Sir,

In acknowledging the benefits of the extra hour of daylight in the evening on every day of the year if our clocks were put forward by an additional hour, your Leader then expresses sympathy for the Scots in the far north, where incidentally about 1 in 1500 of the UK population lives, as the sun would not rise there until 10am in the depths of winter (Winter Time, 26 October).

Would not this sympathy be better placed because at present clocks on GMT result in the sun setting there at that time of year before 3pm? This means that, as well as going to school in the dark, children also have to go home in the dark – a far more dangerous time of the day than the morning owing to the higher volume of traffic. Surely, sunset at 4pm would be preferable?

Dr. Mayer Hillman
Senior Fellow Emeritus
Policy Studies Institute

Letter published in the Observer, 2 November 2014