Let’s follow the US and end this wind-up of changing clocks – David Behrens

In a nation as divided as the US, it’s rare to find a consensus on almost anything – whether it is gun control or who should win an Oscar this weekend. Yet, on Tuesday, one ritual saw Republicans and Democrats uniting as one to declare its obsolescence.

By David Behrens

Published 27th Mar 2022, 06:00 BST

Without a single dissenting vote, the Senate passed a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, thus doing away with the need for the twice-yearly rigmarole of turning the clocks back or forward by an hour. Not since they repealed prohibition in 1933 had everyone been so undivided.

And while it’s true that the so-called Sunshine Protection Act may have been helped along its way by arcane Congressional procedures which meant some Senators were apparently unaware it was going to the vote, its passing will create ripples on both sides of the Atlantic.