But one cause has brought together characters as diverse as Clive Anderson, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, JK (Harry Potter) Rowling and Antony Worrall Thompson. The signatories appear to have little to unite them other than a possible tendency towards bloody-mindedness and a gutsy determination. But one cause has brought together characters as diverse as Clive Anderson, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, JK (Harry Potter) Rowling and Antony Worrall Thompson.
The naturalist Richard Mabey, actor Edward Fox and lyricist Sir Tim Rice have also taken up the cause, as have cricketer Ian Botham, astronomer Sir Patrick Moore, and writers Richard Ingrams, Keith Waterhouse and Jilly Cooper. And what they are agitated about are the rights and wrongs of selling a pound of bananas.They are part of a group of around 40 writers, sportsmen, actors and scientists who have agreed to become honorary members of the British Weights and Measures Association (BWMA), founded to defend imperial measurements.If that sounds archaic, their current dispute is very much an everyday one. The BWMA is leading the battle to defend Steve Thoburn, a greengrocer who appears at Sunderland magistrates’ court next Monday facing the threat of a £5,000 fine and six months’ imprisonment for selling fruit in pounds and ounces instead of kilos. Hundreds of members of the public have sent in donations for his defence fund. Up to 400 supporters will attend a fund-raising dinner in Sunderland this Saturday.

Enough money has been raised to pay for the magistrates’ proceedings but another £200,000 will be needed if, as predicted, the case goes to the House of Lords.The hearing rests on whether the European directives that imposed the use of metric measures for the sale of loose goods are legal. (Metric has been used for packaged goods since 1995.) Campaigners claim the case examines a fundamental point of law. Although the Lord Chancellor’s Department was unable to comment yesterday, campaigners believe the case will, for the first time, test whether European regulations introduced in Britain through statutory instruments – secondary legislation – can supersede more recent primary British legislation.With an ICM poll last month finding 91 per cent of people opposed to the prosecution, Mr Thoburn’s supporters believe that a decision against him could inflame anti-European sentiment just as the Government faces a general election. Clive Anderson, the barrister and broadcaster, said that although his support stemmed principally from a sense of nostalgia, the prosecution of Mr Thoburn seemed like “taking a sledgehammer to crack half a pound of nuts”. He said: “I follow the logic that the metric system is a standardising thing, but have never understood why if you want to sell a package in a pound system you can’t.” Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the explorer, said he felt very strongly about the issue, particularly as European officials objected to the imperial system because it gave Britain a competitive advantage by being shared with the United States “You don’t need to start doing this in a forceful fashion.

You could let this part of the EU gradually phase itself out of the imperial system,” he said.Robin Page, the former presenter of One Man and His Dog, said: “I think it’s a huge infringement of civil liberties. It’s amazingly childish and pathetic that an official should be so small-minded as to prosecute a man for selling a pound of bananas.We are having every feature of our lives dominated by this undemocratic state of Europe.”Neil Herron, 37, a Sunderland fishmonger and Mr Thoburn’s friend and official spokesman, said they had ignored the rules when they were first introduced because “a businessman had to honour the wishes of his customers”. “It isn’t the responsibility of shopkeepers to educate the public. In 16 years, nobody has ever asked me for a kilo of fish.” They were not opposed to the metric system, he said. “If some businesses find that metric is better for them then all well and good. But the criminalisation of ordinary hard-working traders because of a rule from Brussels is wrong We feel like Davids and Goliaths.

The people we’re fighting have as much money as they need from the public purse.”Vivian Linacre, director of the BWMA, said the last Act of Parliament consolidating English law on weights and measures was introduced in 1985. That authorised the use of metric and imperial measures on an equal footing. “Mere regulations enforced in compliance with EC directives cannot overturn an Act of Parliament,” he said.. Villagers who fear an invasion of visitors have blocked the National Trust’s plans to open the garden of the crime writer Agatha Christie’s former home to the public.

Villagers who fear an invasion of visitors have blocked the National Trust’s plans to open the garden of the crime writer Agatha Christie’s former home to the public.
The gardens and adjoining house, called Greenway, were bequeathed to the trust last year by the author’s daughter, Rosalind Hicks.But the centuries-old estateon the beautiful Dart estuary in Devon, requires a £2m programme of repairs and renovations. The trust intended to support the scheme by selling tickets to the gardens for 30 weeks a year.However, lobbying from residents of the nearby village of Galmpton, near Torquay, prompted South Hams district councillors to veto the plans just before Christmas.Now the trust has begun a lengthy and costly appeal to the Secretary of State for the Environment to try to rescue the project.The trust estimated a maximum of 40,000 visitors a year would visit the gardens and believed it could limit car disruption by encouraging the use of the local steam railway and waterside access.Planning and highway officials had no objections and recommended the scheme. But Alan Robinson, South Hams District Council’s chief environment and development officer, said residents’ traffic fears had tipped the balance for the councillors.”The concern was that potentially the whole background of Agatha Christie could have such fantastic appeal that how on earth would you actually control the number of vehicles,” he said.However, talks were continuing to see whether the problems could be overcome, Mr Robinson said.The 280-acre estate was used mainly as a holiday home by Christie, who was born in Torquay. Mrs Hicks and her husband, Anthony, have lived there for years but are now in their eighties. They decided to give the estate to the National Trust, but will remain residents at the home.Greenway lies in a prominent position at the narrowest part of the Dart estuary, creating a natural buffer against the encroachment of Torquay on what is an area of outstanding beauty.The gardens have been developed primarily since the mid-19th century and contain many rare plants, while the house dates from the 1700s with records showing that the site had been occupied for several centuries before that.The estate also includes a boat house and lodges They all have a Grade II or Grade II* listing..