Action Stations - Pens Are Sharper Than Swords
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Market trader Janet Devers is now branded a criminal for selling produce in pounds and ounces. She has been fined almost �5000.
Does that make you angry � furious even?
Well, here�s the answer to the question you�re always asking � what can I do?
Join an army of letter-writers and complain direct to the man responsible � Gunter Verheugen, European Commissioner, supposedly responsible for enterprise and industry.
His address is:
Vice President G�nter Verheugen
Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry
European Commission
Rue de la Loi
BE-1049 Brussels, Belgium
His email address is: Guenter.Verheugen@ec.europa.eu
BUT � LETTERS ARE BETTER
E-mails get deleted by minions in the office. They probably won�t reach him.
A letter on his desk has to be answered. And it makes him think. It reminds him the Brits are not putting up with this nonsense any more.
It is essential to put intense pressure on the unelected bureaucrats in Brussels until they fully understand that our sovereign rights and freedoms are not in their gift, nor at their disposal.
Put into your own words, here are a few nuggets you might include :
Steve Thoburn, the original Metric Martyr, died shortly after his own conviction for selling in pounds and ounces from his market stall. Stress and distress were widely believed to be a factor. He was 39.
Janet Devers now has a similar conviction. It follows instructions from the British government to trading standards officers not to press the present confused legal situation, while the European Commission sorts out the mess of its own making. They have still not done so, after two years dithering. She is the victim.
Here are several extracts from an exchange of letters and written questions I have had with Verheugen over the last two years:
AM wrote:
There have been reports in the UK in the last few days that the European Commission has dropped its plans to proscribe imperial indications at the end of 2009.
Can you please therefore confirm, without equivocation, that traders in the UK and elsewhere are free to use imperial units of measurement for the indefinite future, and that any plans the EU had to make them illegal have been abandoned.
GV replied:
The Directive on units of measurement is currently subject to a review. A broad public consultation has recently ended.
At this stage, already some first conclusions can be drawn. There is overwhelming support for the continued use of the so-called supplementary indications, in particular when it comes to trade aspects with the United States, where imperial measures are still widely used.
As far as the use of the measurements pint and mile are concerned, I already indicated two years ago that the Commission has no intention to endanger the historical and cultural traditions of Member States. Therefore I am intending to put forward a proposal to allow a permanent derogation for Member States who want to keep using these measurements.
With regard to the specific question of traders in the UK who solely want to make use of imperial measurements, we are also studying this issue and are analysing the outcome of the public consultations on this.
AM comment:
Decoded, this answer implied, but did not say, that the EU had no intention to criminalise traders selling in pounds and ounces � again the implication being that the present situation was all the fault of over-zealous UK officials.
In euro-speak this is known as ?shared management� � we decide and you enforce. Brussels can then argue that the consequences of enforcement are nothing to do with the EU.
AM Letter to the UK Media:
7 January 2008
Sir
The European Commission has finally given in to intense pressure to allow the British to continue using pints and lbs and other imperial measurements indefinitely.
They eventually realised such arbitrary and pointless regulations to force metrication on us severely undermined confidence in the EU. What took them so long? You may well ask.
The original directive would have meant that, from 2009, Britain would have lost the pint for milk or beer and even the mile for road traffic signs. It was an outrageous threat.
The directive will be amended during 2008. Meanwhile, the British government has instructed trading standards officials not to enforce the law as it currently stands.
If, therefore, any of your readers find they are refused when asking for a pint or a lb of anything, or encounter any other problems when using traditional imperial weights and measures, please send me the details.
I will immediately raise the issue with the appropriate authorities to stop any discrimination against our British heritage.
Ashley Mote MEP
Extracts from Written Questions on Metrication
WRITTEN QUESTION E-0377/08 by Ashley Mote (NI) to the Commission (January 2007)
Subject: Metrication chaos in UK
Is the Commission aware of the current chaotic legal situation in the UK as a result of its very public statement which supposedly declared last September that all goods in the UK could be sold using imperial measurements, and that the regulations were never intended to apply to market traders?
Is the Commission aware that the UK Government is now trying to enforce non-existent EU law through the British courts? Are the present rounds of prosecutions being actioned by officials representing a prima facie case of abuse of process?
What steps is the Commission taking to resolve the present impasse between Brussels and London?
Would the Commission not agree that the need of many millions of companies and traders requires as a matter of urgency that the present legal confusion is resolved without further delay? Might not a moratorium be agreed while the legal situation is resolved by due process?
Does the Commission not agree that certainty is required on dual labelling, the sale of loose goods using imperial measurements, the use of scales using imperial units, and the status of measurement criteria within the UK and cross-border? Do not all these matters need urgent attention?
Will potential compensation to (now apparently unintended) victims of past confusion over EU law on metrication be allowed to influence clarification of the law now?
E-0377/08EN
Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission
(14.3.2008)
The Commission is not aware of any confusion, contradictions or difficulties in the implementation of Directive 80/181/EEC and this has been confirmed by Member State authorities. The Commission�s legislative proposal is to extend the current practice indefinitely.
WRITTEN QUESTION E-2245/08 by Ashley Mote (NI) to the Commission (March 2008)
Subject: Metrication chaos in the UK - Mark 2
Given Mr Verheugen’s reply to my written question E-0377/08, has he not seen and heard the media reports which utterly contradict his claim that ?the Commission is not aware of any confusion, contradictions or difficulties� on the continuing enforcement of metrication in the UK, despite his previous assurances? Is Mr Verheugen not aware that yet another prosecution of an innocent market trader is going ahead, despite the death of one of the previous victims of his policy from the stress inflicted on him?
Does Mr Verheugen not accept that his claiming that there is no contradiction in Article 4 of the directive is - of itself - a contradiction of the facts? Are the activities of the British government as it claims to be enforcing EU so-called ?law� not the contradiction? Is this not another example of the EU’s famed ?shared management�, meaning no coherent management at all?
Does the Commissioner still not understand that he - and he alone - is directly and specifically responsible for the current confusion over the enforcement or not of metrication in the UK? When does he plan to address the issue once and for all, and clarify in simple words EXACTLY what the EU intends for the UK on this matter? Or is this endless problem going to be allowed to fester until the British public lose all patience with Brussels and walk away, taking their two million euros an hour with them?
E-2245/08EN
Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission
(22.5.2008)
On the basis of the information at its disposal, the Commission considers that the United Kingdom (UK) has transposed Council Directive 80/181/EEC and implements it in an overall satisfactory way. As far as measuring instruments are concerned, the UK allows the use of dual indications in both metric and imperial units. Therefore, there is no reason for confusion, contradictions or difficulties as regards the application of the Council Directive in the UK.
The Commission follows the general rule to refrain from commenting on ongoing Court cases.
The intention of the Commission has been expressed by its proposal of 10 September 2007 to modify Directive 80/181/EEC in order to allow for the continued use of supplementary indications next to SI-units (International System of Units) and for the specific exemptions in the UK and Ireland on a permanent basis.
AM comments to Verheugen (in a later written question)
Is the Commission so determined to shoot itself in the foot over enforced metrication of the UK? Why is it necessary to legislate at all, when only two Member States are involved? Is this regulation and standardisation merely for its own sake? Does the Commission not care that it will be adding to the huge and ever-growing fury of millions of British who have to waste time defending themselves against such pointless bureaucratic nonsense?
Would the Commission not agree that further enforcement of metrication on the British opens still wider the door through which we will finally lose patience and walk away from the EU, taking our
1.5 million sterling an hour with us?
Go to it folks!
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