No, I am not referring to the over-the-top nonsense of Hallowe'en or the even more over-the-top Guy Fawkes, month-long "celebration", although, no doubt, I shall be writing about these again soon!

It's the turning the clocks back nonsense which gets my goat and we will have to do it all over again this weekend.

And for what? Yes, we will get an extra hour in bed this Sunday morning, but that's the only benefit as far as I can see.

All that will happen is that it will be lighter in the mornings and darker in the late afternoons and with it will come the usual crop of road accidents as people try to get home in darkened streets and with the usual bad November weather.

I don't like getting up for work when it's still dark, but I value having that extra bit of daylight in the late afternoon more.

Darkness

I hate those bleak winter days when it's dark before 4pm – and it needn't be that way if we just keep the clocks an hour forward like they do just a few miles south of here where more sensible people live.

So let's start a campaign to give us summer time all year round and keep that extra hour of light in the afternoons.

There's a stronger argument for this policy because I understand that if it was adopted it would save two per cent on our total annual energy consumption.

That's because we would be putting the lights and heating on in our homes later and thus saving energy.

And with the government continually banging on about climate change and the need to reduce our carbon footprint, we could all reduce a footprint size by stopping meddling with the clocks.

Moving south

And talking about the sensible people who are living south of here, we're just back from our holiday in our newly-acquired apartment in the Costa Blanca and I'm pleased to say the near one million ex-pats who have made the Costas their home seem to be having a whale of a time.

And, because Spain is one hour ahead of UK time, it's dark until 8am and light until 7.30pm.

How great is that? (and that's what we could have here!)

Yes, there is a downside, you have to pay for your own healthcare if you are under retirement age, and although hospital treatment is better than in the UK (so I am led to understand) there is less back-up for patients after leaving hospital – they are expected to be like the Spanish and be cared for by the family (shame that family units in the UK have disintegrated).

This said, there is so much that is cheaper than in Britain – food, drink, eating out, general day-to-day living costs, and I would be far happier paying euro300pa in council Suma than more than £1,000pa in council tax.

There are signs of a property downgrade.

Many developments have stopped, especially in areas in the countryside and that's no bad thing.

This is because developers have not been able to borrow cash from banks to keep building and those homes which are built are not being snapped up so quickly.

There are some great property deals to be had.

We looked around a detached, three-storey property with five bedrooms, three bathrooms and a granny annexe for £280,000 because the owner has got himself in a mortgage crisis and is having to offer his home in a distress sale.

There are many more in a similar position, because a slow-down in the building industry has added to unemployment.

However, most who have moved out and have started a new life in the sun seem to be enjoying themselves.

We spoke to many and they all said they would never want to go back to the UK (or Eire), but there were two people we met who had been tempted to buy off-plan in urbanisations miles from anywhere and were now regretting it big time.

They are trapped in their homes in abandoned building sites and unable to sell because of the property downturn.

If you make the decision to emigrate to the Costas, or anywhere else for that matter, do your homework properly, make sure you make the right decision and don't be tempted to buy a property miles from anywhere just because it's cheaper.

You could live to regret it.

Government failing

NEWS that the number of violent criminals who were freed under community supervision and then charged with a further serious offence jumped last year by 36 per cent is nothing less than a national scandal.

In 2006/7, 83 offenders supervised by probation and other agencies in England and Wales were charged with offences such as murder, manslaughter and rape.

This compares with 61 in 2005/06, Ministry of Justice figures reveal.

It's just another area in which this government is failing the public.

The government cares more about being politicially correct and making sure that prisoners are given all their human rights rather than giving them a sharp shock in prison they will never forget.

It simply is no good wrapping prisoners in cotton wool and mollycoddling them. The fear of prison should be so great that no-one would want to go there.

The number of offenders sent back to prison for breaching the terms of their release was 1,731 – up from 1,531.

These figures speak for themselves.

Of the 83 offenders who were charged, 12 were among a group of 1,249 who had been assessed as having the highest risk of harming the public, and who were supposed to be under the most rigorous level of supervision.