Metric Martyrs

The Metric Martyrs are an English citizen initiative, which advocates against the enforcement of the metric system of measurement and for the preservation of the imperial system. Chairman Neil Herron.

Background

With the accession of Great Britain to the European Union in 1973, the country had committed to the Anglo-American system of units in favor of a Europe-wide system, the metric system, give up.

The initiative began in 2000, after the two market traders Neil Herron and Steve Thoburn were instructed by the authorities of the English city of Sunderland, in the future, no weights with the units ounces (oz) or Pound ( lb) to use. After they refused, their weights were seized and both received fines against which they advanced and out of court. Thoburn complained to the European Court of Human Rights, where he in 2004 but lost permanently. In the same year Thoburn died of a heart attack. In the meantime, other market traders had joined the initiative. Support found the Metric Martyrs also in a number of British celebrities, such as comedian John Cleese, singer Elaine Paige or the author Joanne K. Rowling, who exclusively used in their widespread Harry Potter novels the imperial system of measurement.

Been converted from the EU Commission in a permanent derogation in May 2007 gave Günter Verheugen, EU Commissioner responsible for Enterprise and Industry, announced that the originally scheduled to expire on January 1, 2010 Exemption to the United Kingdom may use both systems of units in parallel, be. The Chairman of the Metric Martyrs, Neil Herron, welcomed the decision, but announced to continue the initiative until the court judgments canceled and the name of the late founder, Steve Thoburn, was rehabilitated.