Saving daylight: Don’t turn clocks back anymore

THANKS to whatever divinity we believe in, we are at last out of the gloom of GMT.

Daylight-saving, summertime or, for older folks, new time has come again.

This time let’s keep it. Every year, come autumn, some wally decrees we must revert to winter/old time.

For heaven’s sake, why? There is no need or demonstrable advantage in doing so.

For once the Government could do something useful without cost to the taxpayer and without any outside group having a say in the matter.

Here are some of the advantages of sticking to summertime permanently:

* Shorter use of artificial lighting with a saving in energy and hard cash.

* Children could play outdoors in the evenings for much longer. We always say they should and then deprive them of the chance for four months of the year.

* We would keep the same time as most of western Europe. No messing about with clocks and watches twice a year.

* Fewer people suffering Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Being in the same time zone as much of Europe instead of being those eccentrics out on the western edge.

Retention of summertime was done as an experiment many years ago and was successful until someone panicked at the thought of all the nation’s children being mown down by hordes of savage motorists in the early-morning gloom. Forget the fact that, in the present situation, they will be mown down in the gloom of winter evenings instead.

In fact not many children walked to school then and, I suspect, even fewer do so now. I don’t recall any more child fatalities that year than any other

There is no real reason to plunge ourselves into gloom any more than necessary. Avoiding it just requires a little courage on the part of the Minister for the Environment.

Is this too much to ask? Or are we back to dithering and time-wasting again now we’re in recession.

Give people this lift, at least.

Patrick Browne

Brugge

Skehard Road

Blackrock

Cork