Across the pond

Tim Yeo’s private member’s bill to give us summer time in the winter died yesterday. It did not get enough votes. Not surprising because many MPs rarely go to the Commons on Fridays. They take the night train up north so they can do their constituency surgeries and spend the weekend socialising with the party workers who will have to do the work to get them back in at the next election. The House of Lords had a go in 2005,and failed, as you can see from Wikipedia.

This is an example of a law which would make life better for all of us, save lives, and cost almost nothing to implement. But governments never make it a priority, although the rational reasons for change increase year by year. It would bring put us on to the same time as the EC, so we would not have to change our watches in the Channel Tunnel and would not be woken up by friends from Frankfurt telephoning at 7 AM our time.

Reason did prevail during the first world war. Sticking with GMT would have meant children walking back from school in the dark in the depths of winter. When it was really dark as night, because the street lights were turned off and the black-out curtains were up. The statistics for the war years show that, while a few more died on the roads in the morning, the net effect was 2,500 fewer road deaths a year.

As soon as victory was assured in 1944 we put the clocks back again. In those days the farmer’s lobby was much more powerful and not a few of the workers were agricultural labourers. Today there is little effective opposition and such a bill could easily be passed with Government support.

I have always regretted this folly. I still remember the thrill of getting up and dressed and eating by bacon and eggs by electric light. It relieved the tedium of winter. And I love September holidays in Britain. Double summer time would give me an extra hour of daylight.

But maybe the majority of those who hold the reins of power like to shame us all by getting up early in the morning.