I've taken an interest lately in this debate over British Summer Time and Double Summer Time, that seems to come up every autumn when the clocks change. Apparently the idea is that by keeping the country on BST in the winter and then moving forward (back? never can remember...) the following spring we would have an extra hour of light in the evening which would be "good for tourism" and, er, not much else as far as I can see.
Speaking from my vantage point here in Cornwall and imagining what it would be like, especially on gloomy extra-dark rainy days like today, if eight o'clock had been nine...for a start full daylight would have arrived sometime around nine o'clock - and this is with another six weeks until the shortest day. Kids would be walking to school in total darkness with the rain pouring down, everyone would be more miserable that usual, the workmen putting a new roof on the building opposite me would have to wait until about ten o'clock before starting to work...Need I go on?
And in the summer we would gain...what? Daylight until about eleven pm instead of ten. Big deal. It would knacker the fireworks at Glastonbury for a start.
I went on holiday to the west coast of Ireland once. If they went along with us and moved that hour, just to make, like, crossing the border from Ulster sensible, it would have been daylight until about 1 am.
Now that's just silly.
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