Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

It is an honour and a privilege to be stood here today.

Many of you will be aware of the background of the case and the story of the Metric Martyrs.

We are just ordinary men who have drawn a line in the sand.

We did not ask to be here.

We do not want to be in the position we are in, but there comes a point that once you realise that the people you have elected to govern, have lied and betrayed the people, you have a choice.

Do you stand and fight for the principle or do you hang your head in shame and do nothing.

We chose to fight.

It all began on a sunny day nearly two years ago, on July 4th, when two Trading Standard Officer's assisted by two police officers seized 2 sets of scales from a certain Mr Thoburn in Sunderland.

As the case has unfolded, it has revealed more about how we as a nation have been betrayed by our own elected representatives.

The debate has never been about which system of measurement is better.

The evidence for that one is overwhelming.

The police do not look for a 1.85m tall, 90kg man in connection with a robbery. It's 6ft and 15 stone.

Nobody gets stabbed with a 142.4mm knife. It's six inches.

Beckham didn't score that goal from 22.3 metres. It was 25 yards.

And little Leo Blair was announced to the world's press when he was born as 6lb 12oz.

And they have the nerve and audacity to make it a criminal offence for Steven Thoburn and others to sell a pound of bananas, and try and defend it by saying that all the children coming through schools only know metric.

No, the debate which the Metric Martyrs case has created and the great British public has woken up to, is about how the politicians and officials of all parties have operated a policy of lies, stealth and deceit, not only with the metrication programme, but with the whole of the European project as well.

The first court case when the judgment was handed down in Sunderland. The judge said that in signing the 1972 European Communities Act, Parliament voluntarily surrendered its sovereignty to the European Union.

That judgment went against everything we had been told.

Sir Edward Heath, in preparing for us to join the Common Market, said that there would be no loss of sovereignty.

We are now told that sovereignty is pooled.

Sovereignty is like virginity - there is no intermediate state.

The criminalisation of Steven Thoburn awoke the nation.

Financial support flooded in enabling an Appeal to go ahead.

Steve was joined by other "martyrs", Colin Hunt, Peter Collins, Julian Harman and John Dove and their crimes -- "that you did display a sign which stated 'brussels sprouts 30p per pound.'"

All ordinary, hard-working men who simply want to earn a living without state interference. Men who are making a tremendous personal sacrifice to make the stand they are making. Men who are quite prepared to challenge the law, and the way it has been made, and they are prepared to go to prison for those beliefs and principles, if need be.

The appeal took place at the Court of Appeal in November before Lord Justice Laws and Justice Peter Crane.

I will read you some of the statements made by the judge in the case:

"I find it shameful that such a change (compulsory metrication) could be imposed without an act of parliament."

"If I had this case in a lower court then I would have halted it for an excessive abuse of process. It is wrong for men to be prosecuted under laws made so opaque that they would have to bury their heads in law books to know what the law was."

He also said "there should be members of the government in court to answer for their actions."

The crux of the case was that the 1985 Weights and Measures Act, which allows freedom of choice to use either imperial or metric, could not be overruled by secondary legislation - the EU directive on compulsory metrication.

It was the 1972 European Community Act, which allowed for the implementation of these EU laws, and as no Parliament may bind its successors, the later act should prevail, repealing the earlier.

Defence Counsel, Michael Shrimpton on one occasion said "Britain does not have constitutional acts, just acts" and was shot down by justice laws, who said "we are not in year one of law school."

He also said that Britain was still a sovereign nation and parliament still our sovereign law making body and then "I see no reason why the law of the UK should give way to the law of the EU."

On a number of occasions he said that the way the prosecution had been brought was shameful and troubled him.

The case concluded in November and work on the judgment was to begin immediately.

So we waited. We requested the court transcripts. They lost the fax.

We went to Brussels, collected the European campaigners of the year award from the European Voice, actually beating a certain Wim Duisenberg, president of the European central bank and his little campaign (propaganda budget 300m euros) - the launch of the euro rouble.

We pulled no punches and delivered a stinging address before a hostile audience. They knew we hadn't turned up for the champagne and lobster.

We came home. We had Christmas. Still no judgment and even to this day Justice Laws is refusing to release the tape or transcripts of the appeal.

Then after 13 weeks, we heard the judgment would be handed down at 9am on Monday 18 February.

Cynic as I am - what a good time to bury bad news, especially when Parliament was in recess and no-one would be available for comment.

The appeal was rejected. The judgment was damning.

"Common law had come to recognise that there are certain acts that are constitutional acts. There was thus a 'hierarchy of statutes'.

'We are not in year one of law school, Mr Shrimpton.' No wonder he refuses to release the tapes. The judgment is totally contrary to statements he made in open court.

Justice Laws effectively re-wrote every constitutional law book that had ever been written. The creation of hierarchical statutes allowed EU law to take precedence over UK law.

So there it was in black and white. What every euro-sceptic, euro-realist had been saying for years, only to be dismissed as alarmist, little Englanders or xenophobics.

A decision by a British judge in a British court that all EU legislation, drawn up by people over which we have no democratic control, overrules British law made before our very own Parliament.

The death knoll for democracy in this country. And the most galling thing is that it is our own elected representatives that have allowed this to happen.

The power which we, the people loan them for 4 or 5 years, they have given away to the EU, without our consent.

So, we have reached a crossroads in the future of this nation.

We stand up and fight and take control back or we hang our heads in shame and say we did nothing.

We owe it to our children to protect their birthright and we owe it to our fathers and grandfathers, many of whom laid down their lives to give us the freedoms we have today.

The 18th February 2002 was the day a nation woke from its slumber and the ordinary men and women in the street had their eyes opened to how they had been betrayed and all because 6 men had the courage to say - no more.

The case has exposed how the people of this country have been lied to and betrayed for the past 30 years by the very people who are the custodians of their democracy.

We were told in Sunderland, in court, that we willingly joined the club.

No we didn't!

We were lied to in 1972.

We were lied to in 1975. And they continue to lie. And the club we willingly joined "the common market", now with its own currency, its own parliament, its own bank, flag, anthem, army, police force, judicial system and shortly a constitution. A federal state not a common market.

In 1863 Abraham Lincoln gave a definition of parliamentary democracy that has never been bettered. In a Pennsylvania cemetery, he said that the men who lay beneath those headstones, died to ensure that "government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth".

Lest we forget those words, Mr Blair.

Mr Prodi, Mr Schroeder, lest ye forget.

The Metric Martyrs case has shown, above all, a refusal to accept tyranny, stealth and deceit, not only from the EU but also our own elected representatives.

The case, for all our sakes, must go on. We have lodged a petition with the judicial office to seek leave to appeal to the House of Lords and will know in a few weeks if this has been granted.

The fight must go on, and yet again we need funds to fight, not merely for our own costs, but to protect against the threat of prosecution costs, which are met by unlimited funds from the public purse.

We must not allow these men to stand alone.

We must not allow these men to face any financial consequence for defending our freedoms. These 5 men, 5 honest hard-working, principled men have shown that

They are the backbone of the nation.

They would be the ones first called to defend these shores.

They would be the first to volunteer.

These 5 men have more principle and moral fibre than 1000 politicians or 10,000 faceless bureaucrats.

If we ever lose this case then we have lost who we are as a nation and we will have had democracy stolen from us.

Edmund Burke said words to the effect that: "bad things happen when good men stand by."

This nation has a debt of gratitude to Thoburn, Hunt, Collins, Harman and Dove for not standing by.

They can threaten us, they can fine us, they can jail us but they will never break us.

We will never surrender.

We will win.

Contact:

The Metric Martyrs PO Box 526 Sunderland  SR1 3YS

Telephone:  0191 565 7143   metricmartyrs@btconnect.com