I WAS absolutely furious to read of the fines doled out to the so-called five 'metric martyrs' last week.

Five decent, hard-working men providing a service for British people dared to sell their wares in pounds and ounces and were penalised for it. You couldn't make it up, could you?

It would appear not to matter that people are mugged and murdered, that our senior citizens are forced to live on a laughable pittance, that there are poor souls freezing in cardboard boxes on our streets, that farmers were driven to suicide by the foot and mouth fiasco or that parents are terrified to give their children the questionable MMR jab.

The wannabe 'People's President' swans round the world at our expense, secure in the knowledge that if Mr and Mrs Bloggs, aged 85, from 42 Acacia Avenue are allowed to buy one pound of bananas in their local market, some miserable little sneak will make sure it's reported to the correct Government department.

Ella Hirst,

Coggan Close,

South Bank, York.

...JULIAN Cole declares that the case of the 'metric martyrs' is a lot of fuss about nothing much, and that there are more important issues than what weight we buy our fruit and veg in (Evening Press, February 21).

In 1975 when we were "invited to vote" in a referendum whether the UK should remain a member of what was then called the EEC, a White Paper was published containing the assurance: "There will be no surrender of Britain's essential sovereignty."

The conviction of Steve Thorburn in the Sunderland Magistrates Court and the dismissal of his appeal in the London Divisional Court make it clear that primary legislation passed by Parliament is overruled by a regulation issued by the Commissioners in Brussels. In other words, Parliament effectively abolished itself by passing the European Communities Act of 1972.

So, the fuss is not about the relative merits of imperial measures, and metric, but the stark realisation that we were lied to and cheated in 1975.

We must be on our guard in case the Government stoops to similar duplicity when Mr Blair calls a referendum on the single currency.

William Harrison,

Queen's Court,

Fetter Lane, York.

Updated: 11:26 Saturday, March 02, 2002