Sunday, May 17, 2009

WA votes no to daylight saving

It's official - daylight saving is dead in the water in Western Australia and there are plans afoot to bring back roster petrol stations.

WA, one hour and 57 years behind the rest of Australia. Would the last person to leave Perth please turn out the lights? Oh, that's right, they were never on...

Dear NO voters, that's okay, I'll be bringing the kids around when they wake up at 4.45am every day in summer and we'll have a nice play on your front lawn.

Who the f@#k needs sunlight that early anyway? All the selfish old farts pouring precious water on their gardens, or walking their arthritic dogs. Sports people? Those without kids and empty nesters?

All I wanted was a bit of time to get out of the house with the kids when I come home from work... maybe have a barbie, go to the beach, kick the footy. But no, you lot wouldn't have that. According to you all normal people should be eating dinner by 5.30pm and tucked up in bed with Fat Cat.

I'm mad as hell - the miserable, backwards thinking people of Perth would rather have the sun blazing in while most of us are either still in bed, or getting ready for work / school. More sunlight hours during the time of day when we have the least chance of actually using it... unless you're old, childless, or milking a cow.

Someone scoffed today that talk of the yes vote bringing about cultural change was ludicrous. I agreed. Indeed it would have been more an evolutionary change, akin to the time when the human race ceased being monkeys and ate our own faeces for fun.

Thanks for nothing folks and keep an eye out for me this summer - I'll be the one driving around honking his horn at the first signs of daylight making sure you're all awake to enjoy this most 'precious' time of the day.

17 comments:

Yagan Kiely said...

DLS should be all year round. You get up in the dark in winter whether DLS or not but you can still enjoy the extra hour light.

Also, it's ridiculous to call the no voters selfish. There are less yes voters than no voters, they are the selfish ones (neither in my opinion, but it is more logical (though incorrect) that way). In your logic, poor people who vote for a federal government that fairly taxes the rich and the poor are being selfish; the rich wanted to vote for someone that reduced their own taxes, but they're not selfish. I'm not comparing the situations, merely you comment on selfishness.

The real tragedy is that we get a vote on something as trivial as DLS, but we aren't allowed to vote on whether Australia should go to war. Regardless of your stance on the war, it should be in everyone's favour to have a vote on it.

I personally couldn't make it to vote (I was playing tennis). DLS has no positive or negative effect on me what-so-ever, apart from the annoyance of having to change the many clocks that don't change themselves. I saw no reason to vote for something that creates an annoyance, especially when (clearly) the majority also agree with me.

Cookster said...

Yagan, sorry, call me selfish but you lost me in that second par.

Then I thought you were getting all righteous and making a very valid point in par three, but then you lost me again.

You're a person who didn't vote because you were too busy playing tennis and couldn't be bothered changing your clocks.

Life must be very hard for you?

Anonymous said...

I for one am glad the vote went the way it did. My blinds were fading like anything after the three year trial! I'm glad that when I buy new ones this year (because they were so faded) that they will last for years to come because of the lack of DST!

Thankyou WA for not wanting DST! It is comforting to see there are still sane people in this great state!

Jason said...

Can't you just be happy for us?

I look forward to your early morning visits as I'm usually up that early for work. You can join me on my morning bike ride and don't worry about bringing your high visibility vest or lights for your bike as the sun will be shining brightly down on us as we ride.

I have been talking to a few people I know from New South Wales and they are so excited by the result that they are planning to petition the NSW government to hold their own referendum. They would like nothing more then to get rid of the Summer nightmare known as Daylight saving. I should really meet some people from Victoria!

Anonymous said...

Personally I am just glad that this 'issue' is over and done with for the time being. The fact of the matter is that it really is a non-issue.

Yagan: it is not ridiculous to call no voters selfish. Both yes and no campaigners are selfish. Rarely, if ever, during their campaigns did they mention how daylight savings will or won't benefit the broader community. They only mention that it will benefit or inconvenience themselves.

The fact of the matter is that daylight savings is just not important. Certainly not compared to the other issues that Western Australia face.

Cookster said...

You know what, if DLS is so unimportant then why didn't you vote yes PsychoCat? I'm assuming you voted no?

And Jase, can you please swing the bus past my place at about 7am every Tuesday morning so that I can be in at work for my regular 11.00am (EST) phone conference?

Jason said...

If your worried about leaving the house at 7am then you must be really out of touch with the rest of the community. I gotta get into this PR business, any jobs going?

Anonymous said...

Cookster: You are correct to assume that I voted no. I was originally going to just make an invalid vote and leave it to the people who care. But then I realised that the people who matter to me (friends, family etc) didn't want it. So I voted no to support them.

Anonymous said...

I met someone like Yagin during the week, a vehement 'no' supporter who, when asked why he didnt want DLS said because he didnt like the inconvenience of changing clocks, and when asked how it negatively impacted on him, couldn't answer - so basically he was too lazy to consider the benefits to families etc. To me he summed up the majority of West Australians who have it too good here and have become completely complacent and have no desire to move this nanny state forwards. So shopping hours will stay limited, we'll continue to have sub-standard sports and entertainment facilities that will not be able to attract major international events and acts; and we won't attract the bright young things to stay here and make the city vibrant. *yawn* wake me up in 20 years.

The Worst of Perth said...

It's nothing to do with culture, evolution or any of that shit. It came down to whether it suited people's lifestyle. It doesn't. You seem to have been living in a different city anyway, as anyone who claims they can't get enough sun on a Perth summer afternoon is a liar. But it wasn't about whether it made any practical sense for yes voters was it?

That's what the problem with the yes campaign was, one of the most inept since Carps last jumped up on a stump. You were calling people idiots and retards, as if you were so much smarter than everyone else. You tried to connect it with culture, progress, and now evolution for fuck sake. These arguments are just nonsense. People voted dependant on whether it suited their lives. That's all.

Your attempt to link it petrol roster stations, moving forward, growing as a state, conservative voters were total crap. Not connected.You didn't have anything real or practical to point to that showed it would actually be better. You can't really be that surpised it failed. Calling people retards while not demostrating any practical benefit, that's really going to work. The kids waking up early argument was cancelled out by those who couldn't get theirs to bed with DLS. The business with the eastern states turned out to be bogus.

Yes voters were concerned with change for the sake of change, as if something, ANYTHING being different would relieve the tedium of their lives. It was exactly the same with the foreshore plan. Put anything up, even if it was shit. Something different must be good. It would have been the same if it had been a campaign to switch to driving on the right, so we could be as sophisticated as the French. Made just as much sense.

I was in favour of the trial when it came in, but by the first year it was clear it didn't work. The No side was about whether it worked for them. If it didn't they voted against. If it had been good they would have voted yes. Don't try and link it with anything else.

Anonymous said...

TWOP: The NO side gets called "retarded" because they trot out retarded arguments about faded drapes,cows and sleepless children. No one ever seemed to point out how DST isn't suitable in Perth's climate (I had to think that through all by myself: more light & awake in the evening while the seabreeze howls through the house or sandblasts my face during an evening walk on the beach, or more light and awake in the morning before the seabreeze starts up...). In the end, I voted YES mostly because the NO side presented such stupid arguments and made themselves look like the sort of rabid nutters that will want to bring back more of the "old ways", that I didn't want any association with them.

Yagan Kiely said...

"Yagan, sorry, call me selfish but you lost me in that second par."I wasn't calling you selfish: read bellow.

"Then I thought you were getting all righteous and making a very valid point in par three, but then you lost me again."I'm not quite sure how I lost you my point about getting a vote for DLS but not a War is quite obvious.

"Yagan: it is not ridiculous to call no voters selfish. Both yes and no campaigners are selfish. Rarely, if ever, during their campaigns did they mention how daylight savings will or won't benefit the broader community. They only mention that it will benefit or inconvenience themselves." I was pointing out that since there more more no voters their vote was less selfish because more people sympathized with their opinion, but my actual point was that there is no point in calling them selfish as it is a sill fallacious argument at best.

"I met someone like Yagin during the week, a vehement 'no' supporter who, when asked why he didnt want DLS said because he didnt like the inconvenience of changing clocks, and when asked how it negatively impacted on him, couldn't answer - so basically he was too lazy to consider the benefits to families etc." I'm not a vehement no supporter, I support neither but I lean towards no because I see absolute necessity in DLS. Not to mention, pro-DLS supporters are also complaining of inconveniences. The whole issue of DLS is trivial.

Do Rich people have a right to complain about the Poor if the Poor vote in a PM/President reduces the tax on the Poor but not the Rich, when the Rich wanted to vote in someone who reduced the Rich's taxes while keeping the Poor's taxes as they are? Are the poor selfish in this scenario? Are the Rich selfish for complaining? Democracy is selfish, it is pointless to point this out. Not to mention it's a farce, but that isn't the point here.

However, if DLS was proposed all year round, I'd be a vehement yes supporter - winter needs more daylight too, it's not as if Perth gets a lot or rain.

shane said...

I hear what you're saying, Cookster....and it sounds a lot like whaa whaa whaaa I didn't get my way.

I've seen a lot of films about utopian civilisations in the future. Very few of them mention daylight savings.

On the other hand they didn't mention daylight savings in Logan's Run either but in that dome they lived in they probably had the lights on right up till 10pm.

Come to think of it...no old people, no farmers... oh my God! It's all falling into place. What have we done?!

I can see it all now. Adele Carles will ban live sheep exports. Cookster, Matt Burnie and Howard Sattler are going to round us all up with the left over trucks, drive us to the Perth Convention centre and embed magic crystals in out hands.

We'll be forced to live in their idealised world and killed off at the age of 21 or if we like to get up early (or, if we are black, poor, ugly, a Dockers supporter or an ABC listener if Howard wins the inevitable power struggle).

Rick Ardon will eventually be found out as being over 21 and he'll run, escaping to the Sanctury Cove real estate development where he'll be free to go for early morning swims, enjoy cool nights by the swimming pool and apply fake tan without judgement.

Anonymous said...

Can't believe you dickheads voted against DLS, how sad!

Mike said...

It really annoys me when the pro-DST mob try to claim the moral high-ground. I voted No for my own reasons, you voted Yes for yours - that makes me no more selfish than you.

The rubbish that you lot spout about DST being "modern" makes me sick too - DST would result in higher energy consumption due to increased air-con usage (climate change - a modern issue) and higher exposure of the kids to UV when travelling home from school (the ozone problem, also a modern issue).

So those of us opposed for these reasons are more forward thinking and modern than you blinkered lot!

To all those of you who preach that you are voting Yes because "it's more social" or "it's better for the community" or "better for business". Oh, how we should worship your wonderful, altruistic perspective on this issue. How we should praise you for your utterly unselfish approach, taking one for the team, voting Yes when you wanted to vote No! How we should... what's that smell? Oh yes, what a load of bullsh*t!

I cannot believe there are more than a handful of people in the entire state who genuinely switched their vote because they wanted to help their fellow man, despite their different perspective. So stop spouting the bull, you wanted DST for your own reasons and that's it, the rest is just cr*p.

Either way, you lost so put up or shut up, if you don't like it p*ss off somewhere else and stop whingeing about it, it's getting real boring.

Northern musings said...

Commiserations to the yes voters. Isn´t this like the 4th time there has been a referendum on this? where I live we are now getting 22 hours of daylight. We have daylight saving all year round (GMT) which in winter means that the hour of sunlight is sometime around lunchtime, handy for those that walk home for lunch. I personally know no no voter - who are these people????

Anonymous said...

DLS is annoying, it can fuck right off.