Audlem to ditch GMT

The weekend just past was the last when local residents will have to change their clocks, watches and timers.

With the arguments for ditching Greenwich Mean Time now almost universally accepted, yet national politicians loath to make a decision, Audlem has decided to go it alone. The village will move to all-year round BST, to be known as ASET (Audlem Standard Empirical Time).

With no trains and few buses connecting the village with the outside world, Audlem campaigners argue that it's perfectly reasonable for the historical precedent of villages running to their own time to be resuscitated.

It was only with the arrival of the railways, with their national timetables, that a standard time became necessary. The development of the electric telegraph, with its ability to transmit an instant signal over long distances, allowed GMT to be gradually adopted in England during the 1840s.

Campaigners say that abolishing GMT and staying on ASET will bring more sunshine into our lives. That extra hour of daylight is so much better in the evening than the morning when everybody is in bed anyway.

Tourism will be boosted too, as visitors will enjoy more useful daylight on the Shropshire Union canal while energy and electricity consumption through the winter would be cut making this an effective move in a green direction.

Only the Scots, who think changing from the old system may confuse their livestock (not to mention themselves) argue against this policy. Yet Audlem's campaigners believe Scottish opposition only adds to the policy's attractiveness!

There is one area, however, where local time will have to bow to national legislation – the pub closing time of 11.00pm will have to be observed, which will be midnight in Audlem – yet another example of the Law of Unintended Consequences, but this time to the benefit of all concerned (with the possible exception of pub landlords). 

A downside – which even the most ardent supporter of Audlem operating its own time zone will acknowledge – is that when Audlem's New Year's Eve fireworks light up the midnight sky each year, neighbouring villages still on GMT will be deeply confused. There, in the outside world, it will be 11.00pm, but this will just enhance the general perception that Audlem is, as usual, ahead of everybody else.

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