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Hope for 'metric martyrs'

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Written by Martin George

Monday, 03 November 2008 15:29

Government to reverse rules that threaten to jail pounds and ounces traders.

A Kingston market stall holder may ditch metric measures after the government said it would reverse rules that threaten to jail traders who only use pounds and ounces.

Julie Phillips, a salad stall holder, uses kilos because of government regulations that prevent traders from using just imperial measures to sell food. However, Innovation Secretary John Denham MP said in October that councils will be banned from taking so-called ‘metric martyrs’ to court.

Ms Phillips, who has run her stall for three years, said: “the elderly especially get confused. Yes, I would switch back to pounds and ounces.”

Neighbouring stallholder Fergus Kent, 51, uses metric and imperial weights on his price tags, despite warnings from trading standards officers that he could not use both. Mr Kent says he will continue to use both measures, as many foreign students prefer the metric system.

Tevfik Ibraham Tevfik, a first year Maths and Business Management student from Cyprus, prefers metric measures: “Kilograms are more universal. No-one outside the UK uses imperial anymore, and no-one knows about pounds and ounces.”

But John Whittle, a third year Quantity Surveying student, favours keeping the imperial system for historic reasons: “We should keep pounds and ounces. It’s a bit of our independence. We don’t have to do what everyone else is doing.”

One life-long patron of Kingston market welcomed the government’s announcement. Celia Hedgeman, 77, who buys her fruit and veg from market stalls because it is cheap and keeps better, said: “I’m not sure of the translation between [metric and imperial], and people who are elderly can’t be bothered. I would feel a bit stupid asking for grams.”

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Author of this article: Martin George

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