Seconds out: MP Jacob Rees-Mogg fights for Somerset’s own time zone
Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has said why he is trying to change the law to give Somerset its own time zone.
The North East Somerset MP has tabled amendments to a Private Member’s Bill that will be discussed tomorrow suggesting the county should set its own time.
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Jacob Rees-Mogg
One says: “The county of Somerset as defined by the Lieutenants Act shall revert to the customary time used prior to the Great Western Railway time established in 1840.”
Until then, times were different across the country, based on the position of the sun, with Plymouth some 20 minutes behind London, which was on Greenwich Mean Time. The coming of the railways meant a need to standardise time, so that timetables made sense, although the move was resisted by many places, and GMT only became the law in 1880.
In Bristol, where local time was ten minutes behind London, public clocks had a second minute hand, so they showed the time both locally and in the capital.
Mr Rees-Mogg opposes the campaign to move the clocks forward by an hour, which supporters say will save money and lives, and boost tourism.
He told the Commons last year: “The nub of the problem is simply that there is not enough daylight in the winter, and there is remarkably little that Government can do about it.”
Mr Rees-Mogg said yesterday: “I think it is a pretty silly Bill – if we had an experiment people would find they did not like getting up in the dark, and we tried it once before and it was scrapped pretty quickly.
“I have put down some amendments that would allow people to discuss the issue broadly, and some I thought were quite jolly.
“One of the serious things that has come up in is that Scotland should have separate time, and that is not very helpful when the Union was being discussed, as it seems quite unfriendly.” Mr Rees-Mogg, who last year suggested that council officials who impose fines for minor offences should be forced to wear bowler hats, does not expect his suggestion to become law.
Those in favour of the Daylight Saving Bill want a consultation on moving the UK’s clocks an hour forward all through the year, not just in the summer.
The coalition Government says it will listen to the arguments, and many West MPs support the change, including Filton & Bradley Stoke Tory Jack Lopresti, who said yesterday the arguments in favour were compelling.
“This one simple low-cost policy could bring wide ranging benefits to the whole of the UK including saving lives on our roads and creating much needed jobs.”
10 Comments
by wolfiesmith_c
Thursday, January 19 2012, 9:33PM
“What. A. Maroon.”
by Viscount_V
Thursday, January 19 2012, 9:13PM
“I'd be willing to give the red planet a try first ;)”
by MoeXXX
Thursday, January 19 2012, 8:56PM
“I'm a bit lefty, and I believe that the number of daylight hours in the winter is largely fixed by the rotation and tilt of the earth.
However, I can also understand the Tory point of view. 4.5-billion year-old physics does impose a pretty strict regulatory framework upon the way business is conducted on earth, and some would argue that it is dire need of reform to introduce some competition to the marketplace.
We could, for example, allow Venusian or Martian models to compete on equal terms with terrestrial ones. Such a proposal would be controversial.
Environmentalists would drone on tediously about unrestrained growth and runaway greenhouse emissions resulting in lead-melting temperatures, bone-crushing pressures and sulphuric acid rain.
The right would counter this by suggesting that the socialist 'red planet' philosophy would inevitably result in a stagnant and austere society blighted by freezing temperatures, no liquid water and no atmosphere.
The more enlightened amongst us would probably conclude that, given all the evidence, the centrist terrestrial model is probably the best for everyone - but the Tories would force through their reforms anyway.”
by Viscount_V
Thursday, January 19 2012, 5:45PM
“Totally agree with Emsquared... This fool Mogg is my MP!!!”
by joning
Thursday, January 19 2012, 2:38PM
“The worrying thing is the Chronicle reporting it as fact and obviously missing the joke. Still, why is this moron given any column inches? He's obviously a voucher short of a pop up toaster.”
by CaptainD
Thursday, January 19 2012, 12:48PM
“He may well be a blithering idiot, but please remember, he is our blitering idiot.”
by housebird5
Thursday, January 19 2012, 11:39AM
“He's a politician not a comedian. Has this man done anything constructive since being elected. He's either taking the p**s or having it ripped out of him. He is on another planet”
by rrfrrf
Thursday, January 19 2012, 11:27AM
“Speaking as someone whose first experience of our Parliamentary system was being within earshot of the explosion that killed Airey Neave, I sometimes think it would be nice if Jacob Rees-Mogg could just occasionally resist the temptation to clog up Hansard with his banal trivialities.
"Quite jolly", indeed. For God's sake, could his father not get him a job where the rest of us wouldn't have to put up with him?”
by davepoth
Thursday, January 19 2012, 11:13AM
“housebird5, you do realise he's taking the P*ss, don't you? The other suggestion about bowler hats is a bit of a giveaway. He's making a point about Scotland with this proposed amendment rather than seriously suggesting that Somerset have its own time zone - and doing it in a rather amusing fashion, which is likely to garner more support in the commons.”
by housebird5
Thursday, January 19 2012, 11:03AM
“The man is a blithering idiot”