Ban on a pound of bananas

Five market traders today lost their fight for the right to trade in pounds and ounces.

Two High Court judges decisively rejected the case of the "metric martyrs" and also refused them leave to take the case to the House of Lords.

The five were at the High Court, along with many of their supporters, including actor Edward Fox, as Lord Justice Laws sitting with Mr Justice Crane gave his detailed ruling.

Lawyers for the men had argued that making it a criminal offence "to sell a pound of bananas in order to please Brussels" threatened to cause a constitutional crisis.

The traders were all fighting convictions and court orders against them having defied weights and measures inspectors. They include Colin Hunt, a greengrocer from Woodford Green who has a stall in Dalston Market. He was ordered to pay £4,500 for continuing to trade in imperial measures.

Also in court today was Peter Collins, a trader from Sutton who appealed against the use imperial scales under the terms of his trading licence.

The other three traders are Steve Thoburn, a greengrocer from Sunderland, and John Dove and Julian Harman from Camelford in Cornwall.

Michael Shrimpton, appearing for the five, told the two judges during a three-day hearing: "It is a test case of constitutional importance, we say, and the public and the country are entitled to know what has been done in their name."

Mr Shrimpton described the traders as "ordinary men without means or higher education but whose patriotism and courage puts ministers to shame".

Mr Shrimpton argued that the 1985 Weights and Measures Act authorised traders to continue using imperial measures, even though the UK had signed up to the 1972 European Communities Act and became subject to European directives.

There was no "hierarchy of legislation" and the 1985 Act had just as much legal weight as the 1972 Act, he said. All five men were brought to court after the Government complied with European metrification directives which made it a criminal offence in 2000 to weigh and sell goods in imperial measures.

After losing his case last July, Mr Collins said: "I'll carry on and I'll take the consequences. I object to being told what to do by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. All my customers wants pounds and ounces. I'm not talking about pensionersconfused by the changes, but working-class people of all ages who don't welcome interference from Europe."

He added: I honestly cannot afford a new set of scales at £500. Ninety nine per cent of my customers want imperial and I don't see why I should stop serving them in this way."

After his brush with the law last year, And Mr Hunt remained defiant and announced he intended carrying on selling his produce in the old measures.

He said: "I have not changed my signs, they still show pounds and not kilos. I have never been asked in 30 years to weigh anything in kilos and I'm not about to start now. People say they don't understand kilos." He added: "I feel I have been picked on. There are 200 stalls in the market and we all sell in pounds. People keep coming up to me and say 'go on, son, you keep it in pounds, we don't understand kilos'.

"When it was introduced I thought it was bloody stupid, but I went along with it. But I can't understand why they are doing it and the public doesn't like it.

"My mum would have been proud of me."

Are ounces worth fighting for?