Time To Talk Time: Clocks back

Discussions about time in Mallorca might strike you as slightly odd. The relationship with time is, after all, somewhat distant. Times can be whatever a Mallorcan (or Spaniard) want them to be, and preferably they involve the next day or the day after that.

While there are those for whom timekeeping is an alien concept, I'm far from convinced by the general stereotyping: once upon a time (sic) maybe, but very much less so now. This is, after all, a modern society (oh yes it is, before you start pooh-poohing the suggestion). Time is vastly more precious than it used to be. If it weren't, then why are there all those drivers hurtling around with apparent disregard for anyone else, desperate to get to wherever they're going? (Sorry, another example of stereotyping, as let's not forget those who have dawdling in a car down to a fine art: those for whom cars can appear to be in permanent reverse, along with time itself.)

Periodically, these time discussions crop up, and they are often determined by time: clocks going back or forward. We are on the cusp of hour reversal, and right on time comes the regular discussion, only this time there is more to the time conversation. There is a petition on Change.org to not change the time in the Balearics this weekend. 

Its organiser believes that hours of daylight in the Balearics should be adapted to the daily lives of the islands' people. Thus, the sun, and one more hour of it, is a resource from which benefits can be derived. And apart from any economic benefits, he suggests, there are the simple natural ones and so not the "political" nature of Balearic time.

Ah yes, the politics of time. The story of how the Balearics and Spain, except for the Canaries, arrived at the current system of time is well known: all to do with Franco thinking it was a good idea to match Hitler time. Despite the fact that almost all of Spain lies to the west of the Greenwich Meridian, Central European Time has remained in place all these years. The Portuguese, though, have remained firmly wedded to GMT (or BST or whatever it is nowadays): good, loyal allies that they have been for centuries.

Although the the Change.org thing's organiser refers to "political" time, his not wanting the clocks to go back an hour has a more common-sense aspect. If the clocks were to stay as they are in the early hours of Sunday morning, the afternoons would not be shortened. The extra hour of sun in the afternoon could just make a difference: a tourism difference. Mallorca suffers by comparison with the more southerly Costa del Sol and especially the Canaries in winter, so why not adopt a measure that might be advantageous?

Were there to be no backward movement of the clocks, the Balearics would be on British time, something which the national government has in any event been considering for the whole of Spain and so not just the Canaries. The chances of the government ever getting round to taking such a decision are probably slim, even if the national commission that spends its time looking into time, working hours and what have you has recommended that there should be a change. Sensible though it might be, it would play havoc with electronic control devices: the consequences might actually be disastrous. So I'm not sure if the Change.org chap has thought that part of the time equation through.

While the possibility of a move to British time remains, there are those who are lobbying to ensure that parts of Spain opt out. A couple of years ago, when the time discussion cropped up when the clocks went back, a group of "experts" advising companies about working hours and workers' social hours (assuming they have any), were sticking up for the Balearics and Catalonia to not be included. Was this another manifestation of Catalonian independence and the spread of the Catalan Lands notion to the Balearics? Well no, not really: Catalonia is, by and large, to the east of the Meridian, as of course are the Balearics. More importantly, though, the experts were saying that Catalonian (Balearic) resistance should be for reasons of greater productivity and the reconciliation of work and family life.

But then, the chap behind the Change.org petition seems to want the clocks not to go back for much the same reason. He would like there to be an hour's more sun in the winter afternoons, while the experts want things to stay as they are. Who's right? Both or neither probably. Whenever there is a time discussion, plenty of time is made for debate, with neither side having a compelling argument, albeit that the one about tourism might just be a strong case.