Energy Saving (Daylight) Bill

My hon. Friend makes an important point, based on his own experience, but what we would gain in our dealings with Tokyo we would lose in our dealings with the United States. We cannot have it both ways. We must accept that if there is to be a gain with Tokyo, there will be a significant loss at the other end of the scale. From the business perspective, more work needs to be done before the Bill is taken forward. The most important issue relates to Scotland. It is clear that the sponsors of the Bill mainly represent constituencies in the south-east of England. There are only three with constituencies north of a line between the Wash and the Severn, and none from Scotland. The Minister suggested in an intervention that one of the reasons for the Conservative electoral meltdown in 1997 was that we had blocked a similar Bill. I think the factors were slightly more complicated than that. Presumably the conspiracy theorists would go on to say, ““Look what happened to that nice Mr. Nigel Beard. Having introduced a Bill along these lines, he lost his seat. That shows how dangerous the whole subject is.”” We need to pay close attention to the implications of the Bill for Scotland. There are wider issues involved. I am profoundly concerned about the drift towards independence and the break-up of the United Kingdom. That slide is accentuated by issues that create divisions that are artificial and unnecessary. I would be particularly worried about a move towards having different time zones within the United Kingdom. Some contributors to the debate have rather over-egged the issue by speaking of three or four different time zones. That is not realistic. We are talking about an hour’s difference—unless it is suggested that the Isle of Man have its own separate time zone, or that we adopt the approach of the Kingdom of Nepal, whose time is 15 minutes different from India’s time zone. A maximum of two zones is proposed, but even that should be rejected. The border issues, to which the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed referred, are important. He described the significant difficulties that would arise in border areas if people were uncertain about which time zone they were in. That is especially relevant to business, and we should take it into account.