I went along today with 10 other ARM members and supporters and here is my report. The occasion was a celebration of ARM's first year of operation since our famous Northampton raid last June, the beginning of ARM's direct action campaigning.

A leisurely drink at the Shakespeare Hotel was followed by lunch at nearby Hathaway's Tearooms. After lunch we saw the work of two activists amending four large black-on-yellow signs along the south river bank (opposite the Royal Shakespeare Theatre). These gave distances to nearby emergency telephones in metres in large, 3 1/2-inch size letters.

After being covered over with a layer of quick-drying cellulose paint, white reflective lettering was placed on the signs to give their true distances in the much more familiar yards (rounded to the nearest 10 yards). We then had time to cross over by the ferry and visit the (free) Shakespeare's Gardens and its beautiful flowers, shrubs and sculptures.

The ferry driver, seeing one of our party sporting a conference badge with the words: "Active Resistance to Metrcication" on it, said: "Aren't you 30 years too late?". After he conceded that he only knew his weight and height in feet & inches and pounds & ounce, he then tried to make up by proudly announcing the river Avon was '50 metres wide at this point'. Challenged further, he admitted that it had mean accurately measured in the past at 147 feet, whereby nearly the entire party pointed out to him that the river was less than 45 metres wide, not 50.

Following our stay in Stratford-on-Avon, a short journey was made to a nearby Midlands town where a total of 41 metric distances were replaced by attractive signs giving the correct Imperial distances. These were placed on a total of 10 cast-iron direction signs. ARM is not disclosing the location of this town at present but plans to do so later in the summer. The project in this area is uncompleted.

ARM maintains that all the signs we amended did not conform to the Traffic Signs Regulations before conversion by ARM. They were all 'distance signs on the highway' and thus covered by the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 1994.

ARM members who attended our first annual social/raid included: Wun Ton, Mile High, Pole, Ellie, Yardstick, Hundredweight, Q and Furlong.

Two came from Essex, two from Hertfordshire, two from Cambridgeshire, two from Northamptonshire and one each from Suffolk, Birmingham and London.

I took another training/action video which will be available from ARM in due course. The video shows the techniques used in preparing and affixing the signs.

Passers-by in the Midlands town included a metric-educated man in his middle thirties who stopped to offer his total backing to what we were doing.

A total of 93 ARM postcards were sold on the day and we received one generous offer of further funding for our work.

Polly Peck

>The ferry driver, seeing one of our party sporting a
>conference badge with the words: "Active Resistance
>to Metrcication" on it, said: "Aren't you 30 years
>too late?".

Love it.

>ARM members who attended our first annual social/raid
>included: Wun Ton, Mile High, Pole, Ellie, Yardstick,
>Hundredweight, Q and Furlong

Ah, battle names, I see...

>I took another training/action video which will be
>available from ARM in due course. The video shows the
>techniques used in preparing and affixing the signs

How are the plans for the first imperial suicide bomber going ?

Ralf

"After he conceded that he only knew his weight and height in feet & inches and pounds & ounce, ..."

Do you seriously expect us to believe that he knew his weight in pounds and ounces?

"he then tried to make up by proudly announcing the river Avon was '50 metres wide at this point'. Challenged further, he admitted that it had mean accurately measured in the past at 147 feet, whereby nearly the entire party pointed out to him that the river was less than 45 metres wide, not 50."

He probably did what a lot of people do. They convert feet to yards by dividing by 3, and then substitute metres for yards as a rough approximation. The error is around 10% which is fine in this case. It is only to give an idea of scale.

Still if you wanted to check you could have got your measuring wheel out.

"ARM is not disclosing the location of this town at present but plans to do so later in the summer. The project in this area is uncompleted."

Why not? Got something to hide have we?

"ARM members who attended our first annual social/raid included: Wun Ton, Mile High, Pole, Ellie, Yardstick, Hundredweight, Q and Furlong."

That'll put them on the map.

"Passers-by in the Midlands town included a metric-educated man in his middle thirties who stopped to offer his total backing to what we were doing."

His name wasn't Doggett by any chance?

I also notice you didn't mention the others who looked at you as though you were stark staring mad.

Regarding Pip's question to ARM, "Got something to hide have we?"

By way of explanation, Pip, a condition of these forums is that only historical direct actions are reported, not future ones, lest BWMA be accused of co-ordinating such action.

This is not to say direct action is illegal - this is currently the subject of a court case appeal. Copy the following link into your browser for background on the legal debate on direct action:

http://www.bwmaonline.com/Transport%20-%20Trial%20of%20Mr%20Bennett.htm

It says at the bottom "Respond to this message", so here goes: - Heartwarming, basically. Well done all of you!.