[tz] Europe/Taunton?

Zefram zefram at fysh.org
Wed Jan 18 15:05:44 UTC 2012


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16611058

    Mr Rees-Mogg has tabled an amendment to the proposed legislation
    suggesting the "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".

Jacob Ress-Mogg MP is quite a character, and it's a very conservative
character.  He has that special skill of being nostalgic not
only for a time before he was born, but for a time before his
great-great-grandparents were born.  His amendment is extremely unlikely
to be adopted, but its prospective consequences bear some thinking about.
He'd make Somerset the only place on Earth where the timezone is not a
multiple of five minutes offset from UT.  In fact, it wouldn't even be
an exact multiple of *one* minute, if implemented in full.  And since
the pre-1840 custom was for every town to have its own time, we wouldn't
just need Europe/Taunton, but potentially several other new zones for
different Somerset towns.

If any form of the Rees-Mogg amendment were to be adopted, it would more
likely be a single timezone for the whole county, an integral number
of minutes offset from UT.  Taunton (largest town in, and capital of,
Somerset) is at some 3.1 degrees west, suggesting a 12 minute offset.

-zefram



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