I'm afraid Mr Hodgson (Opinion, January 25) is not only out of touch with public opinion over the metric farce but also has his facts wrong.

No proper discussion took place in Parliament. Of course, metric has been in use in this country since the turn of the century but has always run second to the Imperial system still used by the US and the bulk of British people.

Units like the gram have no practical use, while confusion reigns over metric usage.

For example, cement is sold in kg bags, yet compost is sold in litres. Schools teach children in centimetres yet the building trade, which employs around 20 per cent of the working population, does not use centimetres.

The cubic system, so easily recognised in car boot capacity or refrigerators, is impractical in metric units and so the latter use litres, a liquid measure.

Nonsense, Mr Hodgson? I should say so. But have no fear, the EU Directive does not have the constitutional backing of the 1985 Parliamentary Act, so it will be interesting to see how the prosecutors fudge this issue.

-H.E. Parkin, Horam, Heathfield