The BWMA has a site for anti-metric activists; they now have no less than three sites. On this one http://www.bwmaOnline.com It has a rogues' gallery of metricators. The USMA, UKMA and Metric Sense Campaign by Lady Attlee figure on it too. And Greg is not missing either! And there are 'Anti-Metric Battleboards' too. Han BWMA - campaigning for inch-pound industries and consumer interests *****Metric Culprits**** Just who are the people who would have us all "go metric"? BWMA reveals some of the answers in this rogues' gallery of busybodies, bureaucrats and cowboys. Kim Howells MP, Minister for Consumer Affairs at the Department of Trade and Industry Mr Howells and the DTI's Consumer Affairs unit are directly responsible for government metric policy in Britain. They are also the government's chief implementators of metric directives emantating from Brussels. To ensure the metric gospel is heard as widely as possible, the DTI produces its leaflets in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese and Welsh. Visit the DTI's internet pages for consumers and businesses, and send your views on metric to the Consumer Affairs direct. Please keep complaints polite and sensible. J. Sainsbury Plc Sainsbury's supermarket, in common with other supermarkets, is a supporter of metric conversion because it can afford the conversion costs that its smaller competitors cannot. Sainsburys is also a metric downsizer. Whereas a pack of Sainsburys Four Rich Puddings used to weigh "4 x 4oz (113gr)", they subsequently weighed "4 x 100gr" with no price reduction. This meant prices had risen by 12% in real terms, despite signs in Sainsburys reading, "All Christmas puddings at same price or cheaper than last year". United States Metric Association Formed in 1916 to turn the United States over to the metric system. Still active, still trying. Well organised, seeks change by building networks with pro-metric elements within the US government. UK Metrication Association The Metric Moriarties to BWMA's Sherlock Holmes. Determined to turn Britain away from traditional units. Close ties with its sister organisation in the United States, and with Britain's National Federation of Consumer Groups. The UKMA's members are prolific letter writers and frequently cross swords with BWMA in the nation's newspapers. One Metre - the Canadian metric lobby Canada's move to metrics ground to a halt in 1983 when the government issued a Moratorium suspending compulsory metric conversion. Since then, it has been Canada's policy not to enforce the country's Weights and Measures Act requiring that metric be more prominent than traditional units. As a result, retailers continue to price and sell fruit, vegetables, meat and other weighed items in imperial units. Metric equivalents are offered only in tiny print. The purpose of One Metre is reverse the Moratorium, thereby compelling retailers to display metric units more prominently than imperial units. One Metre notes, "Without enforcement, the completion of metric conversion will never happen". Quite. Sunderland City Council Since January 1st, 2000, town and county councils have been vying to be the country's most dedicated metric bureaucrats. The title was seized on July 4th, 2000, US Independence Day, by Sunderland officials who, backed up by police officers, raided greengrocer Steve Thoburn and removed his lb/oz weighing machines. On January 15th, 2001, they commenced a criminal prosecution of Mr Thoburn - despite the fact that the 1985 Weights and Measures Act states clearly that lb/oz are legal. The Metrication Board 1969 - 1980 The Metrication Board with its staff of 67 was set up in 1969 to oversee Britain's transition to metric. It had no powers as such and could only advise and educate. The Metrication Board's 1977 and 1980 reports are worth a read. Britain's Metrication Board had equivalents across the Commonwealth: Metric Commission Canada (1971-1980), the Metric Conversion Board in Australia (1970- 1981), and the Metric Advisory Board in New Zealand (1969-1981). Herr Martin Bangemann Born in Wanzleben, Germany, in 1934. A former lawyer and Member of the European Parliament, Herr Bangemann became EC commissioner with responsibility for industrial affairs and telecommunication technologies in 1993. He was to implement the EC's metric-only labelling policy on January 1st 2000 and reputedly went berserk when Washington informed him that the United States was not yet ready to "go metric" in time for the EC's deadline. Herr Bangemann resigned form the Commission under suspicion of corruption in 1999. He recieves a �600,000 pension from the EC. UK Weighing Federation The UK Weighing Federation, like other organisations, was taken in by the DTI's claim that metric conversion would be legally compulsory from January 2000. As a result, it advised its weighing machine members to make the necessary changes to equipment ranges. In so doing, the UK Weighing Federation has followed the pattern of many organisations in that, having converted, it develops an interest in seeing the process followed through. The UK Weighing Federation complains that traders who refuse to buy metric-only weighing machines are making times hard for weighing machine suppliers. There are currently some 25,000 metric machines lying in warehouses unsold. Metric Sense Campaign This is a lobby that believes that the failure of metric to achieve common acceptance in Britain lies in the choice of metric units used, rather than opposition to metric units par se. The Metric Sense Campaign argues, for instance, that too many metric units are based on thousandths (millimetres, grams, millilitres) and that it would be better if they were based on hundredths (ie centimetres, dekagrams, centilitres). The person who runs the Metric Sense Campaign is also the Metrication spokeswoman for the National Federation of Consumer Groups. The European Engineering Industry Are these the "hidden persuaders" of compulsory metric conversion? European engineering representatives, including those of Britain, complain that the USA uses inch-pound tools and specifications. US industry spans the globe, building constructions such as oil platforms and other industrial installations using inch-based spanners and screw threads. When the Europeans turn up years later, nothing fits. Rather than showing initative and getting there first, the European engineers want to ban the inch. Danger rating: believed to be highly influential. Earl Ferriers The little known and best forgotton junior trade minister who signed the 1994 metric regulations, implementing EC directive 89/617 and compelling the use of metric, in spite of the 1985 Weights and Measures Act that clearly and expressly states people may use pounds and yards as alternatives to kilograms and metres.
