YOU reported (LET, January 20) that Ribble Valley Tory MP Nigel Evans questioned Leader of the Commons Margaret Beckett, about the Government's persecution of greengrocers throughout the country for selling fruit and vegetables in pounds and ounces.

She replied: "It is most unfortunate that you should choose to chide the Government for the implementation of a directive that was agreed by the previous Tory government in 1989."

Nigel cannot have forgotten that when he last performed his anti-metric set-piece a short while ago, Mrs Beckett gave him the same reply.

As he fills his thirsty Jaguar with litres of petrol, he surely must remember that it was a Conservative government which abolished gallons; and as he pays the (heavily subsidised) bill, he must reflect that it was also a Conservative government which metricated the pound.

Mr Evans is clearly undisturbed by the hypocrisy of his grandstanding -- a pantomime which he calls "holding the government to account."

No wonder Labour ministers rub their hands when they see what is laughingly described as The Opposition.

G RAYNER, Whinney Lane, Langho.