Possible implications for Northern Ireland of the Daylight Saving Bill

Written evidence from N C E McKinney

1. To call the Bill -Daylight Saving is a complete fallacy as we will have the same number of hours of daylight irrespective of how the clocks are advanced or retarded. We will just be shifting the daylight hours.

2. The hours or daylight are regulated by the passage of the sun and the latitude and in particular the longitude of a state or country. This is particularly important for N I with our northerly latitude and westerly longitude. NI time based on longitude should actually be G M T minus 1/2 hour.

3. Every 15 degrees of longitude is the equivalent of 1 hour by the passage of the sun (7 1/2 degrees equals a half hour ).Therefore taking zero longitude at Greenwich London all areas 7 1/2 degrees either side of Greenwich should be on Greenwich Mean time ( G M T )The proposed Daylight Saving Bill (?)will have N I on G M T + 2 hours.

4. What will this mean for N I ? In the months of November to the end of March we will have dark mornings and light evenings. This will be particularly noticeable in the west where on a bad morning it may well be dark until 1000.Assuming that a child’s school day is between 0800 and 1600 this will be very detrimental.

5. It is often claimed that the proposed Bill will reduce accidents. I believe that it will only shift accidents from the evening to the morning due to the increased darkness in the morning.

6. I fail to understand how any potential costs benefits will arise. As an example we will have to keep the lights burning longer in the morning rather than have to switch them on in the evening.

7. I believe the proposed Bill has been ill thought out and will not be beneficial to Northern Ireland.

8. If the correct principles were adopted the U K as a whole (based on our longitude and the passage of the sun through our longitude) would remain on G M T throughout the entire year which would eliminate any necessity to shift our clocks whatsoever.

9. I believe all N Ireland M Ps should oppose this Bill.

20 March 2011