North Thanet`s MP, Roger Gale, is giving his wholehearted support to the campaign to introduce “Churchill Hours” or “Double British Summertime” as it is popularly known.
 
The MP, who spoke recently during the Commons debate in support of the measure to bring in an extra afternoon hour of daylight said:
 
“The double summertime embraced by Churchill was good enough to help the war effort then and it is good enough, now, to boost tourism, recreational activities and after-school safety for children.  All the statistical evidence arising from the only serious experiment conducted reveals that, far from resulting in more accidents, extra evening daylight reduces traffic hazards, injuries and deaths and the benefits to leisure and tourism are uncontested.  Generally, English  people welcome more daylight after work and appear not to resent the corresponding extra darkness in early morning”.
 
And commenting on the traditional objections from Scotland the MP added:
 
“It is ironic that those most Europhile in other ways have endeavoured to brand the proposals as “Brussels Time” or “German time” in an attempt to generate hostility.  If the Scots, who now have their own parliament, wish to live an hour behind the rest of the UK then there is absolutely no reason why they should not do so.  To those that say “you cannot have one time-zone south of Hadrian`s Wall and another one north of it” it needs to be pointed out that the USA has no difficulty in recognising the different time zones that separate time-border towns that in some States are only yards apart  and in Kent, just  20 miles from France, we are used to changing our watches as we travel between England and mainland Europe.  There is no reason why we should continue to be held to time-ransom by those that still feel that we should comply with their twilight view of life rather than meet the needs of our own society”

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