Isn't it time to abandon this ridiculous ritual of putting the clocks back?

For those of us who wrestle with the symptoms of Seasonal Adjustment Disorder (SAD syndrome), it's a particularly depressing time as it only serves to highlight the onset of winter and what can seem like five long months of gloomy days.

And what real purpose is served by adjusting the clocks?

The origins of this bizarre practice are now lost in the mists of time.

People talk vaguely about it helping Scottish farmers and there is the old argument about it saving children from having to walk to school in the dark.

In that respect, time has definitely marched on. What child these days walks anywhere when there are parents around whose sole purpose it appears is to provide a taxi service for their offspring?

Considering the length of holidays MPs award themselves, surely one of them (and why not a Sussex MP?) should be able to find the odd hour to start pressing for a change in the law which would allow time to stand still each autumn?

-Peter Lilley, Hove