saint-Simonism logic, will never be able to prove the contrary.” Will they never learn?

Merchandise

Our Foot, Pint and Pound leaflet is still available. 1 doz. — six 1st Class stamps; 6 doz — £7; 1 gross — £12.

Back numbers: Yardstick 13 & 14: send three 2nd or two 1st Class stamps.

Rulers: White Plastic 12” Rulers giving all divisions of the inch plus the 1¼”: 1 mile mapping scale. £1 each, six for £4, twelve for £7.

Envelope Stickers: Pages of 24 stickers with the Association address and the following slogans: £1 (or four 1st class stamps) a sheet:

1) “Foot, Pint and Pound are perfectly sound”2) “Feet and Inches are Miles Better”3) “BWMA Let’s Choose Our Own Rulers”

English Spoken Here wall or windows sticker (adhesive on the front for windows, please state which). 4” diameter, blue and white plastic. 50p each.

Foolscap (8½” by 13”) Letter headed paper. £10/gross. Supply hand-written or typed example of how you want it to look.

Cheques payable to BWMA. Apply to Robert Stevens, 38 Mount Pleasant, London WC1X OAP

British Weights &Measures Association

45 Montgomery Street, Edinburgh EH7 5JXTel/fax: 0131 556 6080

Internet sites: www.footrule.orgwww.bwmaOnline.com

Chairman: Michael Plumbe. Director: Vivian Linacre.Research Officer: John Gardner.

Press Officer: David Delaney, Mill House, Mortimers Cross, Leominster HR6 9PETel: 01568 708820

Email: dtdelaney@compuserve.com

Hon. Treasurer: Fabian Olins, 22 Foscote Road, Hendon, London NW4 3SDtel/fax: 020 8202 7781

Editor: Robert Stevens, 38 Mount Pleasant, London WC1X OAPTel. (mobile) 07939 125 367Email: acc@freewire.co.uk

Membership costs £10 for a year. Send acheque or postal order (payable to BWMA) to the Hon. Treasurer (details above).

The list of members is kept on computer but not disclosed to commercial organisations.Views expressed in The Yardstick are not necessarily

those of the Association