After campaigning long and hard to get our clocks changed for good, Friday’s third reading of the Daylight Saving Bill ended in bitter disappointment for Brake and the 90 odd other national organisations backing the Lighter Later campaign.
Despite a tremendous turn out of supportive MPs – 144 stayed in the Commons to vote – following an impassioned lobbying campaign, the Bill was scuppered by a few MPs wasting time to prevent the Bill going to the vote.
It’s incredibly frustrating, given the case for putting our clocks forward by an hour year-round stacks up so convincingly. Pretty much everyone stands to gain, in all sorts of ways. Lighter evenings mean fewer road casualties, and reduced risk for those wanting to walk, cycle, jog or go anywhere in the evenings, and for children coming home from school. It would mean less hours of daylight wasted while we’re asleep, so more daylight leisure time, and reductions in energy bills and carbon emissions.
It’s yet more frustrating given that so much time and energy – including from charities like Brake with limited resources – has gone into pushing this Bill forwards, which would compel the government to review and act upon the evidence for changing the clocks.
Hats off to the Lighter Later team, who have done a fantastic job raising awareness about this issue and building support. Brake will be continuing to back the campaign as other avenues are explored – this certainly isn’t lights out for Lighter Later.
Read the latest, next steps for taking the campaign forward, and how you can help, at www.lighterlater.org.
