As we once again moved our clocks back one hour on Sunday morning the arguments about the benefits of such a change continue to rumble on. This practice has been a controversial topic debated for many years by the general public and politicians alike.
From late March to late October, clocks in the United Kingdom are put forward by one hour for British Summer Time (BST) but in 1968 there was a three-year experiment called British Standard Time, when the UK and Ireland experimentally employed British Summer Time (GMT+1) all year round; clocks were put forward in March 1968 and not put back until October 1971.
This provided an opportunity to evaluate the impact on a number of issues, however the conclusions were not clear cut. A review by the UK Parliament found it was impossible to quantify the most important advantages and disadvantages and the experiment was abandoned.
World time is actually based on Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) which roughly corresponds to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). As such, since 1997, most of the countries in the European Union have aligned with the British standards for British Summer Time. Central European Time is therefore always one hour ahead of British time.
But during these austere times, as many people in the UK continues to struggle, business quite sensibly continues to push for the adoption of Central European Time. In one fell swoop such a change would allow British business to gain 2 extra trading hours a day with it0’s European counterparts, one at the beginning of the day and one at the end, where they would once again be synchronised with their European business colleagues.
But as one Member of The UK Parliament pushed for the change Rebecca Harris’ Daylight Saving Bill ran out of parliamentary time. The Bill had the support of more than 90 organisations and 120 MPs who all voted to pass the motion; just 10 attending MPs were against, but last year the session ran out of time before the motion could be passed and never made it onto the statute books.
However in view of spiraling UK energy prices, one of the main arguments on the extension of daylight saving would now seem to be ‘Cheaper energy bills and an economic boost. After one of the UK’s biggest energy companies announced last week that it is hiking electricity and gas bills for its 10 million customers by an average of 8.2 per cent, Labour Peer Baroness Billingham said the extension of daylight saving would also benefit Britain’s economy by generating an extra £10bn from the tourism industry alone. It would also tackle lethargy in youngsters who would then have more time for outdoor after-school activities.
The proposal to move the clocks one hour ahead of GMT in the winter and two hours ahead in the summer has the support of the Tourism Alliance, environmentalists and road safety groups. The National Farmers Union (NFU) said a majority of its members were also in favour of the proposal.
Under the plans, clocks would remain unchanged during one autumn in the future and would then be put forward to GMT +2 in the summer, providing an extra hour of daylight all year round.
Baroness Billingham said: "I know a vast majority of people approve of this, especially when they look out the window at 6 o’clock and see it’s getting dark – it’s so unnecessary.
"Organisations such as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents say there would be a reduction in the number of accidents and fatalities involving children coming out of school in the dark."
"Daylight saving would enable young and older people to partake in sport outside for much longer, it would be much better for all of us and there would be a saving in energy."
So what next …
Well, the sun has not set on the daylight saving debate but without a Private Members Bill to get behind we’re in a bit of a sticky situation. The government, although it supports the call for a review, won’t do it of their own accord. And actually, for the issue in the long run, it’s probably better they don’t. Without a strong bill there would be nothing in place to hold them to account – ie there would be no framework with which to ensure they acted on what they found.
Although the issue has moved further than it’s been in decades, there aren’t many other legislative avenues open to it right now. But this is an issue that won’t go away. Our next Clock Change Evangalista will step forward very soon – and by then the complex political situation that’s held the issue back may well be very different.
This is an idea whose time WILL come.
Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/41171/
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