Letter to David Cameron - 25th March 2006
David Cameron MP
Leader of the Opposition
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Dear David,
Thank you for previously supporting the Metric Martyrs campaign with your letter of 20th December 2002 (copy enclosed for your information) in which you stated that you did not believe that the Metric Martyrs should have been prosecuted, and please accept my congratulations on your new position.
In you letter you also stated that it is still permissable to use 'supplementary indications', but that this practice will end after 2009.
I would be grateful if you could confirm that your party will continue to oppose the Weights and Measures (Metrication Amendments)
Regulations 2001 and confirm that should you become the next party of Government then you will strike down this piece of legislation, which will make it an offence to make any reference to imperial measures.
As we have repeatedly stated, our campaign is not anti-metric, just pro the freedom of choice that has existed since 1897.
There are wider implications for trade, which I am sure that the current Government has not even considered, and not just for the smaller retailers in the domestic market. I am sure that the Government believed that by 2009 the whole 'metrication mess' would have been sorted out and it would cease to be politically contentious.
It is quite clearthat this is most certainly not the case, and it is still a highly contentious political issue, and an easily understood, symbolic one at that.
As a campaign we have successfully prevented ANY further prosecutions under the metrication regulations, and after the recent attempt by the UK Metrication Association to raise the issue of metricating the roads, we created the necessary egg on Blair's face for that one to such a degree that he had to agree with Alistair Darling that the Government had no such intention.
We intend to create the same head-on confrontation with regard to the 2009 legislation.
You may also be aware of the pressure we are creating with regard to the 'wrongly decided' Metric Martyrs Judgment by creating a constitutional conflict involving the Bill of Rights 1689 and the 1991 Road Traffic Act, using the LJ Laws 'Thoburn Judgment' as a legal precedent.
As well as exposing Decriminalised Parking Enforcement (DPE) as being constitutionally suspect, should the Judgment be correct, our campaign group has also exposed massive and serious flaws in the technical operation and implementation of DPE nationally (Owen Patterson MP has been kept fully in the loop on this aspect) and many local authorities are now facing serious legal and financial consequences as a result.
Our campaign group is also heavily involved in continuing to expose the unwanted and unaccountable, unelected regional assemblies across the country, and as Bernard Jenkin will testify, we played a pivotal role in the North East referendum and we agree that these wasteful bodies must be disbanded and the powers restored to local authorities.
To summarise therefore, I would be grateful if you could clarify yours and the Conservative Party's position with regard to the above Metrication legislation, esecially in relation to the 2009 deadline and would be grateful for a clear endorsement of the statement below:
In May 2004, as Shadow Secretary of State for the Regions, Bernard Jenkin confirmed that:- "Conservatives would reinstate the right to sell (loose) goods in pounds and ounces. Conservatives are on the side of consumer choice, small businesses and the pound ... in all its forms."
My very good friend, the late Steven Thoburn was one of only four men ever convicted under the metrication regulations and he took that criminal conviction to the grave at the age of 39. We will not rest until that conviction is overturned or quashed.
I look forward to hearing from you, and as the subject hasbeen a very emotive one for the vast majority of the British public, I am sure that they, along with myself, are also looking for a straightforward, common sense answer as well.
Yours sincerely
Neil Herron
Campaign Director
Metric Martyrs Defence Fund
Leader of the Opposition
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Dear David,
Thank you for previously supporting the Metric Martyrs campaign with your letter of 20th December 2002 (copy enclosed for your information) in which you stated that you did not believe that the Metric Martyrs should have been prosecuted, and please accept my congratulations on your new position.
In you letter you also stated that it is still permissable to use 'supplementary indications', but that this practice will end after 2009.
I would be grateful if you could confirm that your party will continue to oppose the Weights and Measures (Metrication Amendments)
Regulations 2001 and confirm that should you become the next party of Government then you will strike down this piece of legislation, which will make it an offence to make any reference to imperial measures.
As we have repeatedly stated, our campaign is not anti-metric, just pro the freedom of choice that has existed since 1897.
There are wider implications for trade, which I am sure that the current Government has not even considered, and not just for the smaller retailers in the domestic market. I am sure that the Government believed that by 2009 the whole 'metrication mess' would have been sorted out and it would cease to be politically contentious.
It is quite clearthat this is most certainly not the case, and it is still a highly contentious political issue, and an easily understood, symbolic one at that.
As a campaign we have successfully prevented ANY further prosecutions under the metrication regulations, and after the recent attempt by the UK Metrication Association to raise the issue of metricating the roads, we created the necessary egg on Blair's face for that one to such a degree that he had to agree with Alistair Darling that the Government had no such intention.
We intend to create the same head-on confrontation with regard to the 2009 legislation.
You may also be aware of the pressure we are creating with regard to the 'wrongly decided' Metric Martyrs Judgment by creating a constitutional conflict involving the Bill of Rights 1689 and the 1991 Road Traffic Act, using the LJ Laws 'Thoburn Judgment' as a legal precedent.
As well as exposing Decriminalised Parking Enforcement (DPE) as being constitutionally suspect, should the Judgment be correct, our campaign group has also exposed massive and serious flaws in the technical operation and implementation of DPE nationally (Owen Patterson MP has been kept fully in the loop on this aspect) and many local authorities are now facing serious legal and financial consequences as a result.
Our campaign group is also heavily involved in continuing to expose the unwanted and unaccountable, unelected regional assemblies across the country, and as Bernard Jenkin will testify, we played a pivotal role in the North East referendum and we agree that these wasteful bodies must be disbanded and the powers restored to local authorities.
To summarise therefore, I would be grateful if you could clarify yours and the Conservative Party's position with regard to the above Metrication legislation, esecially in relation to the 2009 deadline and would be grateful for a clear endorsement of the statement below:
In May 2004, as Shadow Secretary of State for the Regions, Bernard Jenkin confirmed that:- "Conservatives would reinstate the right to sell (loose) goods in pounds and ounces. Conservatives are on the side of consumer choice, small businesses and the pound ... in all its forms."
My very good friend, the late Steven Thoburn was one of only four men ever convicted under the metrication regulations and he took that criminal conviction to the grave at the age of 39. We will not rest until that conviction is overturned or quashed.
I look forward to hearing from you, and as the subject hasbeen a very emotive one for the vast majority of the British public, I am sure that they, along with myself, are also looking for a straightforward, common sense answer as well.
Yours sincerely
Neil Herron
Campaign Director
Metric Martyrs Defence Fund
posted by Neil Herron at 4:23 AM
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