Patriot Realm

Daylight Saving – the dumbest idea since the invention of dehydrated water.

I mean, seriously, what an idiotic and stupid concept: Turn the clocks back one hour and your miraculously save daylight? Well, no, you don’t. It is still daylight for exactly the same amount of time and it is still dark for precisely the same amount of time as it would have been before you changed the clock. So what are we actually “ saving “?

Daylight saving is like Jetlag on steroids. It messes up our natural body clocks and is as confusing to our bodies as an appointment with a gender therapist who votes democRAT….

Circadian Biologists say that in the 10 days around the change to and from Daylight Saving there is an increased risk of heart attack and having a bingle in your car because your body has to adjust to the change.

As a parent and Grandparent ( and – shudder – Great Grandparent ) I can attest to the fact that it makes life pretty unpleasant as well. Getting kids to sleep in the daylight is no fun and I remember stitching blackout curtains so that we could give the illusion of night time.

But what I could not understand is what is actually being saved.

It is right up there with climate change: a ridiculous notion that saves nothing. Zip. Nadda.

Apparently it was all because Benjamin Franklin had the bright idea so that it would save energy.

But it didn’t really catch on until the First World War when, in 1916, Germany decided to introduce it in order to save fuel used for lighting. Europe followed, as did America in 1918.

Woodrow Wilson, then President, wanted to keep the idea going after the war but the farmers were not happy campers at the notion. It “stole “ an hour from them in the mornings so the rural sector got their way until the beginning of World War 2 when it was reintroduced – 12 months of the year.The then President Franklin Roosevelt kept it in place until peace was restored. Following the end of the War, he handed over the decision to the States and towns where that power remained until 1966. The Federal Government then put their hat in the ring, all under the guise of saving energy on lighting and it has, since 2007,under the Energy Policy Act , been tweaked and enforced so it is the policy we see today.

Now, the weird thing is that lighting is so much more efficient than it was back in the last century or indeed even the last decade.

So why on earth do we still have it?

In all honesty, it actually costs MORE energy to have Daylight Savings than it would if we did not have it. Air conditioning in the long summer evenings would surely expend more energy than it would save if we just let Nature take its course?

So the term “ Daylight Saving “ has become a myth. It is Daylight Robbery of sorts.

Maybe it is just an old habit that Governments want to keep because it is just too difficult to get rid of?

My home State of Queensland in Australia has fought this issue for decades. We keep getting called “ old fashioned “ and “ behind the times “ because we do not conform to the rest of the States. It is inconvenient for the Southern States to have to deal with our recalcitrance. So we should step in to line and do what “ they want. “

Well, bugger them. It is a stupid, old fashioned, out dated, unnecessary, unhealthy dumb idea and, rather than expecting us to follow them, perhaps they should follow us and get with the programme.

Or don’t they have efficient lightbulbs in Victoria? Oh, that’s right, they don’t have electricity that often anymore, do they?

Much like California. What is the point in saving a few watts of power when you can’t even save your State?