A petition to restore the 300-year-old Crown emblems which were replaced by ‘European Conformity’ marks on British pint glasses in the 2000s is picking up steam.
John Davies, from Runcorn, Cheshire, said the move would be “a gesture sure to symbolise the restoration of UK sovereignty prior to the country exiting the European Union”, similar to the planned return of the iconic ‘Old Blue’ passport design.
The petition has already won backing from figures such as Brexit campaign leader Nigel Farage and Breitbart London editor-in-chief Raheem Kassam.
Absolutely. Sign the petition! https://t.co/OFlbsNDYrn
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) January 3, 2018
“For more than 300 years, since 1699, the stamp of the crown on top of a pub glass ensured that it was big enough to hold a full pint,” the petition recalls.
“This British tradition was eradicated by the extension of the EU’s tentacles into our everyday life when the Measurement Instruments Directive (2004/22/EC) came into force in 2006. Since then, manufacturers have had to mark the letters ‘CE’ on newly-made beer pint pots instead of the traditional crown emblem.”
The ‘CE’ stands for ‘Conformité Européene’, or ‘European Conformity’, and indicates that the glasses meet EU-mandated weights and measures regulations.
Despite having served the same purpose for hundreds of years, someone in Brussels decided it was important that Britain’s traditional crown stamp — accompanied by the unique number of the Weights and Measures Inspector responsible for the factory where the glass was made — could not remain.
Restore the crown emblem to the British pint pot. – Sign the Petition! https://t.co/rKiO9fA8LN
— Raheem Kassam (@RaheemKassam) January 3, 2018
British pubs and breweries banded together to try and save the traditional pint glass when the regulations were being forced through, hoping to win a concession that the Crown could at least be used alongside the CE mark — but were unsuccessful.
“Under the Measuring Instruments Directive, which entered into force on October 20th, 2006, the CE mark has replaced the crown stamp to guarantee the accuracy of pint measures, including pint glasses,” a government minister confirmed in 2007.
“The directive does not permit the use of any other marking on the measure.”
The European Commission later offered a concession of sorts, allowing for a “Crown stamp look-alike” to be added to glasses as a mere decoration — but only “in such a way that is is not confused with the CE marking”, so it was not preserved in practice.
There was considerable upset at the time, with the Crown being supplanted not long after a group of greengrocers were penalised for selling exclusively in traditional pounds and ounces, rather than EU-mandated metric measures.
“This is just another example of the drip, drip, drip approach to removing our national identity,” commented Neil Herron, an activist had campaigned with the ‘Metric Martyrs’, at the time.
You can view the petition here.
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