On 21 Jan 2012, at 18:51, Zefram wrote: > > The amendment sought to return Somerset to the timekeeping regime that > held in the 1830s. It sought to do this by turning back the law.
It didn't really, or at least not seriously. Rees Mogg is an obsessive anti-European. This was just an attention-seeking piece of triviality by a trivial man. Hansard, 20th january 2012 (no column number as it's not as yet finalised). He didn't want Somerset to set its own time-zone, he just wanted an opportunity to recite platitudes with the usual intellectual heft of the Eurosceptics, which thanks to the echo chamber they inhabit they all think is frightfully clever. This is the sort of juvenile posturing that passes for debate amongst his kind. One day, he might open his mouth in parliament and say something worthwhile, but you can see from http://www.jacobreesmogg.com/parliamentary-activities/ that given an occasion to rise to, he always manages to be trivial. > Jacob Rees-Mogg: I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question; it is always > good to have an intervention from him. I did manage to understand the > Minister—or at least, I think I did—but I was shocked by what I heard. Once > again, we heard that this House must be craven in front of the great power > that is the European Union. We cannot even set our own time any more without > the say-so of our friends in Brussels, and that is a pretty sorry state to > have got into. > > Mr MacNeil: On the point about harmonisation with Europe, many people have > mentioned the costs for businesses. Surely, however, that argument should > apply in reverse. If the gains are so great, would not the Eurocrats want to > change so as to be in the same time zone as the world financial centre that > is London? Perhaps this reveals the lie in the argument: there is no gain. > The gain would be greater for those on the other side of the English channel > than for those on the north side. > > Jacob Rees-Mogg: The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point, as he so often > does. Na h-Eileanan an Iar is enormously well represented in the House, and > it is one of the great arguments for maintaining the Union that he should > continue to have an audience here for his wise words. I wanted to propose the > introduction of Somerset time, a new time zone for the world, which the > Europeans could come over to. Sadly, however, my amendment was not selected, > for reasons that I fail to understand. The mysteries of this place to a > relatively new Member remain manifold.
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