UK fruit peddler to be tried for not using metric scale

[David S]

'Metric martyr' opts for a trial 
 
Janet Devers faces charges under the Weights and Measures Act
An east London market trader has chosen to be tried by a jury for allegedly breaking metric laws.
Janet Devers, who has a fruit and veg stall at Ridley Road Market in Dalston, is accused of using imperial weighing scales without an official stamp.

Officers from Hackney Council, which is bringing the prosecution, seized the 63-year-old's scales saying she failed to follow European Union (EU) rules.

Mrs Devers will next appear at Thames Magistrates' Court on 7 March.

The trader, from Wanstead, north-east London, faces 13 charges under the Weights and Measures Act.

Full story at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7196583.stm

Well I'm not from the UK so I suppose I shouldn't care, but it sure seems like a dumbass move by an out of control big government to me.
 

[Хahar 🤔]

Not the first time.

[afleitch]

Good!

What's the point of being educated in metric, as I was to be faced with imperial measures when I head to the market. If she offered her customers a choice, labelling in both metric and imperial then she wouldn't have been dragged through all this.

[John Dibble]

Good!

What's the point of being educated in metric, as I was to be faced with imperial measures when I head to the market. If she offered her customers a choice, labelling in both metric and imperial then she wouldn't have been dragged through all this.

But why should it be a crime? Who the hell is harmed by a store using imperial measurements rather than metric? If there's a scale there to tell you how much something weighs in imperial measurements, you can't argue that the store is cheating you or anything like that.

[afleitch]

Good!

What's the point of being educated in metric, as I was to be faced with imperial measures when I head to the market. If she offered her customers a choice, labelling in both metric and imperial then she wouldn't have been dragged through all this.

But why should it be a crime? Who the hell is harmed by a store using imperial measurements rather than metric? If there's a scale there to tell you how much something weighs in imperial measurements, you can't argue that the store is cheating you or anything like that.

The consumer is ultimately harmed if they cannot calculate how much of a certain foodstuff they are buying. I'd feel exactly the same with 'metric only' scales.

[Storebought]

I like it when the British casually use their own system, like in an episode of Are You Being Served, Mr Rumbold says, "I'm not going to lie to your wife and say that you were 90 miles away (from London) in Birmingham"

But they cross the line when they use the old money, as in, "These baby shoes are fourteen shillings five pence three farthings". Seriously, how much is that in real money?

[David S]

Good!

What's the point of being educated in metric, as I was to be faced with imperial measures when I head to the market. If she offered her customers a choice, labelling in both metric and imperial then she wouldn't have been dragged through all this.

Well how about if you just passed up this vendor and moved to the next one down the line?

[afleitch]

Good!

What's the point of being educated in metric, as I was to be faced with imperial measures when I head to the market. If she offered her customers a choice, labelling in both metric and imperial then she wouldn't have been dragged through all this.

Well how about if you just passed up this vendor and moved to the next one down the line?

As a consumer, why should I?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

This story again?

[dead0man]

Good!

What's the point of being educated in metric, as I was to be faced with imperial measures when I head to the market. If she offered her customers a choice, labelling in both metric and imperial then she wouldn't have been dragged through all this.

Well how about if you just passed up this vendor and moved to the next one down the line?

As a consumer, why should I?

Right, why should he when he can use the power of government to get his way?

[David S]

Good!

What's the point of being educated in metric, as I was to be faced with imperial measures when I head to the market. If she offered her customers a choice, labelling in both metric and imperial then she wouldn't have been dragged through all this.

Well how about if you just passed up this vendor and moved to the next one down the line?

As a consumer, why should I?

If she was selling over-ripe bananas wouldn't you just pass her by and go to another peddler who had fresh bananas?
If she is not offering what you want then you just go to a different source.
Why do you need the government to charge her with a crime?

[Хahar 🤔]

But they cross the line when they use the old money, as in, "These baby shoes are fourteen shillings five pence three farthings". Seriously, how much is that in real money?

Now that's indecipherable.

[John Dibble]

The consumer is ultimately harmed if they cannot calculate how much of a certain foodstuff they are buying. I'd feel exactly the same with 'metric only' scales.

That's the best you can do? Seriously afleitch, I expect better from someone of your intellect. At best you can make the case for that being inconvenient, but to call that harm is completely ludicrous and you know it. I mean think about it - this woman runs a vegetable stall. How many recipes call for "2 kilograms of tomato and .5 kilograms of potato"? Recipes call for stuff like "2 medium sized tomatoes and half a potato". For ingredients that require precise measurements you'd generally use your own measuring instruments anyways. Those who actually require their vegetables to be bought in kilograms and pounds are probably going to be restaurants and the like who are going to buy in bulk anyways, meaning not from a roadside vegetable stall.

[afleitch]

The consumer is ultimately harmed if they cannot calculate how much of a certain foodstuff they are buying. I'd feel exactly the same with 'metric only' scales.

That's the best you can do? Seriously afleitch, I expect better from someone of your intellect. At best you can make the case for that being inconvenient, but to call that harm is completely ludicrous and you know it.

Okay I was a bit strong in the language but look at it this way; would a consumer be incovenienced if weights and measures varied from store to store and supplier to supplier? (Which is an interesting question actually; I wonder what measurements this woman uses when ordering from her supplier?) In an isolated example, yes perhaps not as you can move to the next stall, but on a wider scale is damaging and indeed was to British consumers and foreign and internal suppliers before the regulations took effect.

I'm not against uniformity - I don't care if she wishes to sell her produce in imperial measures (as many still do, with metric just below it) but to make the conscious choice to not use dual scaling for the benefit of all her customers is not really something to be admired

, but this woman if you knew the context of cases like these has disregarded both law and convenience and chose to use imperial scales only

[dead0man]

Right, she should use both scales.  Not using both scales is probably going to hurt her business.  But what kind of a "free" country puts their citizenry on trial for using the wrong system of weights and meassures?  How can so many of you be ok with it?  What's next, a yearly tax to own a TV?

[2952-0-0]

What's next, a yearly tax to own a TV?

Britain has had this for more than 60 years to fund the BBC.

[Bono]

What's next, a yearly tax to own a TV?

Britain has had this for more than 60 years to fund the BBC.

Yes, hence why it's funny.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

What's next, a yearly tax to own a TV?

Britain has had this for more than 60 years to fund the BBC.

Britain, as Germany, as France, Japan I think too, just for the ones I know, these all got a TV Tax to finance their Public TV Channels (BBC for UK, don't remember the name for Germany, Francetélévisions in France, NHK in Japan). These taxes permit to create programs which are not only submit to the results of audience, because, maybe you know it, but it seems that the biggest audiences are not always the more interesting ones. NHK seems to be a very good channel, BBC seems to be enough good too, and there are also interesting and sometimes very interesting things on French and German TV.

To be back on measures:

It's funny to think that metric system was put in place and spread by... Napoleon, in it's nearly whole conquered Europe. It was one of the element of unification of this empire, when each region of Europe had its own measures, all different.

It's funny to think that now the British must use it, a long time after they have put down Napoleon and when France is no more at all the Empire and the major power it had been.

On this time of globalization, to me, here's the question concerning measures:

Will there be a only world measure? If yes, which one? The one from France (metric), or the one from England, or...euh...an other one?

Officially, it seems it is ruled, the official international system of measure is the metric one. Will it change with the fact the USA and the English-language dominate the whole world?

Personally, it currently sizes to me, if I can't speak with the whole planet by using my mother language (what a lot of people can do on this forum, and they have to be aware of their luck!), I could at least...euh... measure like the whole planet. We do with what we have...

[minionofmidas]

Janet Devers, who has a fruit and veg stall at Ridley Road Market in Dalston, is accused of using imperial weighing scales without an official stamp.

While of course her reason for not using a weighing scale with a stamp, and thence presumably not regularly calibrated is that they're not doing that for purely imperial scales any more, the reason for her trial is not (directly) her not using metric scale.