Daylight saving time plans shelved
(CNS): The premier has confirmed that plans to introduce daylight saving time in the Cayman Islands have been shelved. The government had indicated it would introduce the change to local clocks in March in order to keep in-step with Miami and New York throughout the year but Alden McLaughlin said Friday that as a result of considerable representation from the people, the plans were being reconsidered. The pressure for the change was coming from the business community, in particular stakeholders in the tourism sector, in order to accommodate cruise ship timetables and synchronise flights.
The financial industry was also keen to synchronise with New York. However, much wider opposition in the general community, in particular people in the eastern districts who would be impacted more by dark mornings, have been vocal in their opposition.
McLaughlin told CNS that the considerable representation from the people meant he did not feel government could implement the policy this spring, as had been planned, and the idea was going to be shelved.
“I don’t think this is going to go ahead now. There have been strong representations made from people opposed to it,” he said, adding that given the new line-up in the Legislative Assembly, his government will need to seek consensus for any legislation coming to the parliament.
In less than three months, the PPM has gained one new party member, Roy McTaggart, but has lost the support of veteran MLA Anthony Eden over the issues relating to same-sex partner dependency rights, Alva Suckoo for similar as well as undisclosed reasons, and Winston Connolly, a C4C candidate who had sat on the government benches.
Several of the existing and new independent members, including Connolly, have said that they do not support the change to the local clocks and would be voting against it.
With an extremely slender government majority, McLaughlin will be battling numbers over the next 14 months if he is to avoid an early election, and daylight savings is the first of what is likely to be a number of legislative casualties.
Category: Politics
A backwards move supported by backwards people.
Why do they not change the time for businesses and leave it as it was for the East Enders/objectors? The districts time forgot…
They say many wise men came from the East but never went back….
We need two time zones. East and West. Let the East have their hour difference.
ppm/kirkbots out in force…..
Those industries that need DST, then just do so please. It’s no reason for the entire country to change to DST. Plus it’ll help with traffic congestion if some (not everyone) change to DST. Tourism and Finance related entities that will benefit…just do so.
Great idea yes! The whole country needs to have flexible working hours. One hour time change difference for DST won’t solve the issue of traffic congestion. Even schools need to stagger their times a bit.
i am dunbfounded by this u-turn….just when you thought the ppm might take one tiny step forward….they flip flop due to unspecified unknown representations…..
nothing makes around here….welcome to wonderland….
Hear hear!! Finally more working time with UK finance, right time tourism. but dammit I really wanted a bloody sunset at 7:30 instead of chasing the mosquitoes away at 6:30!!
Only horrid politicians flip flop to pander to the 5% of East End population??
Really wanted this one step forward…thanks for nothing, oh wait that is what our leaders do= nothing.
Get rid of elected politics and just run accountable administration and improve education.
I cannot see one good thing about any of our elected officials- get rid of both parties, get rid of them all! No more back door deals, no more handouts, corruption solved.
The problem isn’t the time zone, it is still working in a system that time stood still
Alden, please do what the majority of Caymanians do really want, and to be exact, we want Daylight Savings Time! You were voted in by the majority, now please listen to the majority. By changing your mind you have yet again demonstrated how strong your conviction is and your true colours.
What a bunch of Luddites! I bet the same people who don’t want our time to be syncronized with EST/DST are the same people who can’t use a roundabout correctly!
Don’t see the correlation
The correlation you seek is stupidity.
For all those saying “one for the people” and similar mindless comments… The people voted and were in favor of DST. Stop saying everyone doesn’t want it because the numbers don’t lie.
Wait, there was a vote? Please provide reference to those numbers. I’d love to see them.
Really? Because I don’t know when my vote was recorded on it. Neither does my family or my coworkers.
i remember a poll not a referendum. polls are only guidance not law
Apparently not. Why don’t you stop telling us what to do? What did your last slave die of?
Show us what numbers you are using.
It would have been a disaster. It does not Evan work well in the countries that have it. Good news as far as we are concerned .
HA! suuure.
Without the finance industry Cayman ends up now more prosperous than Jamaica.
Let that sink in for a minute.
Go and travel around the Caribbean and see what all the other islands are like then tell me what makes the difference here and why life is so much better…..it is the finance industry.
So I guess go ahead and continue complaining that you might have to change you click by and hour…two times a year. But before you do, ask yourself if that was one simple way to help prevent your country and the sweet little way of life you enjoy from disappearing would it really be that much to give?
I’m sure this “sweet little way of life” is feathering your nest quite nicely and it’s obviously not “your country”. Don’t ever forget that and the fact that you are always more than welcome to leave if you don’t like what is not being done to your pleasure. I would like to see how you’d fair in Saudi for what you just commented. Maybe you should move there and try and change that country. Good luck with that…
Just don’t bring back a foreign bride!
You pathetic grump bag 7.56! Finance industry has done perfectly well for 40 years with no changes to time. I deal with the Far East and Europe a lot, according to your logic we should change to their times too. Now get an alarm clock and a life and stop being a churlish child.
Gee, I guess with that logic, every other city in the world not synchronized with New York cannot have a successful finance industry! Imagine that! I better tell London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Geneva…
7:56. You got it all wrong. The difference between cayman and the rest of the world is its people. When I say people I mean everyone that live and work here.
Why fix something that isn’t broken? Aligning with the East coast makes no difference to my financial dealings in Asia. I have to adjust the hours I work to accommodate the time difference as it has always been. New York is just one financial center.
You are a fool
Actually most of the prosperity came from efforts of those who are from outside the island. I’m Caymanian and volunteer for time for many organizations. The expats that put time in to ymca, humane society, hospice care, cancer society, and many of the nvco organizations often greatly out number the Caymanians like me.
End of the story is sure fine this DST decision doesn’t make or break the Island but it would have enabled businesses that keep the Islands economy running to perform better.
Do you really think that it is the duty you and I pay on groceries and fuel that keeps the Island ticking and CS salaries paid? Think again and do the math. It it the tourism and finance industries that provide the revenue that sustain the majority of the jobs and services on island
Why are you so stupid. They put in a lot of time until they get residency or status and it ends there.
10:51, I bet it outnumbers any time that you put in for your Country or Charities right? Imagine if all those expats didn’t put in the effort, there would be no charities in Cayman to help people like you.
I guess thinking that makes it easier to despise expats or feel they don’t contribute. Of course, it doesn’t explain all the volunteers that will never be here long enough for apply for PR, those that continue it after PR, or even the fact that until the last change in the PR regs you didn’t get any points for the vast majority of these charitable efforts. If you feel free to ask the last poster how stupid they are, perhaps you should ask yourself how bigoted or illogical you are.
You proponents of DST do not think your arguments through. DST does not give any magical powers to increase an industry’s profit or give an “extra hour of daylight.” If your industry is affected, then simply change the hour that you’re supposed to show up at work. A cruise ship can still debark just after sunrise and leave at sunset, no matter what the clock says. This is not difficult to understand.