Friday 23 October

Beautiful morning with bright sunshine and not a breath of wind.
I did not watch last night's Question Time, but am pleased that the man from the BNP got a good roasting. Which is all I'll say on the matter.

For more than 40 years, a debate has been going on in the UK whether it should adopt the same timezone as the rest of Western Europe. At the moment, clocks in Great Britain are 1 hour behind Europe. A trial of 'double summertime' was abandoned in the 1960s after protests from those in Scotland, who experienced sunrise at 10 in the morning. Safety concerns were the prime consideration. Now, a prominent historian has said Scotland should be left on its own "tundra time" (I quote), whilst the rest of the UK goes one hour forward. Nice one. Two different timezones within the one country, one account of latitude, is ridiculous. Yes, the US has at least 4 timezones, but that is because it stretches across at least 60 degrees of longitude. The UK only straddles 9 degrees at a stretch. Furthermore, I think it is rather insulting to suggest people cannot work out 1 hour's time difference to work out when appointments are, as Mr Horne suggests. Mr Horne, in my opinion, should emigrate to the tundra to contemplate his utterances prior to making them.