Queen’s Speech

My Lords, a popular definition of madness is a predisposition to do the same thing over and over again in the expectation that at some point the outcome will be different. It is 40 years since this country experimented with daylight saving, and while I have not checked Hansard, I am confident that for most of the intervening decades, the issue has been brought to the attention of this House or another place on an almost annual basis. The response from various Governments of the day has been as persistently negative as the proponents of the cause have been consistently optimistic. Perhaps this year the hope that springs eternal will crystallise into something more tangible. I would ask noble Lords which party, in this argument, betrays the traits of madness? I will not rehearse once more the details of the arguments in favour of daylight saving. They have been proselytised on many occasions and restated today. Suffice it to say that the benefits would be felt across a swathe of national life: energy savings, enhanced economic productivity, improved road safety and better opening hours for the tourism and hospitality trades are but a few of the commonly cited examples. I would add that, as the years pass, the body of evidence which supports the case to seriously reconsider the current arrangements also grows. In the light of that growing evidence, I humbly suggest that it is not the habitual proponents of daylight saving who need to reconsider the soundness of their approach, but rather those who, on this issue, appear to be trapped in an impenetrable dark prism of the mind into which no extra light may be allowed to shine, no matter the time of day or the season. One default argument against a new trial of daylight saving is the apparent plight of the farming community in the north of Scotland. It may well be that English Peers in particular are unwilling to invoke the wrath of some Scots for fear of conforming to the old stereotype of the "auld enemy". But given the close ties between Ulster and Scotland and my longstanding and endearing fondness for both places and their people, I am under no such compunction. Northern Ireland is a tiny part of the United Kingdom, making up less than 3 per cent of the population. As some noble Lords will have gathered, we have our own particular and special likings and attitudes. Much as I might regret it, Her Majesty’s Government tend as a rule not to legislate for the entire kingdom based on the sensitivities of Ulster. On many issues, we in Ulster just have to accept that the rest of the country simply has not caught up with our enlightened position. The population of northern Scotland, including the urban populations of cities such as Aberdeen, makes up just 1 per cent of the population of the United Kingdom. What proportion of that 1 per cent is directly employed in agriculture, and what proportion would be directly and adversely affected by the introduction of daylight saving? Is there something peculiar about the darkness in the northern reaches of Britain that sets it aside from Scandinavian darkness where daylight saving operates without too much apparent difficulty? It is not possible to govern by pleasing all the people all the time. That is not a charter to run roughshod over minority interests, but rather that a balance needs to be struck between the needs of the many and those of the few. In the issue of daylight saving, I believe that not only is the balance out of kilter, but that the concerns of those who may be adversely affected are not as dramatic as some would argue. There is no need to perennially condemn this House to a debate that generates heat but, sadly, no light. There is an obvious solution that will prove the argument for or against for the foreseeable future, and that is to conduct a properly constituted and measured daylight saving trial. For 40 years, the children of Israel wandered in spiritual darkness before they entered the promised land. For 40 years, we have wandered in literal darkness. Will we remain a stiff-necked people or will we take the opportunity to put the evidence in support of daylight saving to the test?