Why the clocks needed to go back

As with every time the clocks clock back this morning I have seen friends (mainly from down south) say we should have kept them as they were to have an extra hour of darkness in the evening.

Yesterday here in Belfast the sun rose at 8:17am, today it rose at 7:19am. Without the clocks going back it would rise after 8:30am by the end of this week and 9am on the 18th November, it would next rise before 9am on the 8th February without the clocks going back to GMT. That would over 3 months.

In Cardiff the sun would rise at 9am for the first time on 4 December until 25 January only 7 weeks, or in London 15th December until 14 January or only 1 month. Only of course if the clocks were not to go back.

In London people never have to arrive for a 9am start in the dark. The latest sunrise there is 8:06am GMT in Belfast it is 8:46, Glasgow 8:48 and Inverness 8:59.

There is of course the journey to work time to be considered. Which takes us even further apart into how much darkness different parts of the country have to face. Now let us not forget that GMT is actually the time that the sun is overhead at noon rather than an hour later as in BST.

Now the argument is put that we need an extra hour in the evening for a healthier lifestyle. Of course keeping BST will only provide that extra hour from when the sun sets. If you are working 9-5 that extra hour will still be within the hour of you leaving work no matter where you are in the country. But add in the winter weather and it likely to get darker earlier as a result of cloud cover anyway, again this may be more prevalent in the north than the south. So while there may be an extra hour of light in the south often in the north where the sun is lower in the sky at this time of year the clouds may mean lights come on earlier.

So those that want to take away a chance of getting to work in daylight for a few weeks more in the north will only make negligible gains for what they want and again probably not be of benefit to those in the north.

The earth rotates on an axis, the sun is overhead at different times. If you want to work with Europe you can do so for most of the hours of yours and their working day. And lets be honest how much work do most people want to do with others in the last hour of their working day anyway. As someone who has worked in a global position I'm used to arranging calls when most people are available. That may include when the Americans are at their desks so early afternoon. It can include the Chinese so first thing in the morning. When doing business you adjust to the times of work going on elsewhere to get the job done, you don't disadvantage everyone else around you for the sake of it.



Let's bin the idea of keeping the extra summer time hour through the winter. The reason it works then is that there is more daylight to benefit from outside the working day, it doesn't apply in the winter months.

Animation of a rousing Obama speech

I have been somewhat quiet this week because the power cable to my laptop failed in the earlt hours of Monday morning. A smartphone is only good for so much.

Plus I'm not feeling great these last few days so have spent much of it in bed.

However, this just needs sharing

And so the end is near....

In an few hours time Dame Mary Peters will complete the digital switch over, turning off the analogue signal here in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland's first TV transmitter

For the last hour of analogue from 10:35 BBC Northern Ireland and UTV will be hosting a simulcast hosted by our very won Eamonn Holmes that will look back over the 60 years that we have had dedicated television here in Northern Ireland since 1953. It was the year that a month before the Coronation the first television transmitter here came into service on May Day in Glencairn, Belfast. 

Before then TV signals could be picked up along the East coast from transmitters in Scotland or Cumbria but obviously the signal was intermittent.

Havelock House home of UTV since 1959

Six years later in 1959 with the creation of commercial television BBC Northern Ireland was joined by its younger cousin Ulster Television.

Today that analogue signal will be switched off. In an Olympic year who is more appropriate than Northern Ireland's most famous Olympian Dame Mary Peters. She will be the one to flip the switch, as which point I may well have to head off around the house and retune Freeview boxes galore so we can carry on watching.

The biological cul-de-sac

hat tip (do bloggers still do that or is that Old School?) to Caron

According to my friend Caron Gordon Wilson the former leader of the SNP has been quoted in the Telegraph as telling a fringe meeting for the Coalition for Marriage at the party conference:

"Only a man and a woman can naturally have children and what I would call family marriage is the best way of bringing up children. It's a law of nature. Same-sex marriage is a biological cul-de-sac."

I agree with the first bit that only a man and a women can naturally have children. But after that he goes awry. Their conference is in Perth, the same location that a few years ago I was on the platform moving part of what now is Liberal Democrat policy on this issue.

Now I would officially class myself as bisexual though heavily on the gay side of the gay end of the Kinsey scale, some of you including Caron have actually met the one, unique women who truly stole my heart for five years.Therefore in honour of of such absurdity I have turned to verse:

Speeding along into a biological cul-de-sac

Two roads may diverge in a narrow wood
But they also in each life converge
Two drivers who meet on love's highway
That's nature for you I guess.

Those two can be male and female,
Or two of each don't you know
Sometimes that can lead naturally to children
But it ain't necessarily so.

Now as our lovebirds progress ever onward
They don't want to ever look back
They want to cruise on off into the future
Not trapped in a biological cul-de-sac.

But those that chose a same sex companion
Are not going to increase the population
Its not that they don't want marriage and family
Just that they're unable to multiply naturally.
So get off your high horse and assume they can change
Some just aren't a nought on the Kinsey range.
So asking a six to have sex with a partner
Who doesn't recognise as the same gender
Just ain't gonna happen however you plead.
But marriage equality is going to succeed
No matter how grumpy your arguments get
Like the facist comments when history you forget.

So let the two lovers speed along loves highway
Cause love isn't anyone's cul-de-sac.
Biology says four fifty species have them also same sex
Only one's homophobic a worrying fact.

Stephen Glenn 20 October 2012

Almost time to hang up the trowels

In the words of the famous Beattie BT advert I have an ology.

Even though I also passed physics and chemistry, Beattie thought that only an Ology made you a scientist. Therefore in the first year of sixth form the extra subject I could fit into my time table around my three A-Levels was archaeology. I loved it so much doing an extra qualification in just one year, in fact at the start of the next year I did check out the archaeology department at Queens University Belfast on the Open Day.

After I had graduated, in economics not archaeology, Channel 4 introduced the show that continued to whet my appetite for all things archaeological. You probably know it too, Time Team. As the show progressed from 1994 you knew that Tony Robinson was taking in facts from the experts that surrounded him. I only had a one day field trip and no dig, but Tony went on three day digs year after year and has done 250 now. Those expert teams were usually led by either Mike Ashton or if it was a Bronze or Iron age dig Francis Pryor. They were assisted by others like field archaeologists West Countryman Phil Harding, Carenza Lewis who was replaced with Helen Geake in 2005, John Gater who introduced many of us to Geophys[ics], Stewart Ainsworth the archaeological investigator looking at the lumps and bumps and Victor Ambrus who brought the site to life by illustrating what would have been there. There were others some of the diggers became short term additions.

As well as the archaeology there was often some reenactment of what would have been going on at or near the site of that weekends dig. Whether the food, production of some good, or recreation/fighting skills.

It is reported that since 1994 although they only do short excavations the Time Team have produced more papers than all the archaeology departments in the UK. So it wasn't just entertainment but adding to the combined knowledge of our past including a number of interesting revelations.

The announcement that Channel 4 is pulling Time Team comes as a bit of a mixed sadness and pride for me. I know that in the 20 years the show has been on the air others have been inspired, educated and entertained. But I am sad to see it go, but it is to be replaced with more factual programming.

It hasn't gone yet, the next year will see a series of highlight shows with a grand finale of four special taking the show into 2014. 

For the record I didn't just get an Ology, I got an A in that particular AO Level (AS equivalent).

Two hundred days today

It is 200 days until the 31st Deep Rock Belfast City Marathon.

It is a race that I have never completed all of, though I have run several legs of the relay along its changing course. My late father also entered team of members of the Boys' Brigade in the event through the years.

In 2007 I got a phone call while at work in Edinburgh to come home quickly as my father who had walked into hospital the previous night for a routine appointment did not have long left and was in the Marie Curie Centre in Belfast. Those of you who know me will know that I didn't make it in time, although I was flying over Belfast I used my local knowledge to work out from the street lights just where he was and said "I'm on my way dad," little knowing that was the time that he had breathed his last.

The former runner in me has had itchy feet especially since my father passed on to do something that will raise money for Marie Curie in memory of my father. That is why I have set myself the task of running twice as far as I have ever run before (and that was when I was training a full programme). So on 6th May 2013 I will be lining up outside Belfast City Hall ready to face 26 miles 385 yards to get to Ormeau Park in what will be the longest mile and a bit of my life*.

I'm not expecting to run my first marathon anywhere near as fast as the twenty year old me thought I would do when I stepped up to that distance, but that is not the point. The point is that I am doing to raise funds for Marie Curie. I trust that a lot of my friends will help me raise the target that I have set. So with 200 days I reckon £5 a day is a reasonable target. You can donate to my Just Giving Page by clicking on the link below.




* The actual distance from start line to finish is about 1.5miles by the shortest walkable route.

How did the Northern Irish parties respond to adoption judicial review

I'm leaving this blog post largely in the words of the various parties in their own words as to how they have responded to today's judicial review on adoption here in Northern Ireland.

The DUP have nothing on their own website but speaking to the BBC the Health Minister Edwin Poots has said:

"It is my intention to urgently appeal this judgment and I am taking this action with a heavy heart.

"I have already publicly declared my intention to reform Northern Ireland adoption law because reform is much needed and long overdue.

"This judicial review has already delayed plans to introduce a new Adoption and Children Bill in the Assembly and I fear that this will lead to further delay."

Sinn Féin said:

Sinn Féin MLA Sue Ramsey said she is disappointed by the Health Minister’s decision to appeal a High Court ruling that a ban on gay and unmarried couples is unlawful.

The West Belfast MLA and Chair of the Health Committee at the Assembly said:

"This is a disappointing decision by the Health Minister Edwin Poots considering that our laws on adoption where out of date and not reflective of modern society and life-styles.

"The primary focus when it comes to adoption has to be the welfare of the child. It has to be the determining factor and guiding principle when it comes to anyone adopting a child.

"A single person or unmarried couple should be able to adopt a child, regardless of their sexuality, providing they can provide a stable, caring home with the child’s best interests at the heart of that decision.

"This extension of the eligibility criteria in line with modern society will significantly reduce the number of children in care." 

 SDLP said:

SDLP Health Spokesperson Conall McDevitt has welcomed this morning's ruling that the current bar on unmarried couples and civil partners adopting is unlawful and has called for a legislative remedy.

The South Belfast MLA was speaking after Mr Justice Treacy's decision to grant the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission a judicial review into current arrangements regarding adoption.

He said:

"Mr Justice Treacy's ruling is very welcome and a positive move forward towards creating uniform equality on adoption across these islands.

"This ruling, however, is only one step forward. If full adoption equality is to be achieved and Northern Ireland’s arrangements are to be made lawful, in line with Britain, a legislative framework must be drafted and brought forward for ratification without delay."

The Alliance Party said:

Alliance Health spokesperson Kieran McCarthy MLA has welcomed the court ruling that stated that the ban on unmarried couples from adopting was illegal. He said that this was great progress and would allow unmarried and same sex couples to adopt.
 
Kieran McCarthy MLA said:

"This is a tremendous victory and a great day for progress. The ban on unmarried couples adopting was illogical and wrong. The only issue that should matter is the needs of the child and not a blanket ban on certain groups from adopting. This is an issue of equality, so I am glad that the correct decision was reached

"The previsous rules did not make sense. Only one member of an unmarried couple could previously have legally adopted a child which could have resulted in the other partner having no rights to the child if the legal parent died.

"We have far too many children waiting to be adopted for us to be picking and choosing who we think should be able to adopt.

"This ruling will obviously result in unmarried and same sex couple being able to adopt which I fully support. I would urge any unmarried or same sex couple who believes that they would be able to provide a stable home to a child to consider applying to adopt a child."

Traditional Unionist Voice have said:

Commenting on Treacy J's ruling in favour of same sex adoption, TUV Leader Jim Allister said he was disappointed with the outcome and hoped the Attorney General and Department would appeal.

"There was, in my view, inadequate attention to the paramount benefit to the child of adoption within a regular family unit of a father and a mother and unwarranted equivalence of such to the unnatural setting of a same sex relationship. Once more we see the human rights mantra being exploited to further divorce the law from the moral expectations and norms of the society it exists to serve."

The Ulster Unionist have said nothing on their website.