Spring Forward, Fall Back.............Asleep
by Steve Sharp
Feeling a little weary this week? Join the club.
Your circadian rhythm has been mucked about with by order of the government, and half of us are struggling to make it to News at Ten, for no good reason.
Let’s go back in time.
British summertime, also known as daylight saving time, was the brainchild of a builder from Kent called William Willett. The story goes that one day on his way back from riding his horse in Petts Wood in the early 1900s he noticed that many curtains in neighbouring houses were still drawn even though it was light. This led him to consider the idea the deducting time to better fit daylight hours. Back then the clocks were set all year round to Greenwich Mean Time meaning that it was light by 3:00 am and dark by around 9:00 pm in the summer.
Through his leaflet The Waste of Daylight, and his vigorous campaigning, it got the support of MP Robert Pearce who championed the idea, albeit unsuccessfully in the House of Commons.
The idea resurfaced during World War One when the need to conserve coal made the suggestion of daylight saving more pertinent and the summer time act was finally passed in the UK in May 1916.
William never lived to see his daylight savings idea become reality since he died of flu in 1915 at the age of 58. rather fittingly in Pets Wood there is a memorial sundial set permanently to daylight saving time in his honour.
During the second World War Britain even adopted double British summertime in a further attempt to save fuel during the harsh winters.
Since its introduction daylight saving time has had both its advocates and critics with each side claiming benefits and disadvantages to do with traffic accidents and agricultural workers, especially in Scotland. There was even a proposal that Scotland and Northern Ireland should have their own time zone.
The Harold Wilson government adopted British Standard Time between October 1968 and October 1971 as a trial but after a free vote the House of Commons chose to end the experiment.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents propose adopting GMT plus one hour during the winter and GMT plus two hours in the summer meaning the UK would be in the same time zone as France, Spain and Germany. They argue this would reduce accidents and have called for the government run another trial, but until they do we live with the system advocated by a chap on horseback in the Edwardian era.
In 2010 I had the opportunity to talk to then PM David Cameron about it, he of The Happiness Index, and he said that it would not be proposed because there was no “political gain”! No joy there then.
Just three of the major issues facing us today are the cost of energy, global warming and mental wellbeing, and perhaps all of them can be aided by a permanent change to BST.
The first two would benefit by all of us turning on our heating an hour later and saving fuel as did or predecessors during wartime, and wellbeing improved by enjoying more daylight when we actually need it. It has always stuck me as rather mad that in summer we are woken by the dawn chorus and first light at just after 4 and yet the lights have to go on at half past 9.
This week The Sunday Times is running an online poll asking “Should the UK stay on British Summertime all year round”. Since there isn’t an option to vote in favour of RSPA’s double summertime, I have voted yes, and by yesterday evening the numbers stood at 81% in favour.
Of course, I am sympathetic to farmers and concerned about increasing accidents, but if our friends in Europe can do it why not us? It might even improve Entente Cordiale!
Steve
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