In his main tale today, Booker recounts how metric martyrs Colin Hunt has been singled out for "harassment" by Hackney Council officials, in a classic example of how low-grade these jobsworths have become.
This is part of the ongoing saga which started last September when Hackney's trading standards officials seized two sets of imperial scales from a stall in Ridley Road market they thought was owned by Mr Hunt, when in fact it was owned by his sister, Janet Devers.
There is, however, a sting in the tail of this account of the latest machinations of the Hackney officials, in that Booker recalls how, as part of his campaign to highlight the state's erosion of our liberties, David Davis - now again MP - visited the market to talk to Janet Devers.
When Booker discussed the case with the new MP for Haltemprice and Howden, he records that Davis "seemed disposed to brush aside the metrication and EU aspects of her story." As with many MPs, this is not an issue in which they take much interest, despite its iconic status as a marker of the gradual erasure of our national identity by Brussels eurocrats and their fellow-travellers on these shores.
Writes Booker, if Davis really wishes to highlight the erosion of British liberties – where is has become a criminal offence for one Englishman to sell another a pound of apples - he may have to be rather more forthright about the part played in this by our government in Brussels.
It is one thing getting worked up about alleged terrorists being locked away for questioning for 42 days, but the man has been remarkably silent about that greater overall threat to our liberties.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The erosion of liberties
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6 comments:
The problem for any Tory politician raising the subject of market stall metrication immediately would bring the word Eurosceptic and party division into the ensuing criticism.
By such means is the necessary debate nipped in the bud and we are incremented further into bureacratic slavery from the unelected centre.
"It is one thing getting worked up about alleged terrorists being locked away for questioning for 42 days, but the man has been remarkably silent about that greater overall threat to our liberties."
Well, I have been commeting for some time, to anyone who would listen, that the PRINCIPLE Davis resigned on was that it was ok to lock people up for 28 days, but that 42 was a bit much.
That does NOT sound like principle. it sounds like pragmatism. My suspicion, after taking soundings, is that Davis resigned in a fit of pique over the dodgy dealings that Brown used to get the 42 days through, and then looked round for a a good justification...
How frivolous! On this side of the pond, we always mix our pounds and kilos. Mix, not mix up. We buy beef by the pound, milk by the gallon, soft drinks by litre/oz. We walk a mile, it's about 3 kilometers from the fire house to the library. Our temperature is 70 degrees F., but we freeze at 0 degree C. Illinois changes its clocks to summer daylight savings time, neighbor Indiana likes to stick with its standard time all year round. We survive pretty well without bureaucrats telling us which system to use.
The curse of "one size fits all". This is where the metric zealots completely miss the point - no one is "against" metric ... simply the making of it compulsory and thus the use of Imperial a criminal offence.
It is illegal to sell a "pound" of apples for the same reason it used to be illegal to sell anything other than a pound. Simply because we need one single set of measures that everyone understands. The kilogramme has now taken over from the pound, and not before time. This should all have been sorted out in 1979, and would have been had Maggie not taken it upon herself to politicise the debate. Metrication is a done deal, not because of Europe, but because of globalisation. Get use to it and stop wasting tax payers' money and market traders' lives dragging it through the courts.
So why are the Americans still using lbs?
In this day and age, it is very simple to use parallel systems of measurement, allowing people freedom of choice as to which they use ... with provision for dual marking as necessary.
It is only the anal purists who cannot stand the thought of competing and complementary systems and want total conformity.
Sorry, life ain't like that - all neat and simple ... get used to it!
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