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General Category => Off the Record => Topic started by: Sheilbh on January 18, 2012, 04:10:03 AM

Title: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Sheilbh on January 18, 2012, 04:10:03 AM
QuoteMoggy Time
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.dailymail.co.uk%2Fi%2Fpix%2F2009%2F12%2F28%2Farticle-1238900-07B650D2000005DC-896_468x311.jpg&hash=610d9902e9d41978a7e69bfe6336e224d2661b04)

With his tweeds, specs and patrician manner, Jacob Rees-Mogg is the epitome of the young fogey backbencher.

Aptly enough, it now seems that the Moggster (who has an impressive fan club) is rather literally keen on taking us back in time.

Or to be more precise, on taking the West Country back in time.

For an idle glance at the new amendments to the Daylight Saving Bill suggests that he wants to give Somerset its own time-zone.

Rees-Mogg, 42, has an amendment that states:
"The county of Somerset as defined by the Lieutenants Act 1997 shall revert to the customary time used prior to the Great Western Railway time established in 1840."


Now, for the uninitiated, Great Western Railway time was introduced to ensure trains ran on time in a standardised way across England.

Prior to its introduction, the locally agreed time was often set by local churches and was roughly 10-15 minutes behind London. So Rees-Mogg wants Somerset to run literally at least 10 minutes behind the rest of the UK.

For the anoraks among us, it may be worth pointing out some of the historical background to this. Railway companies faced local opposition when they introduced the new standard time in 1840. For a while, there were two different times shown in some towns and cities: station clocks would show 'London Time' (ie GMT), while others (particularly church clocks) would be set locally.

As a temporary compromise, public clocks in Exeter and Bristol added a second minute hand that showed the London Time for those who wanted it. In Exeter, local time was 14 minutes behind London, while Bristol was 10 minutes behind.
Anyway, it looks as though Rees-Mogg* is determined to go back to the future.

Some say he already lives in the past, but few thought he wanted to stay there permanently.


*FOOTNOTE: This may of course be an elaborate joke by the Moggster to highlight the need to strengthen the Union. Who knows..

:lol:

His father Lord Rees-Mogg tried to get judicial review of the ratification of the Maastricht treaty.  In the run-up to the EU summit, at PMQs, young Rees-Mogg asked a rather bizarre question about whether Cameron would be a 'British lion or Bagpuss?'  So this isn't necessarily too odd...
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Richard Hakluyt on January 18, 2012, 04:50:28 AM
I think it was Private Eye that used to refer to his father as "Mystic Mogg"  :lol:

They are both harmless IMO  :cool:
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Monoriu on January 18, 2012, 04:56:15 AM
The guy should work in China.  All of China is one big timezone  :lol:
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Josquius on January 18, 2012, 04:59:40 AM
Make the world one time zone and be done with it!
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: jimmy olsen on January 18, 2012, 05:01:29 AM
Quote from: Monoriu on January 18, 2012, 04:56:15 AM
The guy should work in China.  All of China is one big timezone  :lol:
That's foolish and counterproductive.
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Brazen on January 18, 2012, 05:27:22 AM
Just 10 minutes? In my experience, Somerset runs 30 years behind the rest of the UK.
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Martinus on January 18, 2012, 08:23:26 AM
Aristocrats like this make me fond of Robespierre.
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Sheilbh on January 18, 2012, 08:26:00 AM
He's not an aristocrat. Far less posh than Cameron who wanted Jacob's sister, Anunziata Rees-Mogg, to call herself 'Annie' when running to be a Tory MP :bleeding:
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Valmy on January 18, 2012, 08:35:13 AM
So...why wouldn't this be a joke against devolution and that fracturing of the union?  It makes so little sense for it to be anything else.
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Gups on January 18, 2012, 08:54:09 AM
Quote from: Sheilbh on January 18, 2012, 08:26:00 AM
He's not an aristocrat. Far less posh than Cameron who wanted Jacob's sister, Anunziata Rees-Mogg, to call herself 'Annie' when running to be a Tory MP :bleeding:

He's as close to being an aristocrat as is possible to be without a title. Father editor of the times, Eton, Trinity, double-barrelled surname. Runs his own financial service company, married to an heiress.
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Valmy on January 18, 2012, 09:04:50 AM
Quote from: Gups on January 18, 2012, 08:54:09 AM
Runs his own financial service company

:hmm: Are aristocrats the new banking class?
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Gups on January 18, 2012, 09:25:57 AM
There's always been lots of aristocrats involved in banking, expecially private banking.
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Valmy on January 18, 2012, 09:27:11 AM
Quote from: Gups on January 18, 2012, 09:25:57 AM
There's always been lots of aristocrats involved in banking, expecially private banking.

Well I am glad they are making themselves useful then.
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Razgovory on January 18, 2012, 09:43:46 AM
Personally I prefer this useless Conservative quackery over the type we have here.  Such as abolishing the Federal reserve.
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Jacob on January 18, 2012, 10:24:51 AM
Quote from: Sheilbh on January 18, 2012, 08:26:00 AM
He's not an aristocrat. Far less posh than Cameron who wanted Jacob's sister, Anunziata Rees-Mogg, to call herself 'Annie' when running to be a Tory MP :bleeding:

Does his family own a castle?
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Richard Hakluyt on January 18, 2012, 10:44:46 AM
No castle. But his father-in-law, the rather splendidly-named Somerset Struben de Chair, owned Chilham Castle for a few years back in the 1940s.
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Admiral Yi on January 18, 2012, 10:51:37 AM
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on January 18, 2012, 10:44:46 AM
No castle. But his father-in-law, the rather splendidly-named Somerset Struben de Chair, owned Chilham Castle for a few years back in the 1940s.

:lol:
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Sheilbh on January 20, 2012, 08:08:00 AM
Apparently it's part of a plan to try and foil the bill.  Another Tory amendment would rename it the 'Berlin Time' Bill. 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16628724

However Rees-Mogg's added: "Where Somerset goes, I think the world would follow," Rees-Mogg declared, "and I think we would replace Greenwich Mean Time with Somerset Mean Time."
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Valmy on January 20, 2012, 08:24:48 AM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on January 18, 2012, 10:51:37 AM
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on January 18, 2012, 10:44:46 AM
No castle. But his father-in-law, the rather splendidly-named Somerset Struben de Chair, owned Chilham Castle for a few years back in the 1940s.

:lol:

I don't see the joke there.  Nice Castle though.
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Sheilbh on January 20, 2012, 08:32:01 AM
I think it's the name.
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: grumbler on January 20, 2012, 08:43:56 AM
Quote from: Valmy on January 20, 2012, 08:24:48 AM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on January 18, 2012, 10:51:37 AM
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on January 18, 2012, 10:44:46 AM
No castle. But his father-in-law, the rather splendidly-named Somerset Struben de Chair, owned Chilham Castle for a few years back in the 1940s.

:lol:

I don't see the joke there.  Nice Castle though.

Read that sentence again.  How much more British could it possibly be?
Title: Re: Tory MP suggests Somerset timezone
Post by: Ideologue on January 20, 2012, 03:29:22 PM
Quote from: Jacob on January 18, 2012, 10:24:51 AM
Quote from: Sheilbh on January 18, 2012, 08:26:00 AM
He's not an aristocrat. Far less posh than Cameron who wanted Jacob's sister, Anunziata Rees-Mogg, to call herself 'Annie' when running to be a Tory MP :bleeding:

Does his family own a castle?
:lol: