Time for action

The Spanish government must be rather bored if they are spending so much time and energy on pondering moving the clocks back to UK time.  Spain was originally in the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) zone along with Britain and Portugal, with which it is geographically in line, but around 70 years ago Franco shifted Spain’s clocks one hour ahead to be in line with Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Supporters of moving the clock back one hour say it would improve Spain’s weak productivity and allow for work and family life to better fit together. Due to its time zone, Spaniards have long worked longer hours and finished later than in other European countries.Labour minister Fatima Banez told parliament she wanted to bring Spain’s working days in line with the rest of Europe. “We want our workdays to finish at six o’clock and to achieve this we will work towards striking a deal with representatives from both companies and trade unions,” she said. In some ways it does make sense but I do wonder why the Spanish government are talking about such a radical change when unemployment is still at record levels and the Spanish economy is struggling. Also, we mustn´t forget the minor issue of the fact that Spain has a minority government which will make life quite difficult for Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy. All these ideas are fantastic when the economy is booming and life is rosy....but for the time being it might be better if the government concentrate on the economy.