ETER Byrnes (March 18), in response to my earlier letter, writes that I "prey on irrational fears." If the EU directive goes ahead at the end of the year, then from January 1, 2000, all little shops, retailers etc., will have to get rid of their imperial scales and buy metric ones. That is fact, not fiction.

John Tomlin, Main Street, Billinge.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.