Give us back the mile! Brexiteers start removing metric signs ahead of Britain's EU exit
BREXIT supporters are removing metric signs and replacing them with traditional British imperial ones as a two-fingers to the diktats of the European Union.
Campaigners are removing EU-mandated metric measures with imperial ones
Campaigners believe imperial measurements are part of our culture and identity and are relieved to be free from the metric bureaucratic bullying.
Derek Norman, 82, removes public signs with the EU-mandated metric measures and replaces them with imperial ones.
Emboldened by the vote for Brexit, Mr Norman said: “I didn’t want to see normal, everyday life in metric.”
Brexiteers are happy to not have the metric signs that others EU countries use
I didn’t want to see normal, everyday life in metric
The Eurosceptic pensioner said: “I’m interested in immigration, but my main thing is democracy.
“I want to be governed by people we elect.”
The group that Mr Norman founded in 2001, the Active Resistance to Metrication Movement, has swapped more than 1,800 signs across the country.
The resistance began when councils erected metric signs and he would remove signs and dump them several miles away.
Campaigners see it as an EU intrusion into their country
He said: “We had spotters across the country”.
Speaking of his relief to leave the EU, Mr Norman said: “I couldn’t believe that we actually had the chance to leave the EU. I worked so hard in my own time.”
Campaigner Warwick Cairns said: “There is something about feet and inches that feel part of our identity and culture.
“They make sense on a human scale, they make sense on a cultural scale. It is part of us.”
The campaigners have changed signs all across the country
Brexiteer Peter Bone recounts DISGUSTING threats
Since June’s Brexit vote, companies have said they would want the chance to be able to trade in imperial units.
Simon Berry, chairman of Berry Bros & Rudd, has said that he it is a lifetime ambition to sell champagne in pint-sized bottles and reclaim it from “rules-obsessed bureaucrats”.
The so-called Metric Martyrs, who were a fishmonger and greengrocer from Hackney, were convicted in the early 2000s for using imperial scales and labelling.
They took their case to the European Court of Human Rights where their appeal was rejected and were given a criminal record.
In 2001, Steve Thoburn was convicted of two offences under the Weights and Measures Act as he was using scales not stamped by a Weights and Measures Inspector and were not permitted for commercial use.
Colin Hunt was convicted in 2001 of six offences under the Price Marking Order for failing to display a unit price per kilogram.
Jon Dove and Julian Harman were also convicted for failing to display a unit price per kilogram and of two offences of using a scale that was only capable of weighing in the imperial system.
In 2008, Nic Davison was served with an infringement notice for selling draught beer by the litre at his Polish restaurant in Doncaster.