Into the darkness. Again.

It's late October again so it's time for my annual rant about putting the clocks back.

This weekend we will go through through the tedious ritual of plunging ourselves into five months of early darkness. Last week, yet another study was published showing that the switch to GMT means that more people will be killed and more electricity used.

These conclusions should not be a surprise. As I said two years ago, twelve o'clock is no longer the middle of most people's working day and it is nowhere near the middle of their waking hours. To have the middle of our daylight at twelve o'clock means that we waste daylight in the morning that would be more useful to more people in the evening. There are fewer people up and about in the light early morning hours than in the dark drive-time after five o'clock. As you would expect, and as Dr Garnsey has demonstrated, because more people are up and about in the dark evenings, they use more electricity and have more accidents.

This point is illustrated by the graphs on pages 12 and 13 of the Cambridge University report, which show activity patterns and hours of daylight under GMT and GMT+1.  We spend more time asleep in the daylight and awake in the dark under GMT than we would if we left the clocks on summer time.

It made sense for the middle of the day to be at twelve o'clock in 1880, when GMT became the legal standard for the UK. 120 years ago, a far greater proportion of the population still worked on the land and their working days were governed by the sun. Today, most of us get up later than our ancestors did and stay up much later at night.

By any rational measure, it makes sense to leave the clocks at GMT+1 during the winter, yet when MP Tim Yeo put forward his Energy Saving (Daylight) Bill earlier this year, Parliament threw it out.

So, as you fight your way home during the gloomy evenings to come, don't curse the darkness, curse the idiots in our legislature who have condemned us, once again, to five months of unnecessary misery.

Comments

[Matt Munro]

It's all down to farmers, especially scottish farmers, who don't want to have to milk their cows in the dark.

[aDM]

I love you rants about this issue. I completely agree.

btw - i got a scoop on a story about Laura Bush which was posted over at LGF - without the credit! Sound familiar? ;)

[Monty]

I think the GMT regime is putting schoolchildren at greater risk of road accidents. They are generally more alert and focussed in the mornings, on their way to school. In the afternoons, on their way home, they are more likely to step off the kerb without looking. They come shambling home in groups, all larking about, and all assuming someone else is looking out for the traffic. Parliament should look at the accident figures, never mind the vested interests.