You're reading: The Economist: Changing the clocks is unpopular. Why do it?

The Economist: Changing the clocks is unpopular. Why do it?

Published Nov. 8, 2021 at 6:42 am

A picture taken on March 26, 2019 shows a detail of the "Zeitfeld" (Time field) sculpture by artist Klaus Rinke, which is made of 24 German railway clocks at a park entrance in Duesseldorf, western Germany. Most of Europe will set the clocks forward one hour from Winter time to Summer time on March 31, 2019.

Photo by AFP

Sometimes the decision to change a country’s time zone can be political. Despite its vastness, all of China runs on Beijing time—a decision taken by Mao Zedong in 1949 to instil unity. (Pity the poor people of Xinjiang province in China’s far west, where sometimes the sun does not rise until 10am.)