With Yeoman Hague's election pledge to 'keep Britain independent' and 'give us back our country' still echoing around the LRB office, a press release arrives on the Short Cuts desk from those brave crusaders against all things metric, the British Weights and Measures Association. There is apparently to be an appeal against the recent ruling that it is illegal to sell fresh food in imperial measures - good news for 'Metric Martyr' Steve Thoburn, the Sunderland market stall trader fined for selling his bananas in pounds and ounces. 'I wake up at night in a panic,' Thoburn has said, 'and try and work out how my mates and I could find ourselves persecuted for selling fruit and veg.'

LRB 24 May 2001 | PDF Download