OUR Queen has been overruled. She has been told Sandringham Estate must stop selling wood in imperial measures within two weeks or trading standards officers will prosecute.

The Sandringham sawmill, on the Queen's Norfolk estate, has been selling oak and teak timber in feet and inches rather than metres, which is a criminal offence under European metrication laws.

The Sandringham Estate is in the process of securing a measuring stick. A spokesman said he hoped that from now on wood would be sold in metres with imperial measurements in brackets.

Only the European Union could be so stupid.

Bob Lewis,

Boothgate Close, Howden.

Updated: 11:49 Saturday, August 25, 2001