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The Campaign to Improve England by taking better advantage of the Daylight

The British Isles sticks to a unique and bizarre timezone. Sharing this timezone with a mismatched group of countries, consisting of Iceland, Portugal and Ghana. Iceland is just south of the arctic circle, Portugal is in South Western Europe enjoying a mediterranean climate and Ghana is an African country close to the equator.

During the winter months, the british are forced to put their clocks back one hour, so that the day begins an hour later and it goes dark an hour quicker in the evening. The reason for this is given that in midwinter, the children on the remote Isles of Scotland don't have to go to school in the dark. Meanwhile the people of England are forced to loose an hour of useful daylight in the evening. This prevents evening activities without artificial light, many outdoor activities and wastes a great deal of energy. Overall while giving a slight advantage to a hundred children, this probably costs the whole of the United Kingdom many millions of extra pounds in wasted electricity every year.

Meanwhile in the summer, the sun comes up so early in England that it is fully light by 4:30 am, and dark again after 10 pm. While the average person might wake up at 8am and go to bed at 11pm or Midnight. It might seem obvious, but why don't we take advantage of the daylight by altering our summer clock to take better advantage of the very long days, saving the country millions on wasted electric light. It seems to me that the English are determined to set themselves up with the most disadvantageous and expensive way to manage their day within the local climate..

Summer Proposal ( Greek Time )

Move the timezone so that it goes dark at around midnight in the middle of summer. This will mean that the wasted daylight in the early morning when everyone is in bed now becomes useful. This effect can be gained by moving to GMT+2 which is the same current timezone as Greece and Israel.

The overall effect of this change will be that the evening will be extended so that people living in England can persue outdoor activities right until bedtime. Whereas now we are often restricted by nightfall. This will mean that cyclists, rock climbers & sport players will be able to get much more time enjoying their persuits in the daylight. People driving and using the roads in the evening will be safer because less accidents occur in the daylight.

Winter Proposal ( Greek Time )

In the wintertime, we get as little as 8 hours of sunshine in mid winter from around 8 am to 4 pm. These dark, cold days can be depressing for many people and it would make sense to capitalise on the daylight as much as possible. In November and February the days are an hour longer from around 7 am to 4 pm, it seems to me that it would be better to shift this time to 9 am to 6 pm, Then at least most people who go to work / school in the usual office hours of 9 to 5 will be going in to work as it is getting light and will get an hour of sunshine at the end of the day to enjoy.

At the fringes of winterseason in October and March then we get 9 and a half hours of sunlight from 7 am to 6 pm with the shift forward 2 hours this would equate to full sunlight from 9 am to 8pm, giving a couple of hours of evening sun which would allow extra evening activites and save on electric lighting.

We would not need to change our timezone between winter and summer, just enjoy a new fresher and lighter England.

Diplomacy - The Scottish Problem

It is my policy to tell the scottish parliament that they should decide themselves what time zone or zones would best suit their population and activate the change as they see fit. I have always found it ridiculous that the fringes of the scottish islands should be bound to what suits the people in London, a city 1000 miles south and with a completely unrelated climate. If it is such a problem for their children going to school in the dark why do then not open their schools from 10 am to 6 pm instead ?

The Euro Zone

Most of our European Neighbours would now be an hour in front of us instead of an hour behind. This amusing situation would leave us with no disadvantage compared to the current situation