Daylight Saving Mystery

Daylight saving is not a complicated issue. The clocks are pushed forward in the Spring to make better use of the available daylight (having it in the evening as opposed to the early morning). No big deal. But what I have never been able to figure out - and nobody on the world wide interwebs seems to know either - is why the dates for these clock movements are not mirror images around the winter solstice?

In the Autumn, the clocks go back about 7 weeks before the winter solstice. Common sense dictates that the clocks should then go forward in the spring about seven weeks after the solstice. In other words, the change going forward should occur when the lighting conditions are much the same as when they went back. Makes sense?

However, that's not what happens. The clocks go forward in the spring 14 weeks after the solstice. In fact, the clocks go forward about a week after the equinox, when we actually have more daylight than darkness. Why? If the issue was purely to do with light, then the two changes should occur at equal times before and after the solstice. Why do we have to put up with GMT so much longer than is actually necessary?

If we move to permanent British Summer Time BST (or Western European Time - WET), then I'll be happy as someone called Lawrence. However, if we reject a permanent move, then I propose that we alter the start of BST to an earlier date (the first Sunday in February) in order to mirror the light conditions at the end of BST. That way, the moaners will have their precious GMT and the rest of us will not have to endure these miserable early evenings any longer than is necessary.

We still await the government's next move. They may choose to support the Daylight Saving Bill 2010 - a private member's bill proposed by Rebecca Harris MP - which will not become law without government support. Fresh impetus to the proposal has come from Scotland, where a poll suggests that a small majority of Scots are in favour. In the end, the Scots are central to this. They are the greatest obstacle to the bill's success. Let's hope they don't spoil it for the rest of us.