Poor Mr Harvey Lister of Trewidland (Times Letters 22nd October 1999) has got hold of completely the wrong end of the stick, or should I say the year!
At one second after midnight on 31st December 1999, we will be in the beginning of the year 2000 and the time will be 1,999 years and one second. A year is not a year old until all 365 (or 366) days have passed! It will not be until midnight on 31st December 2000 that exactly 2,000 years will have elapsed and we see the end of this millennium. One second later the time will be 2,000 years and one second and we see the beginning of the new, third millennium. Mr Lister's final paragraph is quite correct:- "any time accruing after the clock shows exactly 2,000 years has to be counted as part of the following one thousand years (3rd millennium)".
I repeat the facts that I wrote in my letter (Times Letters 8th October 1999) that Mr W.J. Pomroy was merely endorsing with confirmation from the "august bodies" that he mentioned. A millennium is a thousand years. Years 1 to 1000 were the first millennium. Years 1001 to 2000 are the second millennium and years 2001 to 3000 will be third millennium. Similarly, a century is a hundred years. Years 1 to 100 were the first century, years 101 to 200 were the second century and so on down through the centuries, years 1901 to 2000 are the 20th century and years 2001 to 2100 will be the twenty-first century. The words confirm the figures. Yet the media, in all its forms, still continue to mislead the public to whom they are supposed to be giving factual information. Is this what is meant by "freedom of the Press"?
I have written to The Director General of the BBC, the Independent Television Commission, Mr Colin Breed MP and The Prime Minister to see what can be done to correct this misapprehension.
RICHARD BILAS.