IN the great scheme of things, it is difficult to know what's so wrong with a market stall trader in Sunderland selling fruit and veg in pounds and ounces.

It is, after all, precisely what his customers want him to do.

And we doubt whether there will be any public interest served in taking him to court.

We appreciate that the law is the law, and we respect the diligence of trading standards officers in dutifully carrying out their statutory tasks.

But this was perhaps a suitable occasion to turn a blind eye.

The case of Steven Thoburn has already been hijacked by anti-European groups keen for any opportunity to paint Brussels in a bad light. Along the lines, no doubt, of Europe wants our weights and measures, then our pound, and next our independence.

However, while the initial drive towards metrication may have stemmed from our membership of the European Union, there is a strong case to phase out ancient imperial measures whether Britain remains inside or outside Europe.

It is a pity that the cause of Mr Thoburn is focusing attention purely on the European dimension rather than the common sense logic of extending the use of metric units.

There are, undoubtedly, a great number of elderly people baffled by the metric system. That is why a dual system of weights and measures is sensible.

Over this particular issue we must not be sidetracked into the European debate and lose sight of the fact that we need fully to embrace a system which is used across almost the entire globe, and has been taught in our schools for more than two decades.

For anyone under the age of 30, the notion of yards, ounces and quarts is as alien as the notion of centimetres, grams and litres is to most 80-year-olds.

While we must protect our culture and traditions, there is no merit in retaining a romantic affection for a system of weights and measures which has little or no relevance in the modern world.