Greenwich meany-time
Commuting in daylight and effective weight loss. Not obvious bedfellows, but if you’re struggling to
spot the link between British Summer Time and FULLfast appetite control spray, read on…!
Clocks have been zipping back and forth in the UK since 1916. It’s all to do with saving hours of
daylight, and was initiated by a man named William Willett, a London builder who lived in Petts
Wood in Kent. William Willett first proposed the idea of British Summer Time (BST) in 1907 in a
pamphlet entitled ‘The Waste of Daylight’. He’d noticed that light was wasted on summer mornings
while people slept, and suggested that the time would be put to better use in the afternoon by
putting the clocks forward. After campaigning for years, the British Government finally adopted the
system a year after Willett’s death.
No matter how you feel about daylight saving, it will mean we’ll all be able to spend
an extra hour in bed on Sunday when the clocks go back. Hooray! BUT the change back to GMT will
mean darker mornings, and evenings, which will stick around until the clocks go forward again next
March. Boo. Greenwich mean-time more like.
Debate has raged for years over whether Britain should keep BST all year round, but several
campaigns by MPs have failed. London Mayor Boris Johnson says it is ‘barmy’ not to follow much of
Europe in setting clocks an hour ahead of GMT in winter and that the capitol is missing out on
millions of pounds in lost income from tourism.
It’s been suggested that putting clocks forward during winter to an hour ahead of GMT could save
almost 500,000 tonnes of CO2, and The Policy Studies Institute say an extra hour of evening daylight
would give people more opportunities to be active outdoors, helping them to become healthier. And
that’s pretty crucial. It’s all to easy to curl up on those dark mornings or evenings and put your
weight loss goals on pause, but do try to keep on track, regardless of what the clock says. If it’s time
for a change, you’ll thank yourself in the long run. And long runs can be nice.
So we’re with William Willett (and all his w’s). Get those clocks forward and keep them there.
What do you think?