BRITISH shopkeepers are demanding a return to measuring meat, fruit and veg in pounds and ounces in the wake of the Brexit vote.

Here, an EU legislation expert explains why he believes they should get their way.

5 Imperial measurements are still very much part of everyday life

THE criminalisation of retailers for daring to sell groceries in pounds and ounces was one of the biggest outrages of EU policy over the years.

Now an end to that injustice with the so-called “Metric Martyrs” is within sight.

The fanatics and bureaucrats — who are often the same thing — wanted to persecute shopkeepers just for using imperial measurements their customers understood.

5 Sir Bill Cash calls for return to imperial measures Credit: PA:Press Association Wire

How ludicrous is that?

The fact is that anyone who sits back for a second to consider the realities of life knows we still talk every day about gallons, pints, pounds, ounces and stone — and we all know what we mean.

Whatever the EU might have wanted, imperial measurements are still very much part of everyday life and I don’t hear anybody talking about the length of a cricket pitch as anything other than 22 yards.

There are many, many people in this country — millions, I would say — who still think in terms of inches and feet and yards, and fans of The Great British Bake Off will more than likely think of recipes in pounds and ounces.

5 Bureaucrats wanted to persecute shopkeepers for using imperial measurements Credit: Getty Images

We have a complete culture of traditional thinking on the subject of imperial measurements and yet metric was just imposed on us.

I remember taking part in the committee that looked into all this and the EU simply saying we had to comply because it was EU law.

We had no choice.

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The EU wanted to dictate to everybody the way in which they were supposed to make calculations, but that is going to change now because we are going to repeal the European Communities Act 1972 and other subsequent laws which made it illegal to sell a pound of bananas.

That is the way to make Brexit work. Achieving leaving by repealing.

There will be people who say, “I have been brought up at school being taught in metres and kilometres, and other metric units”, and that is perfectly understandable.

5 Fans of Bake Off will more than likely think of recipes in pounds and ounces Credit: BBC

They should not worry. There will still be grams and kilograms.

But there are many people who wish to return to traditional imperial measurements and there is no reason on Earth why they should not be allowed to do so, alongside metric.

The Americans, with whom we trade quite happily, have in many respects similar imperial measurement systems to ours — which is a help.

But no one would suggest that because we still use the Pound and drive on the left that we are incapable of dealing with Europe.

Now we are going to have our own jurisdiction again, but there is no reason why we can’t have our own version of laws that work parallel to Europe’s where it suits us — on employment, health and safety, and mobile roaming charges, for example.

5 Cash says there no reason why we can’t have our own version of laws that work parallel to Europe’s Credit: Getty Images

Why can’t we have our own version of a measurement system?

We need to take a really strong line on this because we are no longer going to be pushed around in having exclusively metric measurements just because the European Commission says we have to.

We will do things our own way and, in typically British fashion, be helpful to people who want their measurements one way but also respect those who want them another way, while recognising the realities of life.

The outrage of the Metric Martyrs must never be allowed to happen again.

— Sir Bill Cash is the Conservative MP for Stone, Staffs

10 OTHER WAYS TO SAY UP YOURS TO EU

The Sun is calling for the return of blue Brit passports, ditched for EU-backed burgundy.

Restore our once-proud fishing industry, scrapping tough EU quotas.

Axe EU-imposed VAT on gas and electric for cheaper energy bills.

Have cleaner carpets by swapping weak, EU-regulated vacuums for powerful ones.

Have drier hair by avoiding planned EU energy rules on powerful hairdryers.

Defend our morning tea and toast by using appliances free of energy constraints.

See the light by bringing back the incandescent bulb, phased out by EU regs.

Reclaim “jam”, as the EU says less than 60 per cent sugar means it’s a “fruit spread”.

Recycle tea bags, which a council banned amid EU fears over spreading disease.