Just received this morning, a message from a London resident:

"You are a sad, sad lot of old fossils. Get a life".

I thanked her for sharing her thoughts.

Maybe it was Suzanne? Anyway, I may be from London, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't me.

No, it wasn't Suzanne, it was an Anna. Not a previous contributor, as far as I recall.

Note the collectivist bent:
We are a lot of fossils (plural) but we're only allowed "a" life (singular).
Everyone, get your own distinct and idiosyncratic lives! Only if you want to, of course; it's an exhortation not a command.

personally I am from the Devonian
and extremely well-preserved
as hardened sediment goes

I love it when they resort to insults, it makes my day!

Shame about those pre-teen fossils that still know their height in ft/in, weight in St/Lb and can kick a 30yarder better than Beckham!

Good stuff "Anna" !!!

Oh what a tangled web they weave !
July 17 2002 at 12:18 PM

Leave refused. No reasons given.

Section 2.2 of the ECA 1972 allowing ministers to implement EU laws overruling Parliament.

The concept that no Parliament may bind its' successors now destroyed.

Any directive rejected by Parliament even with a 100% majority can be overturned by a minister using powers under 2.2

Judges now making up the law of the land not Parliament.

Hardly trivial arguments. They strike at the heart of democracy which, if we walk away, will have been stolen from us.

This, I am afraid is now the start of the real battle.

Laws in a democracy must be made with the consent of that democracy otherwise there will come a point where something snaps......

***********************************

Where do THEY go from here ?
July 17 2002 at 12:26 PM

The Metric Martyrs continue the fight through the legal process on one hand and direct confrontation on the other.
The case cannot be swept under the carpet. It will not go away.
I suggest to anyone who is opposed to what we are fighting to go away and read the Laws judgment and then come back and say they are now happy that effectively we now have a written constitution according to Laws, and he, not Parliament or the people has created it, and effectively we are no longer in control of our own democracy.

Forget the system of measurement argument for a second and think what freedom you would be prepared to lose before you made a stand.

Greengrocers, butchers and fishmongers the nation over are going to continue to abide by the Act of Parliament and defy the Metrication Regulations and we await the first fine with interest.

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The above is quote from Mr. Herron posts on other
board. Apropos this I have a question:
dear fellow bwma board members I still do not
understand this.
"Section 2.2 of the ECA 1972 allowing ministers to implement EU laws overruling Parliament."

(I am not UK citizen or resident and not well-informed
about UK politics. I am bothered that there is a
"pass the buck" problem that is antithetical to
how representative democracy is supposed to work.
Unless I am mistaken, some sovereignty having been
given up, the Parliament is no longer responsible to the people. It can say "don't bother us it's not our
fault it's the EU overruling us" and the people can't
get at the EU and therefore have insufficient recourse.)

Am I simply confused about this or is there something substantive and interesting here. It seems as if
the elected body is no longer fully answerable to the electorate. This would be fascinating if true.
(even kind of shocking)
But maybe I completely misunderstand. Will anyone
venture to explain this " Section 2.2 of ECA".
Or point me to where it has already been explained.

The European Communities Act 1972 was the Act whereby Britain agreed to adopt existing and future European Economic Community law (now 'European Union' law). I have extracted the following from UK Law Online (http://www.leds.ac.uk/law/ham;lyn/european.htm):

"The United Kingdom joined the European Community (now called the European Union) on 1 January 1973...European law was incorporated into U.K. law by the European Communities Act 1972. Perhaps the most important provisions are set out in Sections 2 and 3.

"Section 2(1) of the European Communities Act 1972 states that:

'All such rights, powers, liabilities, obligations and restrictions from time to time created or arising under the treaties, and all such remedies and procedures from time to time provided for by or under the Treaties, as in accordance with the Treaties, are without further enactment to be given legal effect or used in the United Kingdom and shall be recognised and available in law, and be enforced, allowed and followed accordingly; and the expression 'enforceable Community right' and similar expressions shall be read as referring to one to which this subsection applies'.

"Section 2(2) provides a general power for further implementation of Community obligations by means of secondary legislation".

COMMENT BY TB:

It is because Section 2 became British law that we now apparently must, inter alia, give up pounds and ounces, give up the pint and the mile and the rest of British weights and measures and adopt European-style justice, under their 'Corpus Juris' proposals, which will:

1. replace the presumption of innocence in some cases by the presumption of guilt (e.g. in sex and race discrimination cases)

2. repalce jury trial and trial by lay magistrates by trial by professional i.e. state-paid judges

3. abolish the 'double jeopardy' rule

4. abolish 'habeas corpus' by providing for indefinite detention without trial (initially for 6 months, then renewable at 3-monthly intervals).

[NOTE: 'habeas corpus' - if the state detains you on suspicion of committing a crime, it must produce you in Court within 24 hours or release you (up to 7 days in the case of murder and serious terrorist offences)]

These measures - and many others there's no space to mention here - are in the process of transforming Britain from a country renowned the world over for its individual liberty and Parliamentary democracy, into being a corner of a Police state.

It was claimed when we passed the 1972 Act that the British Parliament remained supreme and could at any time decide to overrule European law. Following the Law Lords' decision on Monday [that our Parliament's Weights and Measures Act of 1985, insofar as it contradicted a 1980 E.U. Directive, was a complete waste of time ad space], we now have absolute proof (if we needed it) that we now have merely a rubber-stamp Parliament in Westminster with increasingly limited scope to pass laws on matters not (yet) covered by European law


Tony Bennett