Butcher gives metric measures the chop
A BUTCHER is giving his customers the choice of whether they want to buy their meat in pounds and ounces or in kilos and grams.
The UK may face up to two years of diplomatic negotiations before it can finally leave the EU.
But Darren Gratton says many of his customers want meat sold in imperial measures again, and that the majority of them voted Leave last Thursday.
The EU’s Units of Measurement Regulations of 1995 said weights and measures of items for sale must be displayed in metric. Draught beer and bottled milk were exempt.
This means that while companies are free to sell items in traditional British measures, they must also be marked in metric units.
Mr Gratton, of Gratton’s Butchers in Barnstaple, Devon, said the shop’s scales measured in kilograms but he could work in both systems. “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,” he said.
“Pretty much all the customers want it back in pounds.
“It seems to me like in North Devon everyone’s for Brexit. I think it will be better for local farmers.”
The move back to pounds has received support from the public.
Writing on Facebook, Reg Hicks said: “We should fully revert to our imperial weights and measures that we lost on joining the Common Market. Well done Gratton’s Butchers for taking the lead.”
David Heathfield agreed, saying: “Top blokes – I will be in for a pound of sausages!”
Others were more bemused, however, with Alan Careless wondering: “Do they want to pay in pounds, shillings and pence? Or groats?” Sharon Parkes added: “What next – will they be going back to feet and inches?”
The EU directive led to the formation of the Metric Martyrs, a group comprised of businesses who had been prosecuted for selling produce solely in imperial measures.
They included Steve Thoburn, a greengrocer from Sunderland who was convicted of using weighing scales which did not show metric measurements.
However, the part of the law which says beer in pubs has to be sold in imperial led to a Polish restaurant in Doncaster being threatened with legal action after it sold beer in halflitre measures in 2008.