Letter: Setting the clock

John Haine
Thursday 29 October 1998 19:02 EST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Sir: In answer to Alan Bealing (letter, 28 October), the clocks change in autumn about four weeks after the equinox rather than, as he states,eight weeks before!

He is, perhaps, thinking of the winter solstice.

There is, or was, much logic in changing the clocks, because of the asymmetric way in which the times of sunrise and sunset change relative to midday as the seasons progress. In the days when most labour took place out of doors and depended on natural light, this made sense.

Nowadays, perhaps, we should stick to one time throughout the year. Would it be impossible for those people whose work does depend on daylight to shift their hours of work rather than impose a change on everyone else's clock?

JOHN HAINE

Shudy Camps,

Cambridge

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in