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EU stealing the crown of the great British pint
Last updated at 00:07am on 02.01.07
For more than 300 years, the stamp of the crown on top of a pub glass has stood as a guarantee that it is big enough to deliver a full pint.
But this British tradition has now fallen victim to the extension of the EU's tentacles into national life and the demise of UK manufacturing.
Critics fear the loss of the crown will be followed by the loss of the pint itself, with British drinkers being required to switch to continental metric measures.
Ever since 1699, successive governments have found it necessary to measure and certify the pint and half-pint glasses made and used in this country.
The rules, which were intended to assure suspicious beer drinkers that they were not being given short measures, meant a crown and certification number was printed on each glass.
However, the EU is introducing a standard European-wide system for guaranteeing the size and safety of glasses.
Consequently, the new glasses now appearing in British pubs and bars carry a CE mark - which, in French, stands for European Conformity'.
The loss of the crown is further evidence that the EU's grip on the nation's weights and measures is tightening.
Already greengrocers have been hauled before the courts for refusing to abide by EU rules that fresh produce must now be sold in kilos and grams, rather than pounds and ounces.
Conservative MP Philip Davies is concerned the introduction of EU-wide certification of glasses is part of a wider campaign to eliminate Imperial measures, such as the pint.
He said: "This is just unnecessary and over-the-top bureaucracy by pen-pushers at the EU. It seems they cannot help but stick their noses into more and more aspects of the British way of life, even if it has nothing whatsoever to do with them.
"It is sad that after 300 years one of our traditions is on the brink of extinction because the EU hates the fact that millions of people want a pint rather than a litre."
Neil Herron, campaign director of the Metric Martyrs, a group born after meddling trading standards chiefs prosecuted Sunderland greengrocer Steve Thoburn for sell produce in pounds and ounces, said he was "dismayed".
He said: "This is just another example of the drip, drip, drip approach to removing our national identity and I'm surprised the brewing industry hasn't kicked up more of a fuss.
"If Brussels ever tried to remove the pint, people would be up in arms, yet when it is trying to get rid of it by stealth, nobody has said a word."
The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) said the use of the crown stamp has been killed off by stealth, regardless of EU rules, as a direct result of the contraction of British manufacturing.
The manufacture of most pint and half-pint glasses has been shifted to the Czech Republic, where costs are much lower. Consequently, the glasses coming out of these factories automatically get the CE mark, even if they are an imperial pint.
Camra is more concerned that beer drinkers have been getting short measures on their pints for many years, regardless of whether the glasses have a crown stamp.
It is fighting plans by the Department of Trade & Industry to allow publicans to serve 95per cent liquid and call this a full pint without being prosecuted.
A Camra spokesman said: "We don't think it makes a difference whether it is a European mark or a crown mark, as long as customers are served a full pint.
"There are still plenty of crown-stamped pint glasses around although they are no longer being produced in any quantity. So once the last one gets broken the crown on the glass will be consigned to history."
The Trading Standards Institute, which also supports efforst to guarantee drinkers a full pint of liquid rather than 95per cent, said consumers are already familiar with the CE mark.
Spokesman, Bryan Lewin, said: "The 'CE' mark is on toys across Europe, on windscreens across Europe, on everything so there is no reason for pint glasses to be different.
"t means that every pint and half-pint glass produced conforms throughout Europe. It means we are all the same with one standard whether we live in the UK, France, Germany or Latvia."
Reader views (11)
Britain has done many things perfectly, their serving measures are one of those things. God knows what they are pouring over here in the US. I hope England holds there history and does not give into the euro fro!
- Tom Lopez, Yuba City, USA
Your identity -and mine- is a composite of a million little things. Bureaucrats have little to do but change and manipulate things in people's lives, and the more lower levels of bureaucrats they have under them, the more their power and importance increases. You Euros were on notice, as the aggrandizement of power of the U.S. Federal Government was clearly visible well before the EU came along. Now you've done arguably worse in Brussels. Good luck with that; fasten your seat belts.
- Rico567, United States
Imagine what the implications could be.
To think - one minute, the pint, the next, the Crown itself.
To use the "outdated" American expression: "Give 'em an inch, they'll take a yard!"
Is it really the beer you should be worried about? Or is it the loss of your imperial identity, ever-so-stealthily being eroded by the EU?
Do these two issues really coincide?
- Silvia, Utrecht, the Netherlands
"Two 600mls of lager and a packet of crisps please?" I don't think so somehow.
- Jk, Harpenden
Couldn't we pull a fast one on Europe by requiring that beer in the UK is sold in measures of 300ml and 600ml (slightly bigger "halves" and "pints") People won't like quarter and half litres not so much because they're metric, but because they're smaller than the imperial measures they are replacing, and because pubs and bars are unlikely to cut their prices in proportion to the cut in volume!
- Nigel, London
I think we should accept metric measurements and do away with the Imperial ones for beer. We are already used to metric for everything else. This will leave only the Americans using outdated pints, fluid ounces and inches, and good luck to them.
- Lmd, London
I tend to agree with Cliff from Oz. Let's just get on with it. Well over half the nation has now been educated with metric measurements. I'm sure a few wrinklies will complain, but they coped well enough with the switch from £sd to decimal coinage.
Lets just get it over and done with.
- Stephen, Guildford
It's been going this way since the fatcats in Brussels defied all reason and introduced a made up single currency rather than adopt the obvious choice, the pound. I can live without a crown on my glass but they'll never do away with the pint. I think there's something in Orwell's '1984' about a litre being too much and a half-litre just not enough.
- Keith, Farringdon
There is an answer to Cliff Steele's embarrassment and that is to become an Australian.
Our Pint pots have had the crown mark on them despite the fact that most seem to have been manufactured in France for years, so the point about manufacture in the Czech Republic doesn't hold water!
- Bill, London
Philip Davies' concerns, whether misplaced or not, now come a bit late in the day. Work on the Measuring Instruments Directive started well over 10 years ago, so it does not seem unreasonable to ask him, and any like minded politicians, why he waited until two months after it came into force to start bleating about it.
It is a sad reflection on the politicians in this country that whilst they are always ready to criticise others "after the event" (particularly if it involves anything to do with Europe), there is precious little evidence of their even knowing what is going (and much less doing anything about it) on whilst they have the possibility of influencing the outcome
- Chris H, Birmingham, UK
The sooner the UK gets rid of all Imperial measurements the better.
The image of Britain as a first world industrialised nation is tarnished badly by the continued use of an outdated system of measurement. Australia started the conversion to metric weights and measures after Britain but the job was done properly and efficiently.Meanwhile Britain is still muddling through and the British art of compromise has produced horrors like distances of 1.8 miles and petrol being sold in litres whilst fuel consumption is measured in gallons! Britains refusal or inability to adapt completely to metric units is viewed by the rest of the world as incompetent and arogant. Not the actions of a proud nation defending its traditions as many people in the British press seem to think. It makes me embarrassed to be an Englishman.
- Cliff Steele, Melbourne, Australia
