Time to rejoice

Hooray! Alarm clock wakened me to daylight again. I find it very revealing that most of the proponents of increasing our three months of gloomy mornings to five are under 50 years of age.

As such they do not remember just how horrid the British Standard Time experiment of 1968-71 was, not just in Scotland but even in the English Midlands.

I am convinced that its unpopularity was one of the reasons for Ted Heath unexpectedly winning the 1970 general election, as he had promised to abolish it.

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In Scotland, we could manage quite well on GMT all the year round, what with our very long summer evenings when it doesn’t really get dark at all. In England, or at least the southern half, the difference in latitude means that an hour ahead of GMT all year would suit them.

The present arrangement is a compromise, as befits a United Kingdom which straddles 10 degrees of latitude and nearly as much of longitude. In the meantime, let us welcome the fact that midday is back in its proper place, that is at 12 o’clock.

Jane Ann Liston

Largo Road

St Andrews