The clocks are a changing!

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  • Lighter evenings are a bonus and the afternoon is moved to a warmer part of the day. I'm alway puzzled though that the clocks go forward around the spring Equinox but go back about 6 weeks after the autumn Equinox. If it was symmetrical we should have put them forwards around the end of February or back around the end of September.

  • What always raises a smile with me is the way some people can't seem to cope with the change from GMT to BST and vice versa, considering how long we have been doing it for as a nation and the relative ease it can be done, especially these day when a lot of electronic devices do it automatically anyway, guess it proves the point that some folk ain't happy unless they got something to moan about. :D

  • Lighter evenings are a bonus and the afternoon is moved to a warmer part of the day. I'm alway puzzled though that the clocks go forward around the spring Equinox but go back about 6 weeks after the autumn Equinox. If it was symmetrical we should have put them forwards around the end of February or back around the end of September.

    Politics. The same reason why those of us in England have to put up with the clocks going back at all.

    What always raises a smile with me is the way some people can't seem to cope with the change from GMT to BST and vice versa, considering how long we have been doing it for as a nation and the relative ease it can be done, especially these day when a lot of electronic devices do it automatically anyway, guess it proves the point that some folk ain't happy unless they got something to moan about. :D

    The elderly might have problems with changing the clocks, but otherwise most people should be able to work it out. I think the issue is not the actual changing of the clocks themselves, but they get constantly surprised when the time change happens. It gets widely advertised on tv and elsewhere, but it always seems to catch some people off.

    Half of my devices change automatically and the other half don't. Everything seems to have a clock on it now.

  • Politics. The same reason why those of us in England have to put up with the clocks going back at all.

    The elderly might have problems with changing the clocks, but otherwise most people should be able to work it out. I think the issue is not the actual changing of the clocks themselves, but they get constantly surprised when the time change happens. It gets widely advertised on tv and elsewhere, but it always seems to catch some people off.

    Half of my devices change automatically and the other half don't. Everything seems to have a clock on it now.

    Remembering to change the clocks is something that will gradually cease to be a problem at all, as long as people don't continue to rely on old fashioned clockwork gadgets, but the reality is that most elderly people do! Even the young would die for a Rolex.

    It would certainly be good to have lighter evenings in winter, but does everyone appreciate that even if we left our clocks on BST all year, the sunsets during December and January would still be earlier than 5 pm?

    To get the lighter evenings people want (still just about light at 6pm) we would need to have double summer time, which means that the sun would not rise until after 10am in London. Is that really what people want?

  • Good question OB.

    I like the idea of double summer time, but not the darkness until 10 and as elderly people are out and about usually earlier than later, it would be bad news for them and potentially more dangerous for them.

    Children getting to school would also be a worry. Personally, I wouldn't mind, but it's those concerns that have me thinking it would not be a good idea. Even just having BST all year round would mean sunrise after 9am.

  • The fact is the daylight hours in winter are shorter so changing the clocks or not doesn't really change that, as you still only have limited hours of daylight so an hour here or there is always going to be a trade off and compromise, for me it just signifies the changing of the seasons nothing more nothing less.

  • EU proposals to end clock changes

    On 12 September 2018, on the occasion of his State of the Union Address, President Jean-Claude Juncker said: "We all say in soap-box speeches that we want to be big on big things and small on small things. But there is no applause when EU law dictates that Europeans have to change the clocks twice a year. The Commission is today proposing to change this. Clock-changing must stop. Member States should themselves decide whether their citizens live in summer- or wintertime. It is a question of subsidiarity. I expect the Parliament and Council will share this view and find solutions that work for our internal market. We are out of time."

    Today the European Commission is proposing to end seasonal clock changes in Europe in 2019, giving Member States the freedom to decide once and for all whether they want to permanently apply summer- or wintertime. The legislative proposal seeks to ensure that any changes are made in a coordinated way between neighbouring countries so as to safeguard the proper functioning of the internal market and avoid fragmentation, which could arise if some Member States kept seasonal clock changes arrangements while others discontinued them.

    Juncker had a lot to say today in his state of the union address...:rolleyes:, but this item got my attention.

    I know it comes up every year, so lets not break the traditional.:) Should we follow the EU proposals and either stick to GMT or BST. Or, as discussed here last year, go for double BST??

  • I'd like to end the clock changes. It takes me weeks to get my body clock synchronised. I wouldn't mind which was chosen, so long as it stayed the same the year round. It's swings and roundabouts whether it's BST or GMT as each has it's advantages and disadvantages.

    Mark Twain — 'Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.'

  • I think I might know know your reply to this Fidget, but if the EU stick to one time all year round, should our clocks be harmonised with theirs?

    I quite like the idea of BST+1.

    While I would love an excuse to take a dig at the EU, I really don't mind which time zone we use. As said earlier, there are advantages and disadvantages with both. If I were forced to choose, I would use the one which enabled world trading the best. It is said that our time zone is quite helpful in that regard but then again, they've coped with changing time zones to date, so probably no problem either way.

    Mark Twain — 'Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.'

  • I quite like the idea of BST+1.

    That's my preferred option. I know it means very dark mornings in winter, especially if the clocks remain on CET, but the compensation of long summer evenings. Farmers and the building trade complain but they don't keep to the clock anyway.

  • Farmers work 24 hours a day during harvest so why winter working under headlights is a problem defeats me! ,as for the building trade , cold is more of an issue according to the men I know in the trade .

  • What if the Scottish farmers complain again?

    Sorry to be nasty about the Scots, but when do they NOT complain? Before I get pounced on, I know all Scots aren't whingers and selfish and wanting priority over everyone else. It just appears so.

    Mark Twain — 'Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.'

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