Shop starts selling meat in pounds and ounces after Britain voted to leave the EU
Butcher Darren Gratton turns his back on metric law enforced by the EU in 1995
A BUTCHER is selling meat in pounds and ounces for customers fed up of the metric system - after Britain voted to leave the European Union.
Gratton's Butchers is giving customers the choice to buy meaty goods in either imperial or metric quantities following yesterday's historic referendum result.
A law enforced by the EU in 1995 meant that all measuring devices used in trade or retail should display measurements in metric quantities.
But Darren Gratton said that a lot of his customers who voted Brexit wanted their meat sold in the older imperial method of pounds and ounces.
The butcher from Barnstaple, Devon, said: "The next step is to speak to North Devon Council and if they say we can go back to pounds and ounces then we will do.
"All the customers wanted it back in pounds.
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"It seems like in north Devon everyone's for it. I think it will be better for local farmers."
Darren said the shop's scales measured in kilograms but he could still work "with both" systems.
Weights and measures: Law in the UK
In 1972 Britain joined the Common Market—also known as the European Economic Community (EEC), which was rebranded in 1993 as the European Union (EU).
Under European legislation in 2000, it became a legal requirement to weigh and measure loose goods in metric and to provide metric price labelling.
This means every fishmonger, butcher or greengrocer must use metric weighing machines and provide a metric unit price.
Steve Thoburn, a Sunderland market trader, was convicted for selling goods only in imperial measures in 2001.
A number of traders, supported by the UK Independence Party, tried to challenge the Price Marking Order, claiming that it was unconstitutional and infringed their human rights. All their arguments were rejected by the UK Courts and by the European Court of Human Rights (to which they appealed).
The government still says you must use metric measurements (grams, kilograms, millilitres or litres) when selling packaged or loose goods in England, Scotland or Wales.
But there are different rules in Northern Ireland.
The only products you can sell in imperial measures are:
draught beer or cider by pint
milk in returnable containers by pint
precious metals by troy ounce
Finally you can display an imperial measurement alongside the metric measurement but it can’t stand out more than the metric measurement
There are two main systems for measuring distances and weight, the Imperial System of Measurement, which is done in kilograms, and the Metric System of Measurement which pounds and ounces.
The Units of Measurement Regulations 1995 required that all measuring devices used in trade or retail should display measurements in metric quantities.
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