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Berwick-upon-Tweed has been seen as a town that might not benefit from extra daylight in the winter, but has that changed?

I am not someone who has ever suffered from the winter blues.

But as soon as the clocks go back, it can seem a bit grim to see daylight extinguished at around 4pm.

Now though some MPs want to investigate whether that should change.

is asking the Government to investigate whether we should alter the way time works in the UK.

In particular, want to see if we should consign Greenwich Mean Time to history.

So we would keep British Summer Time throughout the winter.

Indeed some would also like to see Double British Summer Time between March and October.

That would effectively make it lighter later, giving us an extra hour of daylight in the afternoons and evenings throughout the year.

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Of course, you can't actually create extra daylight, but just move it around.

So, according to the supporters, less of the daylight will be wasted while we're all in bed in the early morning.

This is not a new idea of course.

Changing the clocks would make winter afternoons lighter but mornings darker.

It's a debate which seems to crop up every autumn. This year though, .

Traditionally though it's been opposition from Scotland and from here in the North of England that has stopped any change.

Days are shorter here, and that means the sun rises later.

So while shifting daylight around wouldn't make much impact in the South of England, it would lead to much darker starts to the day fuirther north.

Northern farmers have often complained it would disrupt their early starts; and in North Northumberland, many children would have to travel to school in the dark.

But does that still hold true?

That's what the Berwick MP is now investigating. .

And following his example, I headed up to the England-Scotland border this week for the Politics Show.

Northumberland farmer Dougie Watkin says darker mornings would make his working day more difficult.

We visited his farm as the day dawned and he began work.

He says he needs the light to check his stock of sheep and cattle, and it would massively disrupt his day if dawn came at a later time.

Others in Northumberland are more amenable to the idea though - particularly the tourist industry.

near Alnwick changes its opening hours with the clocks. In British Summer Time it stays open till 6pm, under GMT it shuts ar 4pm.

But Head Gardener Robert Jamieson believes they could attract extra visitors if they got an extra hour of winter afternoon sunlight and could shut later.

And the has also signed up to the idea because they believe it would give us all extra time to get out into the countryside throughout the year.

And although Dougie's resistant, even the is no longer so hostile to the idea.

Many Scottish politicians though have not changed their minds, and that's where this plan may founder.

Some have suggested Scotland could stick with GMT while England has its own time zone.

But that could cause even more chaos in places like Northumberland.

Many people on the border may live one side, but work the other. Imagine having to take into account a one-hour time difference when planning their days and journeys - surely a non-starter.

And there's a warning from history too. Using British Summer Time and Double British Summer Time was tried as an experiment between 1968 and 1971, but was then abandoned.

Dougie Watkin remembers that vividly, and says what started as a novelty soon became deeply unpopular in the North.

Opinion may have shifted since then. That's what Sir Alan Beith is trying to discover. But it's quite possible that we might still not be able to agree on what time we would like it to be.

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