Jacob Rees-Mogg

Infobox Politician
honorific-prefix = The Honourable
name=Jacob Rees-Mogg


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birth_date =birth date and age|1969|05|24
birth_place = flagicon|England England
office =Prospective parliamentary candidate
constituency=North East Somerset
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party = Conservative Party POV|date=February 2008 The Hon. Jacob Rees-Mogg (born May 24, 1969) is the Conservative candidate for the North East Somerset Parliamentary Constituency in England.

Rees-Mogg is the son of William Rees-Mogg, a former editor of The Times, whilst his sister The Hon.Annunziata Rees-Mogg contested Aberavon in the 2005 General Election and is on the Conservatives' 'A List' for future selections. He grew up in Ston Easton and Hinton Blewitt before being educated at Eton and read history at Trinity College, Oxford. He now has a house in West Harptree Fact|date=February 2008. He has recently set up his own company, Somerset Capital Management. Previously he was in Global Emerging Markets at Lloyd George Management in London.

Politically Rees-Mogg is on the Eurosceptic wing of the Conservative Party.

Rees-Mogg has courted controversy during previous election campaigns. In 1997 he was Tory candidate for the historically Labour seat of Central Fife. He was parodied in the press for canvassing a largely working class neighborhood in his Bentley with his nanny; he lost the election and to date has not held elected office. He has often been described in the liberal press as a "young fogey" and "toff".

In 1999, when it was being rumoured that his strong Received Pronunciation accent was working against his chances of being selected for a safe Tory seat, he was defended by letter writers to "The Daily Telegraph", one of whom claimed that "an overt form of intimidation exists, directed against anyone who dares to eschew the current, Americanised, mode of behaviour, speech and dress". Rees-Mogg himself stated (in "The Sunday Times", May 23, 1999) that "it is rather pathetic to fuss about accents too much", though he then went on to say that "John Prescott's accent certainly stereotypes him as an oaf". [Harvard reference | last=Mullen | first=John | title= Lost voices | newspaper=The Guardian | date=June 18, 1999 | year=1999 | month=June | url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,291790,00.html ] He later told "The Scotsman" (October 2001) “I gradually realised that whatever I happened to be speaking about, the number of voters in my favour dropped as soon as I opened my mouth.” Rees-Mogg stood for The Wrekin in Shropshire in 2001, losing to the Labour MP Peter Bradley, who later expressed his view that banning fox hunting was, for him, a class as well as a humane issue. In 1999 he was interviewed by Ali G (aka Sacha Baron Cohen) on the subject of class.

Ali G: "So what if you got busy with my sister? You wouldn't like it 'cos she ain't the cleanest girl out there! Um, well it can be arranged. She'd be keen!"
Rees-Mogg: "You speculating on my having a relationship with somebody I've never met and that leading to a child being born and then as to what class it might be is so..uh..far fetched..um..as to be ridiculous. I have no idea what.."
Ali G: "What you think you is too good for my sister?"
Rees-Mogg: "Certainly not. No I wouldn't dream..."
Ali G: "You is. No, you is though. She's is rank. She's nothing. Believe me, even my mum cuss her, tell her she's a slag!"

It is unclear whether any of the controversy surrounding Rees-Mogg has affected his ability to garner votes, and by being selected to fight North East Somerset, which replaces Wansdyke, he is taking on a seat that with the upcoming boundary changes is already a notionally Conservative seat.

His characterization as a traditional Tory is enhanced by attributed quotes such as these in the Mail on Sunday (March 2000): "If I've got a nanny, I've got a nanny. And if anybody doesn't like it - tough!" and “I do wish you wouldn’t keep going on about my nanny. If I had a valet you’d think it was perfectly normal."

In October 2006, when asked for his reaction to a BBC Newsnight survey showing that Tory parliamentary candidates were still drawn predominantly from private education and/or Oxford or Cambridge, Rees-Mogg controversially replied " [T] he Tory party, when it's elected, has to be able to form a government and it's not going to be able to form a government if it has potted plants as candidates simply to make up quotas." He went on, " [w] hen you go to an MP, you want somebody who will write an articulate letter to the social services or whoever it is to get your problem sorted out." [Harvard reference | last=McSmith | first=Andy | title= State school pupils are 'potted plants', says Tory | newspaper=Independent | date=October 5, 2006 | year=2006 | month=October | url=http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1799471.ece ]

In January 2007 Rees-Mogg married Helena de Chair, an heiress and writer on a trade magazine for the oil industry, daughter of Lady Juliet Tadgell (formerly Lady Bristol and Lady de Chair, sole heir to the Wentworth-Fitzwilliam fortune) and Somerset de Chair, and half-sister of Lord Nicholas Hervey(deceased), in Canterbury Cathedral. Part of the service included a Roman Catholic mass conducted in Latin by Father Aidan Bellenger the Abbot of Downside Abbey. [Harvard reference | last=Kay | first=Richard | title=Jacob gets hitched, old-Tory style | newspaper=Daily Mail | date=January 14, 2007 | year=2007 | month=January | url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/columnists/columnists.html?in_article_id=428788&in_page_id=1772&in_author_id=230 ] The couple has since had a son, named Peter Theodore Alphoge. "The first name is after Helena's grandfather and the last name is that of a saint born in my constituency. He was executed for not giving the Vikings enough Danegeld, so he was the first anti-taxation martyr," he told the [Daily Mail's Richard Kay (17 October 2007)] [1] . Subsequent research, however, indicated Alphoge had in fact been born in Weston-super-mare or Bath - not in his constituency of North East Somerset.

In the 'City Spy' diary column of London's Evening Standard (October 2007) Rees-Mogg was accused of 'double standards' for criticising a decision by Cadbury's to close a factory in Somerset. It was widely believed, said City Spy, that Cadbury's had been "spurred into shaking up its business by those nasty hedge funds". The author took issue because Rees-Mogg himself had recently started a hedge fund management business.Fact|date=February 2008.

He was one of the directors of the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth in London, who were ordered to resign by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor in February 2008. [cite news |first=Riazat |last=Butt |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Archbishop orders Catholic hospital board to resign in ethics dispute |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/22/catholicism.health |work=The Guardian |publisher= |date=2008-02-22 |accessdate=2008-02-23 ]

References

External links

* [http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=people.person.page&personID=131101 Official Conservative Party Profile]
* [http://www.colinmcpherson.co.uk/viewer.asp?subject=Press&
] Jacob Rees-Mogg canvassing
* [http://www.paulbrason.co.uk/Portraits1981-1991/TheHonJacobRees-Mogg.htm Paul Brason, Portrait Artist] Jacob Rees-Mogg Portrait
* [http://www.northeastsomersetconservatives.co.uk/ North East Somerset Conservatives] North East Somerset Conservatives