Shedding light on a long-running debate

There is a proposal, being considered for the Labour Party's election manifesto, to put the clocks on two hours all year round. It's claimed that the winner would be tourism, with attractions

able to stay open later, and this would deliver a 3.5bn boost to the economy.

But what effect would it have on farming and the rural way of life? The National Farmers' Union says it would depend on the working arrangements for each farm.

When the subject was aired three years ago, the union's members showed a narrow majority in favour.

Farmers are known for getting up earlier than most. Consequently all-year-round "Double British Summer Time" would mean them working in the dark for longer periods in the morning.

Andrew Manfield, an arable farmer from near Sancton on the Yorkshire Wolds doesn't think much to the idea: "This is one of those perennial subjects," he says.

"I feel that none of this tinkering around with the hours makes the day any longer. We still end up with the same amount of daylight hours regardless of what

is done.

"As a farmer I cannot see the benefit. It would probably make the 'bed-drag' (not wanting to get out of bed) a little longer and I

feel the current daylight hours fit in well with our farming pattern.

"One of the disadvantages would be working in the dark more in a morning, which is a time when we normally check out our machinery to make sure everything is okay. This would then be more difficult to undertake.

"We are already used to working in the darkness of an evening so we wouldn't see any great help there, and modern farm machinery technology, including auto-steer advancements, has enabled us to work late at night during harvest without impediment. I can't see this idea doing much for us."

Richard Longthorp, a prominent pig farmer who has 1,500 outdoor sows at Kilpin, near Howden is similarly unimpressed and draws on his experience of overseas conditions.

"Who would really want daylight until 11 o'clock at night? I have spent a great deal of time in Africa, in countries such as Zimbabwe and Zambia.

"Over there you have sunlight hours from 5am to 7.30pm pretty much all year round. Who needs more than that? On a farming level we carry out quite a number of our routine tasks on the farm in a morning, feeding round, bedding up, serving.

"Our lads have to use headlamps and tractor lights in the mornings between December and January. I can only see this being extended from November through to February and March as a result of this."

Richard Pratt, a dairy farmer from Bellerby, near Leyburn says: "We milk our cows at 6am and 5pm. During the winter this would mean we would be using even more lighting. At the moment that is between November and February.

"We would be using even more lighting from at least October right through to April. I don't think it gives us any real benefit overall."

Nonetheless the proposal is not something that all farmers dismiss. Some have reacted very positively, particularly to having BST all year round. They point to the times of year when daylight starts around 4am and that it would be better to forego some of that "dead-time" in favour of lighter summer evenings and a reduction in the amount of electricity used during that time.

DBST is a thornier issue. Some farmers point out that, particularly with hay-making, they are reliant upon the sun and that DBST would mean they would be working until midnight.

There have been two occasions in the past 70 years when BST+1, or DBST, have been tried. That was before tourism was such a huge industry. During World War II Britain retained the hour's advance at the onset of winter 1940 and operated on DBST until July 1945.

The last time that British Summer Time was tinkered with was between October 27, 1968, and October 31, 1971, when Britain remained on GMT+1 all year. This was with the aim of reducing the number of road accidents and it had some success.

In 2004 a Private Member's Bill in the House of Commons proposed that England and Wales should be able to determine their own time independently of Scotland and Northern Ireland. If this had been passed we would now find that Britain was living in two time zones for the first time for nearly 100 years.

What has happened since is that tourism has come to play in bigger part in the countryside than agriculture.

So which takes priority?