MP to back controversial clock change bill (From Hampshire Chronicle)
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MP to back controversial clock change bill
8:36am Monday 9th January 2012 in South Winchester
MP to back controversial clock change bill
MEON Valley MP George Hollingbery will support controversial plans to move the clocks forward one hour to continental time.
He will back a private member's bill by his Conservative colleague Rebecca Harris later this month which proposes a study of the impact of the change.
Mr Hollingbery said: “Research clearly shows that moving an hour forward to lighter evenings will save lives on the road and cut emissions as less energy is used for lighting.
“The change would also help businesses trading in Europe by aligning times.I know there is opposition in Scotland and Northern Ireland where the winter would be longer, but figures from the Department of Transport show lives will be saved there too.
"While it's not certain this will become law, it certainly makes sense to me and I hope the Government will continue to give its backing."
Comments(12)
rogerio
says...
12:40pm Mon 9 Jan 12
- Prevent 80 fatalities on UK roads
- £4.5bn in increased UK tourism
- 80k more jobs
- Increase participation in Sport and Recreation
- Reduce heating and lighting bills
- Reduce crime and fear of crime
rogerio
says...
12:41pm Mon 9 Jan 12
- Prevent 80 fatalities on UK roads
- £4.5bn in increased UK tourism
- 80k more jobs
- Increase participation in Sport and Recreation
- Reduce heating and lighting bills
- Reduce crime and fear of crime
rogerio
says...
12:42pm Mon 9 Jan 12
- Prevent 80 fatalities on UK roads
- £4.5bn in increased UK tourism
- 80k more jobs
- Increase participation in Sport and Recreation
- Reduce heating and lighting bills
- Reduce crime and fear of crime
rogerio
says...
12:43pm Mon 9 Jan 12
Jimi123
says...
1:14pm Mon 9 Jan 12
Bleoberis wrote:Bleoberis.....I dont think you quite grasp it. They are not saying there will be more daylight. They are saying that moving the clocks forward will mean we are not in bed when there is daylight thus making proper use of the sunlight while it is there.
Oh dear God, No!
When will you ever learn that changing the time on your chronometer will have zero effect on the amount of daylight there is?
We have Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), an historically meaningful reference which needs no alteration and you want to replace it with what? A time zone from some other longitude? Why? Because you have some evangelical belief that doing so will have an impact on road fatalities and energy use and that you will somehow gain daylight.
I question your sanity. I really do.
Please stop meddling with stuff that you can only make worse by doing so.
Surely you do not think that we think that by moving the clocks that we are going to change how fast the earth rotates on its axis?
Let me break it down for you. If the sun comes up at 5am on our clocks, most people are still in bed at that time right, now... if you dont have to be up for work until 6 and the sun is up at 5am then you have wasted an hours sunlight right, BUT..... if you move the clocks forward by an hour permantly it becomes 6am (not 5 am) and hey presto, the sun is up, you are up at the same time (if you have to be up at 6) and no sunlight is wasted.
This bill is not about 'making more sunlight' that would be stupid to think you can do that, this bill is about making better use of the sun while it is up.
Does that help at all?
Jim
Bleoberis
says...
1:22pm Mon 9 Jan 12
You have demonstrated that you are prepared to inflict your preference upon the entire Country when it would be much more efficient if you hauled your sorry booty out of bed at a time which would take advantage of available daylight.
2tallsi
says...
10:34am Tue 10 Jan 12
Perhaps you need more sleep.
rogerio
says...
10:41am Tue 10 Jan 12
We currently 'waste' sunlight through being in bed when the sun is up. This isn't down to being lazy, more that our time is out of synch with natural daylight. The majority of France is on the same longitude as the UK and enjoys the benefits of being awake for the hours of sunlight. I'm still to hear a sound argument for why this would be a bad idea for the majority of the UK.
winchester resident
says...
3:05pm Tue 10 Jan 12
In midwinter in the south of England the sun rises as late as 8.05am and sets as early 3.53pm (later in the am and earlier in the pm as you go north). I was a school child at the time of the last experiment at the end of the 60s.
It was hell on earth on those dark mornings when it didn't get light till 9.00am. Travelling on a cold dark morning before the day has warmed up is a whole lot worse than an hours extra darkness in the evening and there is not much benefit in an hours extra daylight in the pm when you are talking about the difference between 3.53 and 4.53pm. People are still at work.
Remember also that round the solstices the day only shorten/lengthens by about 3 minutes a week compared to about 16 a week round the equinoxes: so the darkness in midwinter lasts many weeks and is not compensated for by the extra hour of daylight eg on a late February pm when the days are lengthening (lent) very significantly each week.
Read the parliamentary debates in Hansard online at the end of the late 60s early 70s experiment.
MPs had been deluged by letters from their constituents. The experiment was hugely unpopular. Statistics showed that it had not prevented road accidents. Contractors had employees turning up for work at the usual time by the clock, had had to pay them and had not been able to use them for an hour.....employers had not been able to keep people on an extra hour in the pms to compensate because the children were coming out of school at the same time by the clocks.....and, of course, if you had adjusted everything to be later by an hour it defeats the purpose of the clock change anyhow.
It was of course even worse in Scotland.... so if we want the break up of the Union this clock change proposal might assist.
chumpster
says...
7:32pm Tue 10 Jan 12
Layed Back
says...
10:51am Wed 25 Jan 12
Bleoberis says...
10:58am Mon 9 Jan 12
When will you ever learn that changing the time on your chronometer will have zero effect on the amount of daylight there is?
We have Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), an historically meaningful reference which needs no alteration and you want to replace it with what? A time zone from some other longitude? Why? Because you have some evangelical belief that doing so will have an impact on road fatalities and energy use and that you will somehow gain daylight.
I question your sanity. I really do.
Please stop meddling with stuff that you can only make worse by doing so.