Birth is a weighty matter for the PM
I WOULD like to congratulate David and Samantha Cameron on the birth of their daughter, who weighed in at a healthy 6lb 1oz.
It is nice to see they have followed in the footsteps of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, who both announced the birth weights of their children in Imperial measures.
The difference with the Labour prime ministers and Mr Cameron was that their Government was actively prosecuting market traders and shopkeepers for using such Imperial measures.
When the late Steve Thoburn's son Jay was born in 2002, he announced the birth weight as 3,790 grammes, and said: "If birth weights were announced in metric, most people wouldn't have a clue whether the baby was the size of a small tomato or a premature hippopotamus."
Let us hope Mr Cameron and the coalition do the decent thing and announce it will be the intention of this Government to move towards a pardon for the five 'Metric Martyr' traders convicted under the Metrication Regulations, and posthumous recognition for Steve.
It should let justice prevail, allowing us to finally inch towards a victory for common sense.
Neil Herron,
Campaign director,
Metric Martyrs Defence Fund.
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Weather for South Shields
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Light sleet showers
Temperature: -1 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 1 C to 6 C
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