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'It's collective madness!' Watch moment Peter Hitchens tears apart daylight saving time as 'fantasy' on GB News
Oct 21, 2025
With the clocks going back an hour in the early hours of Sunday morning, GB News guest Peter Hitchens ripped apart the tradition of daylight saving time - adding that it was "collective madness" to follow such rules.This year would mark the 109th occasion when Britons are allowed to bask in the glory of an extra hour in bed. However, Mr Hitchens shredded the concept while debating Head of Lifestyle Economics IEA Christopher Snowdon. The concept, which was introduced during the First World War to save energy, was described as mere "clock-twiddling" and an "absurdity" by the writer.WATCH THE CLIP ABOVE FOR MORE
View Video Transcript
0:00
Now, with the clocks going back this Sunday, people across the UK can expect to see far darker and more gloomy evenings
0:07
Yes, Daylot's saving time was initially introduced back in 1916 to conserve energy during the First World War
0:14
However, many people believe that the practice is outdated, with the Spanish Prime Minister now calling for that European summertime to be abolished
0:22
Of course, it was initially, though, created in 1784, just so you know
0:26
Joining us now is the head of lifestyle economics, IEA, Christopher Snowden
0:31
and columnist at The Mail on Sunday, Peter Hitchens. I think, should we start with Peter Hitchens
0:36
What are your thoughts? Daylight savings. Should it be abolished? There is no such thing as daylight saving
0:41
The amount of daylight remains exactly as nature provides it. Nor will the evenings get darker because the clocks are put back to their truthful position on Sunday
0:51
The evenings will be as dark as they would always have been. this fantasy that you can alter the amount of light by falsifying the clocks is an absurdity
1:01
If you really, really want to, for instance, start work an hour earlier
1:08
which is what clock fiddling in March causes us to do, then you're welcome to do so
1:13
But there's obviously no reason why millions of people each March should be compelled to get up an hour earlier
1:19
Peter, there's a collective action problem here. I'm sorry? A collective action problem here. You need everyone to decide to do that, to sort of make things work
1:28
Well, it's the government that decides to do it. And the government which originally decided to do this was a wartime government in a panic about possibly losing the First World War
1:38
copying the German Kaiser, who had just autocratically ordered all his people
1:44
Indeed, the Austro-Hungarian Empire did the same thing to get up an hour earlier in the hope of winning the war
1:49
Well, you can see how that works out for them. it didn actually make any substantial difference it never has but it become a fetish which people don examine I call this the biannual national intelligence test Every six months or so the whole country has its intelligence tested
2:04
and by and large fails because most people don't understand. Most people don't even know which way the clocks are supposed to go
2:10
Well, most people don't even have a proper clock. And have to check. Let's get a Christopher Snowden
2:15
But the crucial effect is in March, what happens is the government orders
2:18
the whole population to start work an hour earlier. Now, if they actually did that by saying
2:23
you've all got to get up an hour earlier, everyone would say, what are you talking about? What a ridiculous idea
2:28
But because it's presented as... Am I able to speak? Because it's presented as putting the clock back
2:35
in daylight saving time and all this completely fact-free drivel, people swallow it because they do
2:42
It's become a habit. But there is actually a genuine time which exists
2:48
It's to do with the relation between the planet Earth and the sun. And if you fill with the clocks, you alter that
2:55
And for now more than a century, we've madly been departing from it for no good reason
3:01
OK, so we'll come back to you in a second. We'll be wonderful if we stop doing it, but what we're probably going to do is stop doing it
3:07
with the clocks fixed for the wrong place. OK, Peter Hitchens, hold that thought. We're going to bring in someone who's described himself
3:12
as a pro-Summer activist in the past. Christopher Snowden, what do you make of that
3:19
Yeah, well, obviously you can't on the one hand say that the government is forcing everybody to go to work an hour early and then say people are welcome to go to work an hour early if they want to
3:28
As you say, Tom, there's a collective action problem. You know, people go to work at certain times
3:32
They have office hours and those office hours are based on what everybody believes the time to be
3:37
So the point here is not that anybody believes that the daylight savings actually creates more daylight
3:43
It just creates a daylight when people can actually enjoy it. and people tend to want their leisure and recreation after work rather than before work It also has daylight saving time various health and well benefits The reason that it was introduced during the First World War is in fact
3:58
it does allow a certain amount of extra efficiency. You need less electricity, for example, in the evenings
4:06
You don't need to have the floodlights on during an afternoon football game and all the rest of it
4:10
So for health and well-being reasons, I'm very much in favour, not just to keeping daylight saving time, but having it all year round
4:16
But also, in terms of safety for women as well, it's better for us to be walking home if it's lighter and things like that
4:22
You know what I mean? When it's really dark, you know, it does get dark quite quickly towards the winter months
4:27
There's no problem. I mean, what is the real reason as to why this would be a problem, Peter
4:33
for the clocks to change anyway? I mean, that's fine, isn't it? We all get used to it, and then it comes back when the light sort of changes
4:40
Well, collective madness is always a problem. People do something stupid in very large numbers
4:45
It's worrying. I find it amusing now because it's obviously impossible to persuade people this thing is as crazy as it is
4:52
You say things like it's better for women to be able to walk down the street when it's light
4:55
Well, no doubt it is, but the street will remain as light or as dark as it would have been before
5:00
whether you fiddle with the clocks or whether you don't. Chris Denon says there's a contradiction between saying you shouldn't tell people when they must get up in the morning
5:08
and when they start work and also saying if you want to start work early, then you can
5:12
I don't know whether they still have time clocks at this strange outfit where Christopher works
5:18
The last time I ever punched a clock was when I was working in a brewery about 40 years ago
5:23
But most people now have immense flexibility at their workplaces. Many of them can work from home
5:29
There's absolutely no need for the whole country to be ordered each March to get up an hour earlier and to start work an hour earlier, as happens now
5:37
Peter, you referenced the true time. There's a simple point that when the clocks go forward, it's bad for people
5:42
Increasing amounts of research show that people health suffers when the clocks are jammed forward and they all have to start work earlier Peter will you engage with Christopher point earlier Because you mentioned the true time
5:56
in your sense, which I believe you think is GMT, is sort of the proper time
6:01
Christopher's putting a slightly different point of view, which is that we should just be on BST
6:06
British summertime, the whole year round. Would that be so bad? You wouldn't get
6:10
the changing of the clocks and the neurosis that you're describing there, sticking on BST all year round, we'd have lighter evenings. But there's nothing British
6:19
about BST. What you do if you go to what is called BST is you put the country on the Berlin
6:25
Meridian instead of the Greenwich Meridian. The country should be in its proper time zone
6:30
which were invented for precisely that reason, so that you could all have the trains running to a
6:36
timetable and broadcasting at a particular time within a time zone. The time zone for this country
6:41
is the Greenwich time zone. The Berlin meridian, which is several hundred miles further east
6:46
is highly appropriate for Berlin, but not for this country. As I was trying to say when you interrupted me
6:52
when the clocks are jammed forward and people are forced to go to work an hour early
6:56
it affects people's health badly. It's jet lag. And sometimes for weeks
7:00
and it's associated with all kinds of health difficulties, it's not good for people when Portugal..
7:05
Is it? Come on, Peter. If I could just finish it up just for once, can we just get the final word
7:10
Can we just give the final words to Christopher Snowden? Peter, stop right there, because we've got a code in a minute
7:16
Stop talking! Let's get Christopher Snowden in. Christopher Snowden! I think you may just have to talk over him, Christopher
7:25
Final word to you. The reality is millions of people do indeed clock in and out of work
7:30
Peter doesn't. Peter's a self-employed journalist, so he can get up whenever he wants to, and the rest of us should enjoy much more pleasant and lighter evenings
7:38
All right. Thank you very much. If you choose to enjoy them, then do so. And, of course, Peter Hitchens, thank you to both of you
7:44
We need to give these two an..
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