Campaigners have hailed a decision to allow traders to continue using pounds and ounces as a "monumental victory".

The move to shelve EU plans to enforce metrication by 2009 comes after a long campaign by pro-imperial groups, including the Metric Martyrs.

The European industry commissioner has ruled that imperial weights and measures can be displayed indefinitely alongside metric measurements.

Pro-metric campaigners said keeping the dual labelling system was "crazy".

Tory industry spokesman, Giles Chichester, said he had EU confirmation that the marking of goods using both metric and imperial systems could "continue indefinitely". [Ed. note: The Imperial system, a collection of English units, was legislated in 1824. Various units date back to Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and medieval times.

["The Metric Martyrs are a group of British food sellers and greengrocers who tried to sell their produce in imperial units only i.e. without reference to metric units. They were fined for failure to allow use of metric units and other offences. They fought the fines in a two-year court battle (2000-2002) which they ultimately lost. British law does not, as of 2007, prohibit the use of imperial units for this purpose; the group were fined for not using metric units simultaneously. The group has become a symbol of the anti-metrication movement in Britain. The main defendant in the case, Steve Thoburn, died of a heart attack in 2004." --Wikipedia]