Return of the Dark Side

In the title of this posting I’m not referring to the government’s views on social policy, surveillance or how to manage the economy nor the coming of Darth Vader (although I sense a connection here). No, this is my annual rant – or rather considered argument - on the question of British Summer Time (BST) ending and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) beginning.
The clocks have been put back and each year the end of October marks the transition to the ‘dark nights’. This is always somewhat depressing and is a change that is unwanted by 70% of the population who have long been opposed to being plunged into dark evenings. Nationwide, there’s a large majority for the retention of BST for the whole year.
In my personal opinion we should go further and have the clocks set two hours rather than one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time in the summer and one hour ahead of GMT in the winter months. Furthermore, the changes should be made on the first Sunday in November and the first Sunday in March so shaving a month off the then not quite so dark nights.
It is an established fact that simply keeping BST all year would save lives in traffic accidents – estimated as 80 lives currently lost due to the darker evenings. Gloomier mornings are not so bad as drivers are fresh. Lighter evenings would also be better for sport and outdoor activities in general.
Retaining summer time would also reduce the prevalence of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) as people, on the whole, would experience significantly more daylight. And, as is also well known, it would save energy too. Anything we can do to stop as much money as possible going to the fuel and power cartel must have serious merit.
So why isn’t the apparently good idea of keeping BST throughout the year brought in? It is reported that some people in very high places don’t like getting up in the dark, but I find it hard to take this seriously. Our farmers may grumble - and indeed they’ve much to complain about as undervalued contributors to the productive part of our economy - but I imagine that livestock go by other perceptions of time rather than how we choose to set the nominal dials on our timepieces.
In England there is even stronger support (three out of four people) for keeping British Summer Time for the whole year, a fact confirmed by surveys year after year. But I understand that Scotland wants to keep the present system of reverting to GMT in the winter months so that is apparently that. In my view Scotland should be allowed to determine its own clock settings, going their own way in this regard as in other matters, and we can have EST.
All in all we do need more illumination in our daily lives - not to mention in our national affairs - and I suspect few people would disagree with that! But there’s little chance that the Government will see the light anytime soon – at least you can’t fault them for consistency. So, unlike the clocks, no change there then!