Zac Goldsmith - Click to Join the Campaign
blank

Zac's Blog

Return to Website


Time for a change

A few weeks ago I co-sponsored the so-called Daylight Savings Bill in Parliament. If it succeeds, we will see a permanent change to UK time to give us an extra hour of daylight in the evening. The Government will be required to conduct a proper analysis of the costs and advantages, and if the maths stacks up, the shift will happen.

It is not the first time the issue will have been debated, but the voices against the move have always prevailed. However, historic opposition now appears to be melting. The traditionally hostile National Farmers Union has adopted an officially ‘neutral’ line.  The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RSPA) has said that it believes the safety benefits of the extra hour in the evening would outweigh the added dangers in the morning.

Given that fear of increased road accidents in the darker winter mornings has been one of the main obstacles, this is significant. But the RSPA believes that more than 2,500 deaths were avoided each year when the UK embarked on a three-year trial forty years ago.

In addition, the campaign group 10:10, which is behind the ‘Lighter Later’ campaign, claims that the shift would save a staggering 450,000 tonnes of CO2 each year because it would reduce demand to have the lights on.

The tourism sector has jumped on the campaign, not surprisingly, because it would effectively mean moving an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening, when more of us are able to enjoy it.

But most important, lighter evenings mean more time for our children to enjoy the outdoors after school. That’s why, as this Bill proceeds through parliament, I will be arguing for it to become law.
 
For The Richmond Informer, Friday 13 August 

Archive 

Zac Goldsmith: Real Local Democracy

Zac Goldsmith for The Richmond Informer: True Democracy

Zac Goldsmith: Election Spending and Channel 4

Zac Goldsmith: 
Victory for our Green Spaces

Zac Goldsmith for The Richmond Informer: New School for North Kingston?

Zac Goldsmith for The Richmond Informer: The Budget

Zac Goldsmith for The Richmond Informer:  Maiden Speech

Zac Goldsmith:  Zac'cs Maiden Speech 

Zac Goldsmith for The Richmond Informer: News for Britain's Gardens

Zac Goldsmith for The Richmond Informer:  Thank you

Zac Goldsmith: Triggering a by election

Zac Goldsmith: In Praise of the BBC

Zac Goldsmith: Sea Shepherd needs our support

Zac Goldsmith: Here’s another depressing example of modern Britain’s bizarre morality

Zac Goldsmith: MP's demand an end to Pig Cruelty

Zac Goldsmith: Kingston Hospital: A Lib Dem Scare Story?

Zac Goldsmith: Are we civilised?

Zac Goldsmith: Councils CAN stop garden grabbing

Zac Goldsmith: Sunday Times article

Zac Goldsmith: Sense about Science?

Zac Goldsmith: Daily Mirror Dirty Tricks

Zac Goldsmith: Answers Lib Dem Smears

The Guardian: The Big Green Bogey Man

Zac Goldsmith: How have the BNP been allowed to make political capital?

Zac Goldsmith: Here's what's wrong with Politics

Reversing Labour's tendency to police, regulate and ban will create a more successful and caring society

Evening Standard: A bright green future beckons...

Hacan: Richmond: The 2nd most overflown borough in London

Zac Goldsmith: Richmond’s Lib Dems: “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story”

Zac Goldsmith: Turning Green into Gold

Zac's Book - The Constant Economy

Oncom: My surefire cure for voter apathy

Babelgum: Zac: Humans as parasites

Oncom: Only one way to reform parliament

Earth Restoration Services: Put your hand up to 'Restore the Earth'

Oncom: Why is the council spying on us? 

Zac Goldsmith: Why the Ecologist magazine has gone online...

Oncom: US chemical industry ‘shudders’ at news of Obama veggie patch

Oncom: Ban the bag in Richmond!

The Independent: Zac Goldsmith: You ask the questions!

Conservatives: The Low Carbon Economy

Oncom: Revolution in Democracy

Oncom: Super tax on parking

Times Online: Regular referendums will revive democracy

Social Market Foundation: Politicians must share power or lose it

Richmond & Twickenham Times: We need to keep Runway Alternation

Policy Exchange: Keeping the environment at the top of the agenda

Letter to TLF: Airtrack Scheme concerns

Barnes and East Sheen directory: Support our small shops

Resouce UK Magazine: Recycling

The Evening Standard: Stop building on our gardens

The Independent: Fluoride: Is it safe?

The Evening Standard: 3rd runway: The wrong answer to the wrong question

The Guardian: The New Tories

The Evening Standard: Nuclear Power? It's not too late to say, 'No thanks'

The Guardian: My tips for Boris

Platform 10: Why fuel and food prices are rising

Platform 10: Save our small shops

The Evening Standard: London just doesnt need a third runway

The Daily Telegraph: We cant carry on soaking up resources

The Mail on Sunday: Why do we let shops give us all this rubbish?

The Daily Telegraph: Locals should have power over developers

The Daily Telegraph: Let the free market fight climate change

The Ecologist: Sense about Science

The Ecologist: The Stern Report

The Ecologist: British Children, Mental health problems

The Ecologist: NIMBYism

The Independent: Don't delete nukes from the menu