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Bushwah!

Today is the longest day of the year for those of us who happen to live in the Northern Hemisphere. And, the more Northern you are, the longer the day will last. A little known fact is that, at the Equator, the days and nights do not vary much in length during the year. In Singapore, the time of sunrise and sunset is so nearly the same every day that it's really not worth reporting. And, there is no concept of "Daylight Savings Time" there. This month the time of sunrise varies about 3 minutes from 1 June to 30 June and the length of day year round is always a few minutes longer than 12 hours.

However, 9 minutes ago, at 0443 British Summer Time, the sun officially rose over London, and I rose with it, I'm afraid. The full night begins to disperse around 0330 or so, and right now it is light enough to say that, indeed, dawn has arrived. For those astonished friends in the United States, consider this: London is at the same latitude as Labrador in Canada. Luckily the Gulf Stream you have so kindly allowed us to share in keeps us warmer than Labrador (at least most of the time).

Tonight, at 2122, the sun will officially set. Twilight does not end until almost 2200. The length of day here in London on June 21, 2010 is 16 hours 38 minutes 22 seconds, according to this sunrise/sunset website. I gather that they do not reckon the day actually begins at sunrise and ends at sunset.

Now that my sleep is mostly disturbed, either by beta-blockers or by the temporalities of trying to sleep with a cast on my right leg, I find it difficult to sleep when the sun has risen—by a supreme act of will, or by staying up past midnight, I can usually sleep until 0600. But, as I set the alarm clock to 0700, and HWMBO finds it difficult to get up until at least 0730 (when breakfast has been made and I force him to get up and face the day), it seems silly to get up at 0443.

But, at last, the new UK government is seeing some sense about time. The Conservatives, normally Eurosceptic, are mooting a change so that, at least in England and Wales, we join the Western European time zone. The arguments for this are legion: millions of people in England are awakening at 0700 and wasting 2 hours and 17 minutes of daylight (and even more in Newcastle, Durham, or the region near the Scottish Borders). To go ahead permanently would mean that we only waste 1 hour and 17 minutes on this longest day of the year.

This would mean that in winter, when we have the shortest day of the year in late December (this year December 22), the sun would not rise in London until 0904 and would not set until 1654, leaving a day of 7 hours 49 minutes 43 seconds. In Scotland, these times would be later yet: 0946 for sunrise on Dec. 22 and 1645 for sunset, leaving a day of 6 hours 58 minutes. The Scots have always protested that this would mean that their bairns would be walking to school in the dark, walking home in the dark, and would be more susceptible to automobile accidents. My wonder is that any Scots at all are walking anywhere, as they are officially the unhealthiest people in Europe—they are the originators of the famous Deep-Fried Mars Bar, after all.

The Europhobes in England will predictably protest that Greenwich will never enjoy the luxury of being in Greenwich Mean Time again. The fact that it's been officially called UTC (Universal Coordinated Time in English; UTC is the French acronym*) makes no difference. They will not relish the fact that the English, Scots, and (probably) the Irish on both sides of the border will enjoy one extra hour of active daylight in the summer along with those on the other side of the English Channel (famous newspaper headline: Fog covers Channel; Continent cut off!.)

This regularly comes up around the times of the Solstices each year. However, I sense that this time the Conservatives are happy to let Scotland enjoy its own time zone. This will complicate such things as time checks on national radio and television, and could mean that programs such as Radio 4's Today show are shortened in Scotland or simply moved from 0600-0900 to 0500-0800. I don't think it can happen overnight: time zone changes are hideously expensive, not only in terms of little things like time and tide tables but in terms of big things like national broadcasters, transportation timings, and soothing the ruffled feathers of farmers and the Scots. This does not even take into consideration that, for the first year, we will have to figure out the best way of actually joining Western European Standard Time. I suppose that the best way is to go ahead one hour for British Summer time in the spring, and then just not go back to Greenwich Mean Time in the autumn. We will "permanently lose" one hour of sleep that year, I guess. The Europhobes will spend more time complaining about that to the unwashed multitudes than they will actually enjoying the extra hour of activity a later sunset will afford.

In any case, I have spent a pleasant 45 minutes or so of the longest day of the year expounding upon time. Now to start to face the day. Pot of coffee, anyone?

* from @tug: "UTC isn't the French acronym There was an argument CUT in English vs TUC in French so they compromised on UTC" I stand corrected.