Letter: Time Greenwich went Continental?

Sir: Kristen Lippincott, curator of Greenwich Royal Observatory, underestimates man's adaptability and airs her ignorance of the real world when she promises that for 'farmers rising in the west of Ireland at six o'clock . . . the cows wouldn't be ready to milk and the hens would not lay'.

For 50 years to my knowledge, and doubtless longer, those farmers (whole villages) have been setting their clocks to local 'country time' as they call it, ignoring 'national time' where it is inconvenient. The radio reminds them of 'national time', when it is useful to them. Is there not a 'moral' here for other time-change objecting minorities?

Yours sincerely,

L. E. WAUGH

Lostwithiel,

Cornwall

13 August