Monday 27 October 2008

Vote SNP - Save a life!

This was the view from my driveway this morning, as I set off for work on the first Monday after the clocks changed.
Bright, isn't it!

Of course, it had been bright enough to drive for about an hour previously, and it will be dark when I drive home. So I get to drive to work, bright and alert, in the light. I get to drive home, tired and rather less alert, in the dark. This is self-evidently silly, and I read reports over the weekend that estimates of the effect of this run to hundreds of lives, or about 10% of all road deaths.

We are told that we have to keep to the current system for the benefit of farmers and Scots. Now, pleading the plight of a farmer is silly. The clock by which London businessess run their day is irrelevant to a cow. What does Daisy care whether the clock says 6am or 7am when she is milked? All she knows is that it is sunrise.

As for the Scots, it is pointed out that sticking to British Summer Time all year round would mean that in parts of Scotland, sunrise would sometimes be at 10am. I can understand that being a problem. I wouldn't like that. But isn't this why we have devolution? So that where there is a wide difference of opinion, we can each go our own way? An independent Scotland could make its own mind up whether it preferred sunrise at 9am or 10am, and whether this was better enough to justify an hour's difference with the rest of the UK.
So, on balance, I'm coming to the view that Scotland should have its independence. It is a purely incidental benefit that we could rule out Scots from participation in the English (, Welsh & N. Irish?) Parliament and Cabinet...

2 comments:

  1. I take the opposite view: that the time is the time and if people want to re-arrange their lives to work around when it is light it is up to them. That said I think we should align our time zone with continental Europe so that getting hold of the Germans is possible after 4pm!

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  2. Yes - we are all individuals and should make up our own minds. Cue Monty Python's Life of Brian...

    However, you provide the answer yourself - there are times when we need to work with or around others. So conventions are useful, such as a 9-5(/6/7...) day, driving on the left, etc.

    So for farmers, where it doesn't really matter, they should get up when they want. The rest of us should agree on a convenient time zone. And you should work from 8 til 4... :-)

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