UK Parliament / Open data

Energy Saving (Daylight) Bill

The hon. Gentleman says walking, but people might drive before they start their walk. Again, that would lead to greater carbon emissions when the original argument was that the proposal would reduce them and save energy. In fact, many more unseen activities may happen during an experiment if it were ever to come to fruition. That would lead to pressure building to end the experiment during the three-year period. I do not see the experiment being successful in any way, shape or form. It has not been successful in Portugal twice, it has not been successful in the UK once and it will not be successful again. Areas will be plunged into darkness for long periods and they will want to change back. The experiment to move to GMT plus one in the winter and GMT plus two in the summer—commonly known as central European time—would be for far too long. Even if there were an experiment, an experiment of a year would be enough. Three years would be far too long. Even if the experiment were for only a year, I would object to that for the reasons of latitude that I have already mentioned. People in my constituency lose on the latitude lottery at a particularly important time of the year—winter—and they also lose on the longitude lottery because we are 7.5° or a full half hour west of Greenwich. Some of the voices for change may see a small gain for some people against a big loss for many others.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
455 c1736-7 
Session
2006-07
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Back to top