Energy Saving (Daylight) Bill

My hon. Friend is right, although I am not sure that the Ministry of Defence will be too happy about his saying where the supplies for Afghanistan and Iraq are coming from. On both sides of the border there are common themes of social life, employment and business. That is important to people, hence my deep concern about the Bill. As others have mentioned, opinion on a possible move to central European time was canvassed in a 1989 Green Paper. The responses revealed a divergence of opinion that I believe still exists. The debate in Parliament in 1996 on the private Member’s Bill that proposed the introduction of central European time revealed the strong views that remain, and the Bill failed to secure enough parliamentary support to proceed. It has also been mentioned today that the hon. Member for South Suffolk was interviewed on Radio 4’s ““Today”” programme. I understand that the Radio 4 message board showed a wide divergence of views, suggesting that a change would not be universally popular. A recent YouGov poll showed that while the Bill’s proposals may be popular in some areas, they are less popular—although perhaps not entirely unpopular—in others. As I said in an intervention earlier, the climate as much as the lack of light precludes outdoor activities in the winter. Sport, social activities and tourism may all be affected. The hon. Member for Salisbury (Robert Key) recounted his experiences when he was teaching in Musselburgh—the dark dull afternoons and the dark days. We undoubtedly witness that. Sometimes lights go on as early as 2 o'clock in the afternoon. That can happen down here as much as further north. It is the climate as much as the daylight that determines that. My hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, North-West (John Robertson) mentioned that there was little Glasgow rugby activity taking place for strong young individuals—men and women nowadays. I reminded him that that was down to red blaes pitches more than anything else. Only those who had something akin to suicidal tendencies would be diving about on those pitches. They are not good for the complexion.