Following evidence provided by the British Weights & Measures Association, the House of Commons European Union Scrutiny Committee refused to clear the EC draft directive allowing a ten year extension for the use of dual metric/imperial units on packaged goods.

Although the derogation itself is uncontroversial it failed also to lift the ban on the use of traditional measures on loose goods sold after the 1st January 2000. The Committee, at its meeting in May 1999, said:

We note that the Government has not taken advantage of this amendment to attempt to negotiate a further extension of the derogation permitting the continued use of imperial units in the UK for purposes such as the sale of fruit and vegetables "loose from bulk".

The Department of Trade and Industry then told the Committee that all was well because the ten year extension for dual marking packaged goods also applied to loose goods. This explanation was deceitful because it has always been recognised that the sale of loose goods has been done exclusively in imperial. The Committee then passed the directive.

The Department of Trade & Industry triumphantly announced the European Commission's proposal to grant a further ten-year extension to 'dual marking' giving the impression that a reprieve had been won for imperial measures generally, including their exclusive use for the sale of fresh foods and other loose goods, a right which traders have always enjoyed and for which the EC had granted a separate ten-year concession in 1989. The DTI did nothing to correct that false reassurance.

Traders will be required by the criminal law to price their loose goods and fresh foods in metric units. Imperial could be added but only as a subordinate, supplementary indicator. (Market traders will have to shout their wares in price per kilo, then, sotto voce, in pence per pound). When customers ask for goods in pounds and ounces they will be given what they want in kilos and grams. Traders who persist in weighing their goods in imperial will have their weighing machines confiscated. This has been confirmed by Trading Standards Departments.

On 23 July (the Friday before the summer recess!), the Minister, Dr Howell, has furtively presented Parliament with a report on the implementation of the EC directives; the so-called "complete reappraisal of metrication policy." This gave rise to newspaper stories announcing, yet again, that the DTI had secured another ten-year deferment - which it had not!

A majority of the population prefer to use our traditional measures for everyday use, but the government simply refuses to give them what they want. In the rest of Europe many non-metric measures are used but nowhere is it a criminal offence, except in Britain
 

(David Delaney has a small sheep farm in the Welsh Marches.  It has a watermill and a battle information centre (Battle of Mortimers Cross 1461) which open to the public in the summer.  He is a director of an engineering company, is a Parish Councillor, and is the Press Officer for the British Weights and Measures Association.)