There will no doubt be a lot of support from customers in and around Bradford for Shipley MP Philip Davies's campaign to allow shopkeepers to sell goods solely in imperial measures. There was confusion over the switch to metric and many people still have failed to get to grips with it. If prices are quoted in metric only, they have very little idea of just what value for money that represents.

However, it is hard to know what will be gained from a return to imperial measures alone. Young people are taught in metric. Many of the people from the former Eastern European countries who now live in Bradford grew up with it. A return to imperial would not be helpful to them.

Perhaps this is something best left to individual traders to decide. As the president of Bradford Chamber of Trade points out, they have spent money having their scales converted to metric and would be reluctant to have them converted back.

The best pricing system surely is the dual one now employed by many traders (against the spirit of the law). If shoppers prefer to buy in pounds and ounces, let them. What is important is that the traders know how to convert that into metric when they put the goods on the scale so that nobody loses out.

They will find that as time goes by more and more people are dealing in metric, which is being taught in our schools, and the balance will change so that eventually imperial will phase itself out naturally. Forget the rules and the law. Leave it to market forces.