CLEARING UP MISCONCEPTIONS
Steve Thoburn was not ‘anti-metric’ as some have tried to imply. He
dual-priced showing both imperial and metric. However, it was a criminal offence to have a sign with imperial only or with imperial more prominent than metric.
He also had metric scales and would serve anyone by the kilogramme should they so wish.
The simple fact was that his customers preferred and understood imperial measures.
His ‘crime’ was using scales which weighed only in imperial and the imperial scales had been ‘de-stamped’ by a Trading Standards Officer on a previous visit.
The court cases and campaign which followed would shine a light quite brightly on ‘Who Governs Britain’ with Steven Thoburn becoming a reluctant hero and ending up the most famous greengrocer in the world.
THE DEATH OF STEVE THOBURN
Then tragically and suddenly, shortly after the rejection of the appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, Steve Thoburn died on the 14th March 2004 of a massive heart attack. It was days before his 40th birthday.
The funeral itself saw thousands line the streets of Sunderland and pay their tributes … to one of their own. Steve Thoburn had left his mark on the world and a big hole in the lives of people who knew him. His death was reported around the world and tributes and letters of support flooded into the campaign.
Along with Steve’s widow Leigh we continued the fight to clear Steven’s name and the initial call for a Posthumous Pardon came shortly after the European Commission, in 2007, backed down and abandoned its enforced Metrication agenda.
