FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 10th April 2001
The Metric Martyr Judgement - The Constitutional Implications

Lord Lamont Vice-President of the Bruges Group says:

"...this case was a tragic, illiberal, unnecessary and appalling waste of public money."

• The Metric Martyr Case, for the first time, sets a Legal Precedent that EU Law takes precedence over those created by our own Parliament. The decision yesterday confirms that our democratically elected law making process continues to be comprehensively subordinated to the EU. The criminalisation of the selling of a pound of Bananas is a tragic, illiberal, unnecessary and appalling waste of public money.

• The sovereignty of Parliament has been struck aside. When Edward Heath signed the Act of Accession to the EEC he gave away Parliamentary sovereignty.

• Undermines the democratic legitimacy of the 1975 Referendum because the British public only gave their consent to a Common Market. The assurance that the "essential national sovereignty of the UK will remain unaffected" was a false claim.