Metric Martyrs

The Metric Martyrs are a British advocacy group based in the United Kingdom who campaign for the freedom to choose what units of measurement are used by traders. The group states that it believes that vendors should have the freedom to mark their goods with any units they choose. This can be solely imperial units, solely metric units or both.

This opposes the current legal position that imperial units may be used so long as metric units are also displayed.

The advocacy group was formed by individuals who had been accused of offences related to selling loose produce using imperial measures, including not displaying metric signage, and for using unstamped weighing machines (which had had their stamps removed by the authorities). Newspapers dubbed the group the 'metric martyrs' after Chris Howell, then weights and measures spokesman for the Institute of Trading Standards Administration (today the Trading Standards Institute), said that they could martyr themselves if they wanted to.

In 2001 Steve Thoburn, the main defendant in the original case, was convicted of two offences under the Weights and Measures Act of using weighing equipment that was not stamped by a Weights and Measures Inspector. The stamps had been obliterated because the scales were not capable of weighing in the metric system as well as imperial, and hence were no longer permitted for commercial use. He was initially convicted and given a six-month conditional discharge. In Thoburn v Sunderland City Council the fines were challenged in court; the verdict was in favour of Sunderland City Council, upholding the imposition of the fines. The challenges were made on the grounds that British law does not prohibit the use of imperial units when selling loose goods, but metric units must be displayed simultaneously.

The Magistrates' Court's decision was upheld on appeal by the Divisional Court. A petition for leave to appeal to the House of Lords was refused, as was an application to the European Court of Human Rights (alleging a breach of the right to a fair trial).

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