Longer days, bank holidays and wedding days!
Robert Powell hits the streets to get your thoughts on British Summer Time and bank holidays...
In just over a fortnight our Sunday lie in will be cut by an hour as the clocks jump forward to British Summer Time.
But this jump was very nearly doubled after tourism ministers proposed moving Britain’s clocks into line with the rest of Europe. The idea was that the change would give the economy a boost by making evenings longer and lighter.
In the end the plan didn’t materialise, after MPs decided that any changes would need the consent of the whole UK.
So today I’ve hit the streets to get your take on whether the proposed changes would be good for the economy!
Robert Powell hits the streets to get your thoughts on British Summer Time and bank holidays
Should the clocks go forward two hours this summer?
Most of the people I’ve spoken to today think that the government should have gone through with their proposal - but most still had some doubts about the plans.
The main argument against the time change was the dangers caused by darker mornings – especially in Northern England and Scotland.
Many claimed that an extra hour of early morning darkness would increase road accidents and make it more dangerous for children travelling to school.
The financial advantages of adding an hour
Tourism chiefs claim that longer summer evenings would attract more visitors and boost the economy by £3.5bn a year.
But agricultural unions in Scotland have opposed the plans saying that farmers would suffer disproportionately from darker mornings.
The time change may not have made it into the new tourism strategy – but one proposal that has is the idea to scrap the May Day bank holiday in favour of a bank holiday later in the year.
Bank holidays
The proposal for a bank holiday later in the year is designed to give the economy a boost by extending the tourist season.
Suggested dates for the new bank holiday include Trafalgar Day in October or St George’s Day for England and St David’s Day in Wales.
But most of us will be getting an extra day off work this year whatever happens, thanks to the Royal Wedding on 29 April.
But with our economy still in such a fragile state, should Will and Kate’s wedding day really be a bank holiday?
Royal wedding
The Department for Business has estimated that the extra bank holiday will cost the British economy around £2.9bn.
The extra day-off has also pushed up the wedding security costs, as police officers will be paid double time for working on a bank holiday.
An extra bank holiday here and there and an hour more daytime may sound, on the face of it, like fairly good and harmless ideas – especially when government cuts are continuing to depress the nation.
But there is a serious financial side to these issues – and you can have your say on them right here at lovemoney.com.
What do you think?
Should the government put the clocks forward two hours this summer? Is it time to scrap the May bank holiday? Should Wills and Kate's wedding really be a bank holiday?
Let us know your thoughts in the comment box below.
More: Six money must-haves for summer | Super summer savings for your garden party!
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Comments
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I wish folk wouldn't automatically blame 'scottish people' for not wanting to keep the clocks forward throughout the year - Scotland suffers more than the rest of the UK from dark winter evenings (which actually start in early afternoon in the far north in midwinter!), and so has most to gain. As a 'scottish person' I've yet to meet anyone who doesn't think it's perverse to put the clocks back just when the days are shortening. The only supporters of the present arrangement seem to be a handful of livestock farmers who imagine that they're still living in the days of candles and oil-lamps - and as kitwedigger points out, of all professions, farmers are surely the most independent from the clock! There are only a limited number of daylight hours, and we should use them as efficiently as possible - that does not mean having daylight before many people are even awake, and darkness before the kids are even out of school. Perhaps another energy crisis, with soaring oil prices driven by war in Libya and nuclear disaster in Japan, will convince the politicians to adopt the same time that served Britain well in two world wars.
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I wish folk wouldn't automatically blame 'scottish people' for not wanting to keep the clocks forward throughout the year - Scotland suffers more than the rest of the UK from dark winter evenings (which actually start in early afternoon in the far north in midwinter!), and so has most to gain. As a 'scottish person' I've yet to meet anyone who doesn't think it's perverse to put the clocks back just when the days are shortening. The only supporters of the present arrangement seem to be a handful of livestock farmers who imagine that they're still living in the days of candles and oil-lamps - and as kitwedigger points out, of all professions, farmers are surely the most independent from the clock! There are only a limited number of daylight hours, and we should use them as efficiently as possible - that does not mean having daylight before many people are even awake, and darkness before the kids are even out of school. Perhaps another energy crisis, with soaring oil prices driven by war in Libya and nuclear disaster in Japan, will convince the politicians to adopt the same time that served Britain well in two world wars.
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I used to work in travel and am very aware of timezones. Have any of you who are against the changing of the time to 2 hours instead of 1, ever taken a look at how the time zone runs for us against Spain and France? If you look on a map we are directly in alignment with them and yet we get darker earlier in the summer as we choose to stick to bst. We would benefit from having the same time as Spain and France and as for SAD sufferers - it currently gets light around 6 so when the clocks change that would be 7 so really you have misunderstood the time change and I am guessing that as a sufferer of SAD you wouldnt be getting up that early anyway?? Another thought is having two time changes - someone mentioned it below but instead of having the first one in February have it at the end of March as usual and then have the second one at the end of April ready for the first bank holiday weekend.
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21 March 2011