Brussels bureaucrats want to banish the traditional British pint – along with pounds and ounces – within three years when the current metric system "opt out" expires. After that beer would have to be sold and served in metric measures. Anyone asking for a pint after the end of 2009 would be committing a criminal offence, warned David Delaney, of the British Weights and Measures Association. The Sunday Express 03/12/06 page 48