GUILTY OF GIVING WHAT HER CUSTOMERS WANTED Janet Devers the Hackney market trader who refused to comply with enforced metrication, was found guilty on Wednesday, 8th October, 2008, for the offence of selling in imperial - pounds and ounces - also for using scales that were not stamped and for selling fruit in bowls without a weight being shown, as do thousands of market traders up and down England. (Of course, the treacherous, vile BBC has for long snidely undermined British measurements by using alien metric measures at every opportunity.) The punishment Janet received for these so-called crimes was more severe than handed out to real criminals who had stolen, mugged and threatened others. She now has a criminal record, which means she will not be able to visit her relatives in the USA - and she has to pay £5,000 in court costs. Janet, whose mother ran the fruit and veg stall during the Blitz in World War II, said she was 'in shock' at the ferocity of the court. She said her customers understood pounds and ounces, and many did not understand kilos and grams, the metric measures which the European Union wants Britain to use. Pounds and ounces have been outlawed to comply with the EU's demands. This outrageous case was brought by one of London's socialist councils - Hackney in east London. The council pursued Mrs Devers whilst ignoring other traders on the same market who were of a different ethnic background and who were also selling unweighted bowls in pounds and ounces. Meanwhile, in an effort to smooth things over, European Union Commissioner, Günther Verheugen, has stated that guidelines will be set to stop this sort of case being brought by over zealous local councils like Hackney. While this sounds good, many believe it is just political smoke and mirrors. One such journalist to express this view is the no-nonsense Peter Hitchens, who writes in the Mail on Sunday. In his column on Sunday 19th October, 2008, entitled: "We're getting pounds and ounces back: Oh, and pigs might fly...", he refers to the "spiteful campaign against British customary weights and measures" and stated that there was "not a chance" of getting them back. In his opinion, nothing has changed other than an increasingly desperate Labour Government trying to curry favor with voters. In the letters page of the Sunday Telegraph, Jeffrey Titford (Member of European Parliament for the United Kingdom Independence Party), wrote: "Brussels, in the shape of a European Commissioner, Günter Verheugen, graciously gives us permission to keep using some of our imperial measurements indefinitely, but this does not change the fact that it is the European Union that is the driving force behind compulsory metrication and that it decides these matters, not the British Government. "It is fatuous to try to blame over-zealous officials from local councils for this unholy mess, because metric (kilos and grams) has been made our only legally recognised system of measurements and the councils are simply enforcing the law." Derek Bennett, in his 'Eurorealist' newsletter, comments: 'These little town hall tyrants imposing metrication and prosecuting honest traders for giving their customers the goods in the weights asked, are not implementing British law, but European Union law. It's not really that different to French police prosecuting their own citizens under Nazi laws in occupied France. Our officials impose EU laws in occupied Britain.' Writing on the same page, Jose O'Ware who is a member of the British Weights and Measures Association, summed up the situation: "At last the Government sees common sense on the continued use of imperial weights and measures. However, until it ensures the EU legislation is repealed, vindictive councils are still empowered to persecute and prosecute small traders.”