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Where I live in the UK, yesterday’s sunset occurred at about 4:38pm and of course this time last week it was an hour (and a couple of minutes or so) later. Sunday saw the end of British Summer Time and the yearly return to GMT – something we have been doing in a mandated way for nearly a century – except for a few years during World War 2 and a short experimental period back in the early 1970’s.
Personally I have never seen the point of this change. Leaving the ‘official’ time an hour ahead of GMT throughout the year seems a much better option. Squeezing as much daylight into the actual ‘day’ would be far more preferable than the misery many suffer in winter of both arriving and leaving for work or school in the dark. And whilst our dear government denies it, there does appear to be much public support for this.
And now ROSPA (The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents), not an organisation I generally have much time for, have started a campaign on the basis that yearly road deaths and injuries show a marked spike in the week or two following the clocks reversion to GMT. They reckon that drivers, taken by surprise at the sudden change, are more likely in this period to be involved in a crash although in my book it is just as likely that some of the pedestrians are suffering from a sudden bout of depression.
Whilst I wholeheartedly support this campaign I do rather think that ROSPA are somewhat shooting themselves in the foot. They are suggesting that BST gets changed to ‘double BST’ (2 hours ahead) and the current GMT moves one hour ahead. If accidents increase at the sudden Autumn change now then this solution does nothing to rectify that – there will still be a clock change, it will just bring on a sudden 5:38pm change instead of a 4:38pm change. Those accidents will just be delayed a bit. But the basic argument that we stay ahead of GMT throughout the Winter certainly wins my vote.
The only objection I have heard or seen in the media has come from Scotland who can be a dour lot at the best of times. Well – they can make their own rules now as unlike England, they have a parliament of their own. Let them go their own way. As to England, let’s have a change for the better. ROSPA would like you to lobby your MP, raise awareness wherever you can and vote in their poll currently showing about 87% in favour.
Spare a thought for me. I’ve moved over 500 miles north!
Some of them actually love it. Young checkout assistants for example. After several hundred miserablists it must be nice to get a manic southerner, he, he.
As a SAD sufferer I’m not looking forward to winter up here. Funny though, because of the latitude (higher than Moscow) we had amazingly light skies at the end of summer, not getting fully dark ’till 2 or 3 in the morning. Yes they are rather dour up here but the younger ones seem better. My wife says she comes up against the ‘glass half empty’ mindset all the time. I just go about my business in my usual sarf-London, cheeky-Cockney way. I don’t get any trouble! Being 16 stone helps
Take care!
Ah Mike – I was thinking of SAD of course. You would benefit in the summer months but the winter is just the price you’ve got to pay
– I was serious though. I don’t see any reason why Scotland would need to change if we did.
I assume that the Great North Sea Oil Bonanza must have made Aberdeen a little more cosmopolitan and less insular as much of Scotland seems to have become in recent years. I can’t see you being first up against the wall in Aberdeen when Mr Salmond realises his dream.
I’ve been missing your pithy comments (but loved the Amazing Australian Rape Protector). Did you get CURL sorted?
I’m used to the winter blues. My friends knew that they might not see me for weeks on end – hibernating – they called it. I’ve got a light-box and I take the Melatonin (I’ve also got a stash of Paroxatine if it gets really bad). Aberdeen sees the largest number of lightbox sales in the UK!. They even sell them in John Lewis. The oil industry has certainly made a difference. Together with the two very good universities, it has certainly contributed to a more cosmopolitan populaton. The big-money days are over. The conspicuous spending back then was like something out of footballers wives. The one remnant of that period is the abundance of ‘flash’ and fast cars driven by young men.
There is a sense of animosity towards the English in some quarters. I take great delight in demolishing their assumptions by pointing out that I don’t have a drop of English blood in me, but that I would be more than proud if it were all ‘Made in England’. That throws ‘em! Yesterday I noticed that the poppy appeal is not the ‘British Legion Poppy Appeal’ but the ‘Scottish Poppy Appeal’ (run, it must be said, by the Earl Haig Fund). Rather like ‘Scottish Gas’, which is actually ‘British Gas’ (although I suppose the actual gas is Scottish, ha) but dropped the British bit because the Scots don’t like it.
What I find strange is not the Scottish accents on local radio/TV but the Scottish accents from places like the Today programme where it sometimes seems that Britain is run by the Scots (with hardly a murmer of complaint from the English)
As far as the city council here is concerned, there are many English people in very senior positions and a good proportion of the elected members are English. It’s also one of the few councils up here with Tories!
I shall be getting back into the swing of blogging again I promise. I’ve had things to do, and a new regime together with having my computer at the top of
thr house, have conspired to reduce my blogging time. I’ve also been setting up a website for Sandra which meant getting a Windows hosting service so that I could run a CMS on .NET. All new to me
As for CURL. I gave up in the end when Dreamhost, who had recommended the CURL option to begin with, advised against it and started suggesting putting my own PHP in my directory, at which point I lost interest!
I’ve signed up with Media-Temple, which is pretty over the top for my needs but is a world class hosting company. I shall move everything over there soon.
I’m also dumping my UK host company, who seem to have completely lost the plot. Once I sort all that out I hope to be back blogging more regularly (there won’t be much else to do during the winter – except take my son skiiing).
I’m off now to feed and water the haggis and collect any eggs, he, he.
At the risk of sounding provincial and parochial, I had no idea the Brits had to change times…apologies. However, over on this side of The Pond it has become increasingly difficult for me to adjust to these idiotic clock changes. (And I am far from the only one suffering.) Originally in the States it was to help the poor farmer, giving him more daylight in the morning hours to milk his cows and feed his chickens. But does it really matter at which end of the day the light shines? Let nature take its course…the days will shorten to the point that it’s dark at both ends anyway…this fiddling with timepieces is the government equivalent of putting wings on a pig. They don’t improve his appearance…and does he really need to fly anyway???
‘Made in England’ – like it
Oh – we’re complaining all right.
I have moved to Dreamhost and so far I am relatively happy. The odd problem but they are usually quick to sort it out and I have bandwidth and disk space coming out of my ears. But I’d be interested to know what Media Temple are like after you’ve been with them for a while – in case things start to go wrong with DreamHost.
It’s the same story here. It was originally done for farmers and other early risers – and for school children walkiing to schools in the mornings. It is mostly redundant of course. Farmers can switch their hours as they are now more mechanised than ever; kids don’t walk so much these days as they get carted in cars and buses although postmen still start early.
But for the vast majority, that extra hour of daylight at the end of the day would be welcome. As for school kids, as ROSPA pointed out. in the dark mornings they head straight for school. It is after school that they have clubs and other activities – or go home slowly spending time with their friends. It is all absurd and out-dated and unnecessary these days.
I have to say, in all honesty, Dreamhost have been trouble free and easy to use (apart from the PHP inserts question). To be fair they are right to not allow them as they can lead to serious security problems. I think MT might be a little geeky for my needs but I’m trying it out for a month. I’m also looking at Bluehost and Hosting Zoom. I know I’ll end up again with half a dozen hosting services and lots of unwanted domains
but I can’t help myself! I’m trying to simplify things but it never seems to turn out that way, he, he.
PS: Ken Livinstone went to my old school in London and I didn’t really like him during his GLC years (although he did a fantastic job with London Transport) but as he’s got older and more independent I’ve grown to quite admire the old bugger.