FW: UK Timezone info

Peter Ilieve peter at aldie.co.uk
Wed May 12 18:48:02 UTC 1999


Robert Brady wrote:
> You'll like this : the power to set time-zone in the UK might be devolved
> to the Scottish Parliamant and Welsh Assembly.
> 
> See :
> 
> http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199899/ldbills/047/199904
> 7.htm

A check in the Lords Hansard for 13 April confirms my guess that this
is a bit of grandstanding by Lord (Jeffrey) Archer as part of his
campaign to become the Mayor of London. See:
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199697/ldhansrd/\
pdvn/lds99/text/90413-03.htm#90413-03_head2

(Note for non UK folk: this is nothing to do with the Lord Mayor of
 London. The Lord Mayor is mayor of the City of London, the famous
 `square mile' financial bit of London. The Labour government elected
 in May 1997 had as one of its policies that London as a whole should
 have an elected mayor. This is a long delayed response to a previous
 Conservative government having abolished the Greater London Council.
 The GLC (as it was always known) was controlled by Labour and was
 led by Ken Livingstone. Neither main party has yet chosen their candidate
 for Mayor of London but they both find themselves in a mess because
 the front runners are Ken Livingstone (the very same) and Lord Archer.
 Both parties seem to be doing everything possible to avoid actually
 selecting them as candidates. Oh, the Lord Mayor is also elected after
 a fashion, by all liverymen of at least one year's standing plus some
 other City officers, from among the Aldermen who have served as sheriff
 and have not already been elected Mayor. Is that all clear now? :-)

As it was only last year that the Government reserved matters relating
to time to Westminster in the Scotland Act (the Welsh Assembly is
incapable of legislation) I think the chances of this Bill passing are
close to zero.

I suggest an alternative: the area inside the M25 motorway should
have its own timezone and the rest of us can continue as we are. :-)


		Peter Ilieve		peter at aldie.co.uk




More information about the tz mailing list