The clocks changed overnight and this has highlighted the growing likelihood that there may at last be progress on the peculiar British nonsense of GMT.

Europhobes are no doubt delighted that we are out of sync with other countries in Europe. But we pay a high price for this mania: higher fuel bills, more accidents and a poorer quality of life. The need to chime in with Scotland was always bogus.

But most particularly we need to think about the economy: now that the banks proved their worthlessness we can no longer rely on the financial sector as an engine of growth. We need to look to other industries – not least tourism. Tourists and visitors are deterred by days which end part way through the afternoon and have no use for the extra light available before many of us get out of bed.

We must end this nonsense and have BST in winter and BST plus in summer.