Give us European time.

Byline: ROBERT ZUBALY

ON Sunday, March 29, clocks go forward one hour and we come out of Greenwich mean time and into British Summer Time.

We will, however, still be one hour behind Central European Time.

When Tony Blair first introduced the world-leading Climate Change Bill from 10 Downing Street, shortly before Easter 2007, the CBI, ROSPA, Ken Livingstone's department and other campaigning groups pushed for our clocks to be on CET with the benefits of reducedCO2 emissions from lighting and transport at the forefront of their argument.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has latched onto Harold Wilson's introduction of British Standard Time in 1968-1971 and the fact that Portugal reverted back to our time zone in 1997 as excuses for the Government's stance over this.

In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez has altered clocks, departing from the US time zone, in order to give his country the feelgood factor of going to work and returning home from longer hours in daylight so as to boost their economy.

Surely our clocks should be changed to CET as this will place us on the same timing as our continental partners and help boost our economy?

Forty years have elapsed since CET was first trialled and, in these troubled times, theGovernment should be seen to be more proactive than just reactive all the time.

ROBERT ZUBALY Longwood