At 11.37pm, Universal Time (or GMT), on Tuesday, December 21st, the life giving rays of our Sun will be at their weakest. The old Sun will ‘die’ and be ‘reborn’ to us at 8.07am UT on Wednesday, the 22nd of December.
Coincidentally, this year, there will be a full-moon eclipse at 8.17am on the Tuesday in which the planet will seem to disappear – before being fully visible again, in all its glory, fifteen minutes later.
It is unclear if this portentous event denotes the heavens’ support - or opposition - for our MP, Rebecca Harris, and her Private Member’s Bill.
Rebecca’s Bill, which does no more than ask the government to provide resources to investigate the benefits and drawbacks of introducing something known as Single/Double Summer Time (SDST) to provide more daylight in the evenings, will receive its second reading on December 3rd – providing her opponents with a month’s opportunity to pour scorn upon her proposals.
SDST, if introduced now, would see our clocks remaining on British Summer Time (BST) and no adjustment being made tomorrow morning; but the same ‘Spring forward’ and ‘Fall back’ rule would continue to apply in each successive year. Our mornings would be considerably darker; but our evenings lighter in return.
The main supporter of our MP’s Bill is the carbon-cutting conservation group 10:10, which is behind the Lighter Later campaign. But Rebecca has been able to attract strong cross party support for her Bill by gently arguing her case and privately convincing sceptics. She also has strong business support, which would benefit from aligning our time-zone with major European countries like France. In the increasing move for UK businesses to have satellite operations on that Continent, sharing a common time zone - in which the working day was aligned – would make business more efficient and save considerable extra costs incurred from providing additional staff coverage.
Rebecca’s main opponents come from the Scots, who would not see dawn break until around 10.30am in the Winter. But, surprisingly, the Scottish Farmers’ Union is not opposed to her plan. It is understood that this is due to the strong energy conservation argument and the resulting benefits to health put forward by many experts.
David Cameron has made it clear that there is no possibility of any measure being introduced that would place Scotland in a separate time-zone.
Britain undertook an experiment between 1968 and 1971 in which the clocks stayed forward and British Summer Time became known as British Standard Time; but the move was abandoned in 1972 because of the increased number of early morning accidents involving Scottish children walking to school. Times, however, have changed, and most children are now driven to school by car; but it is still a fact that, during darker mornings, a significant number of drivers are not fully awake from their slumbers. Detractors also point-out that the energy gains from having lighter evenings (and less reason for putting on the lights) is simply offset by the need to use additional electricity in the darker mornings when preparing for the school-run and breakfasting before work.
In her Bill, Rebecca has identified the one issue that modern British Society has not been able to successfully resolve and, given the current economic climate in which everyone is seeking to reduce costs and have more useful leisure time in which to forget work and their mundane problems, it is no doubt time for her proposal to be fully investigated and a coherent solution reached – once and for all.
Before Railway Time was first introduced in 1840, British towns and cities set their own local times to coincide with the Sun appearing on their horizon. Whatever your view on Rebecca’s proposal, the fact is that, if SDST is adopted, the vast majority of the British working population will, once again, be up in time to witness nature’s majestic dawn each day. Even if, like the Scots, it takes place during their morning coffee break…
... (30/10/2010, BBC) - 'Time for change call' as clocks alter in UK
… (10/11/2010, British Chronicle) – Single Double Summer Time And The Age Old English Debate
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