Trading standards should not waste time with froth – Euro-MP

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 9th Oct 2002

Worcestershire Liberal Democrat Euro-MP Liz Lynne called on trading standards officers to stop wasting time with frothy issues after they have threatened to prosecute a Worcester bar for selling Austrian beer in traditional litre steiners.

Liz, who two years ago attacked Sunderland trading standards officers for prosecuting a greengrocer for using imperial measures as “using a sledgehammer to crack a nut”, said: “Metric measurements have been legal in the UK since 1864. If they were good enough for Queen Victoria, they are good enough for the patrons of the Cardinal’s Hat.

“Fundamentally though, this is an issue of personal choice. As long as no one is being served short measures what does it matter if they have a pint or a litre? No-one is being conned here and no-one is losing out. Trading standards are overstepping their mark here, wasting taxpayers money in making criminals out of honest publicans.”