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Metric Culprits |
The Political
Front
BWMA's position with the government is summarised in this letter to
the Minister for Competition and Consumer Affairs:
From: BWMA
To:
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Competition and Consumer Affairs,
Department of Trade and Industry, London SW1H 0ET |
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Dear Sir
You may
recall our previous correspondence on the issue of compulsory metrication,
currently the subject of a DTI review initiated by your predecessor. Over the
past year, BWMA has contributed two resarch documents to the review; A Fair
Measure and a supplement Just for Good Measure. I am now pleased to
enclose A Further Measure, looking specifically at the problems caused
by compulsory metrication for product descriptions and unit pricing.
As
you will be aware, successive British governments have proposed making Britain
a metric country since 1965. In the beginning, this process was to have been
voluntary. When it became clear by 1975 that people were volunteering
not to use metric, the government resorted to piecemeal regulation. When
the use of compulsion was defeated politically in 1979, the Conservative
government signed an EC directive committing Britain to near total metrication
by 1989. This was unachievable with the result that the deadline was delayed
until 1999.
Even now, after so much time, the complete removal of
Britain's traditional measures is still nowhere in sight and the EC is likely
to delay the metric deadline by a further ten years, meaning that 45 years will
have elapsed since Britain started this policy. And since the world's largest
economy the USA is predominently non-metric, we expect the deadline to be
extended again - and again.
We see no practical benefits from the
government pursuing compulsory metrication any longer. Traditional units are
entirely legitimate and are needed for a variety of trades and industries at
local, national and international levels. Surveys show that even after
twenty-five years of metric education, most consumers of all ages prefer to use
traditional units, and businesses have indicated their view that metrication
should remain a choice rather than a compulsion. In Parliament, almost ninety
MPs have signed Gwyneth Dunwoody's Early Day Motion calling for traditional
measures to be retained.
We have no objection to people using metric
units if they wish but believe that conversion is most effectively determined
by market forces. In this way, metrication can proceed where it has merit, but
not where it is a burden to business or unpopular with the public.
We
are not asking that the government looks for ways to make metrication more
patatable or less costly, but that the drive for a metric-only society is
brought to a formal close.
Yours sincerely, etc
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| Other political activity: |
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Member of the European Parliament Jeffrey Titford, then leader of
the UK
Independence Party, has played a crucial part in the campaign
against compulsory metric conversion, responsible for:
-
commissioning barrister Michael Shrimpton's Legal Opinion showing that metric
regulations are illegal;
- providing free legal support to traders told by Trading Standards
Officers to replace weighing machines;
- correcting local authorities who install illegal metric distance
signs.
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House of Commons Lobby. On
June 22nd 2000, Conservative MP Richard Page arranged for MPs to learn more
about the issues surrounding compulsory metric conversion at a Lobby in the
House of Commons. Members of the public are welcome at such Lobbies and a large
number of people including traders attended. |
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Ten
Minute Rule Bill. In June 2000, Conservative MP David Lidington put
forward a Ten Minute Rule Bill (no 104), designed to remove from British
traders the threat of criminal penalties for using pounds and ounces. Mr
Lidington asked why a metric directive from the EC, intended to overcome
obstacle to trade between EU member states, should be used to prevent high
street British traders from using lb/oz for the benefit of their local
customers. Mr Lidington argued that the DTI's policy of criminalising traders
for using lb/oz flouted the European Union principle of
subsidiarity. |
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