The true face of the European Commission

We received the following e-mail yesterday.
(I have added asterisks to the e-mail to avoid causing offence)

Original message
From: "John M. Jones" john.jones@cec.eu.int
To: metricmartyrs@btconnect.com
Sent: Monday, March 07, 2005 5:55 PM
youre a bunch of f***ing luddites. Metric has to win cos thats what we learnt at school. Long live England. long live metric, with 5 metricunits names after Uk scientists and 2 Uk directors of the metre bureau. The imperialists are dead in the water.
ps: what in hell are you actually defending?
look at great countries like australia and new zealand if you cant stand europe.
you luddites in england make me sick.

I then replied to Mr. Jones (e-mail copied below):
Looks like understanding (or writing) plain English is not one of your strong points. Read what the whole thing was actually about and not what you assume it was about. You probably didn't really pay that much attention at school either.
Love Europe.
Just can't abide the corrupt, profligate undemocraticEuropeanUnion, and object to having laws made by the unaccountable.
You wouldn't happen to have a vested interest in the institution, would you?
Look forward to your reply.
ps. No comment on great countries...USA?
Are they metric? Being a luddite I couldn't even spell Apollo...was he the Greek god named after US metric moonrockets or sumfink?
When you know what you're talking about I'll send you a couple of tickets to the real world where we live... assuming that you would have someone for theother ticket.
Loser!

What then followed was a lengthy missive from him which I have copied below. However, it concerned me that this gentleman was, because of his e-mail address, working for the European Commission in some capacity. He was using resources paid for by the taxpayer to conduct his private, and offensive business. His reply below is followed up with my response in the next blog posting above.

With all due respect, Mr Herron,
(a) you do not understand British humour and
(b) I suggest you are the one in need of a ticket to the real world.
Bar the obvious exception of the United States, which I take it is the only´great´ country you could think of, the rest of the world is totally metric.
Go and see for yourself if you don´t believe me.
Take a tour of Europe to start with (just put the EU out of your mind first) and make sure you visit the Republic of Ireland which successfully switched to metric road signage in January.
You say you like Europe but not the EU.
Well,take your choice.
All the EU countries are fully metric, even little old Malta (funny that they should want to join such a corrupt outfit as the EU) and our own dependency Gibraltar, staunchly British but not ashamed to have metric road signage and no les British for it. And of course part of the EU too.
You prefer the English speaking world? (I guessed!)
Most people like you do.
Well, try Australia and New Zealand.
Great places, though I only knowAustralia. Fully metric because they want the best system of weights and measures and want to be part of the modern world.
Try South Africa. AnotherCommonwealth country and fully metric.
Try Canada.As to the EU, I won´t dwell on the subject because clearly it is something you dislike.
Shame.
Britain has played a vital part in shaping it over thelast 30 years. Without it we wouldn´t have any environmental regulation because the concept didn´t exist in Europe until the EU put it on the agenda.
I don´t suppose you see any link between the inexorable rise inliving standards in the UK over the last 30 years and Britain´s membership of the EU.
Well, you wouldn´t, would you.
Imperialists I have spoken to invariably hate the EU and see metrication as a product of Brussels.
Clearly most of the world does not see it that way.The modern metric system is the only way forward for Britain and has benefited from substantial input from British scientists and workers. 5metric units are named in honour of UK scientists.
I won´t bore you with them as you are mainly concerned with trying to stop the progress of kilometres and kilograms. But if you don´t like metric, don´t ever use electricity because the whole system is metric.
Come to that, don´t buy a car either. It was all designed in metric.
I could go on, but I don´t want to waste your time.
Completing metrication in our country is in the national interest and patriots support the country´s progress. Blocking progress and naturaldevelopment is undemocratic and unpatriotic. My great-grandfather demonstrated against the great evil invention of his time, the motor car.He was the equivalent of the imperialist of his day (to think of it, why dowe need an imperial system? We don´t have an empire. And the empire we hadis totally metric).
I trust you will have found the English more to your own accustomed standard this time. There is little point in continuing this dialogue though because we will probably not agree on anything.I won´t have convinced you of anything, I know.
Your motto is: don´t confuse me with the facts, I´ve made up my mind.
And as for your insults, if you need to resort to them in order to bolster your argument, then you´ve really lost it, haven´t you? So who´s the real loser?
Don´t bother replying.