EU gives up campaign to make Britain go metric

(BRUSSELS) - The European Union on Tuesday abandoned efforts to ban the use of pints, pounds and miles in Britain and Ireland in the face of overwhelming public opposition.

The move was hailed as "fantastic news" by Neil Herron, campaign director of the Metric Martyrs Group in England.

"Someone has finally executed an ounce of common sense," said Herron, who has long fought for the retention of traditional imperial measures.

Britain and Ireland had been given until the end of 2009 to give firm dates for scrapping the imperial measures.

But the European Commission is now proposing that imperial measures carry on indefinitely, said Ton Van Lierop, spokesman for the EU's Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen.

"We have listened attentively to the people and the vast majority are in favour of these proposals," he said.

Under the new proposals, to be put to the European Parliament and member nations for endorsement, reusable milk bottles and draught beer and cider may be sold in pints, road signs marked in miles and bullion sold in troy ounces.

For other goods ""supplementary indications" may be retained.

This is eurospeak for allowing imperial measurements -- pounds, ounces, pints etc. -- to be used alongside metric ones.

Britain's Science and Innovation Minister Ian Pearson also welcomed the news.

"This shows that the Commission has listened to our views and recognised the strong arguments that we've made for maintaining dual metric and imperial labelling and the right for the UK to decide on the future use of pints and miles," he said in London.

Extending the dual measurement approach indefinitely is supported by EU industry and "sends a clear signal to our US counterparts that the EU favours a trading environment free of barriers," said Verheugen in a statement.

"In return, I hope that the USA will also accept metric-only labelled goods on its territory. This proposal also honours the culture and traditions of Great Britain and Ireland, which are important to the European Commission," he added.

One imperial casualty though is the acre. The commission said that this imperial measure is no longer used for land registration in either Britain or Ireland and would be "repealed".

Also Ireland has already switched its road signs to kilometres and metres, leaving Britain as the only EU nation using miles for speed limits and distances.

The fight to keep the old measurements saw the appearance of the "metric martyr" in Britain.

Steve Thoburn, a trader in northeast England, was targeted by the British authorities in 2000 for using them.

He died of a heart attack in 2004 days after learning that his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, against a conviction for using non-metric scales in his greengrocer's shop, had been rejected.

His friend and fellow campaigner Herron, a former fishmonger, said that trading in imperial measurements remained a criminal offence in Britain, and the statutes needed changing.

He said imperial supporters would be celebrating the victory and remembering Thoburn.

"We don't mind if it's a litre of wine or a pint of beer, we will be toasting Steve Thoburn who stood up to be counted."

Nigel Farage, leader of the eurosceptic UK Independence Party, was less impressed.

"We should not be so pathetically grateful for being permitted to use our own imperial measurements," he said.

Public consultation - Update for units of measurement directive