The economic case for scrapping daylight saving

Twice a year, every year, the changing of the clocks debate begins. So is it time to finally drop daylight saving and stick to British Summer Time all year round? Boris Johnson thinks so: the future Prime Minister weighed in on the subject back in 2011, claiming BST would ‘expand the economy and cheer everyone up’. Boris is right on both points, not least on the economic case for ditching the old habit of changing the clocks.

Dark winter evenings, made longer by daylight saving, make around half of Brits feel more depressed, according to one poll. Other surveys suggesting we’d exercise more were it lighter longer. Perhaps this point should be taken with a pinch of salt; is it really darkness, rather than the cold, wet weather, that stops us heading out for a jog? But it’s difficult to doubt that an extra hour of light on a winter’s evening would allow more people to squeeze in some form of activity that could be beneficial to our wellbeing and the economy.