Member-only story
Accentuate the negative
(Not a recommendation, but an observation.) We often tend to focus on what is bad, and neglect what is good, and that leads to bad arguments, bad decisions and bad policy making.
This weekend much of Europe moves (or moved, if you’re reading this on or after Sunday) the clock forward for the umpteenth time. Daylight Savings Time had a patchy history for a good sixty years since it was first introduced early in the last century. Countries opted for, then against, then for again, while even within countries, regions and cities were doing their own thing. After WWII, most European countries abandoned it, with only a few countries, like the UK and Ireland, keeping up the practice. But triggered by the 1970s oil crisis, most countries that had stuck to a single time all year-round rediscovered DST, as an energy-saving measure. Since then, every year around this time, ever louder voices argue that putting clocks forward (and necessarily back again) is a pointless and harmful exercise. There is no conclusive evidence that it saves energy, and, especially in the days following the jump forward, it is reported to lead to more fatal traffic collisions, more heart attacks and strokes, and a drop in productivity. These voices were heard by the EU, which in 2019 began planning to abolish the…
