Political aims of metrication
August 10th, 1995
A letter to the Daily Telegraph which was published on 10th August 1995.
The compulsory elimination of British weights and measures from our life and language (report, Aug 8th) is only the most blatant of the many hundreds of examples which use the Single Market concept to drum into the British that they are a subject people.
The objective of compulsory metrication is entirely political. There is no conceivable international trading interest in the buying and selling of loose fruit and vegetables in a local market. Nor should it matter to anyone but producer and customer that for 30 years a local firm (Lockwoods) has made a local product (mushy peas) with a harmless green dye – but it too has to be suppressed (report Aug 9th). A real free market would actually encourage transactions in whatever form buyer and seller preferred.
That the government has chosen to make the use of British weights and measures a criminal offence is itself an example of the Vichy-like alacrity with which the Courts and Departments of State jump to carry out their Euro-orders. Only a complete break and the formation of a new relationship with the EU on the Swiss model will preserve our freedoms and our ability to compete in the world. Euro-scepticism is not enough.