The only good thing about putting the clocks back was that we all got an extra hour's sleep. No one knows why we go through this barmy ritual every autumn. "Because of the Scots," it is said. Apparently, everyone living north of Hadrian's Wall wants an extra hour of sunlight in the morning and never mind that it now gets dark at three in the afternoon. Some people don't seem to realise that it doesn't actually matter a jot what time it is - you still get the same amount of light and darkness.
Someone who clearly doesn't know that in February it hardly even gets light at all in some parts of the country, particularly where I stay in the Highlands, is my old friend Paddy Hennessy, political editor of the Sunday Telegraph. How else could you explain his front-page splash announcing the likely date for the election as being in the coldest month of the year? As I noted in last week's New Statesman, Hennessy is really in the prediction business: his last effort, which I also advised you not to believe, was the date of the referendum on the European constitution.
With election turnout at an all-time low - and widespread concern about the willingness of traditional Labour supporters to go to the polls - Tony Blair isn't likely to call an election in the middle of winter. But everyone knows that the date has been fixed for May, and the Prime Minister clearly thinks that that makes it too easy for the Tories. John Major kept everyone guessing until the last minute, so why can't he?
Whoever in the government spun it to the Sunday Telegraph did a great job. Some may indeed be fooled, but anyone with half a brain simply won't believe it.
