Should we stop changing the clocks twice a year?

[talltim]

Where is the ‘change it four times a year’ poll option?

 

[Groningen]

Daylight in hours and minutes: Reykjavík, Iceland
01/01: 04:23
01/02: 07:05
01/03: 10:08
01/04: 13:31
01/05: 16:49
01/06: 20:06
01/07: 20:52
01/08: 18:00
01/09: 14:36
01/10: 11:23
01/11: 08:02
01/12: 05:03

Longest day: 21:09
Shortest day: 04:07

 

[DarloRich]

No: If only to give the Daily Mail types something to moan about.

( it is hardly a trying issue surely - of all the problems in the world this barely registers on the radar. )

 

[thejuggler]

Northern have gone UDI - this morning the platform clocks were still on BST.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

All this regular discussion seems to ignore the source of the issue in the first place; namely the habit of people gradually staying up later and later - we appear to have collectively forgotten why midnight is called midnight...

 

[talltim]

All this regular discussion seems to ignore the source of the issue in the first place; namely the habit of people gradually staying up later and later - we appear to have collectively forgotten why midnight is called midnight...

I'm guilty of this. I've come to the conclusion that my body clock tries to run to a 26 hour day and I'm constantly trying to correct. Unfortunatly the correction seems to mainly consist of missing sleep.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'm guilty of this. I've come to the conclusion that my body clock tries to run to a 26 hour day and I'm constantly trying to correct. Unfortunatly the correction seems to mainly consist of missing sleep.

I find this as well. Most people aren't set for a perfect 24 hours - "morning people" work on a slightly shorter day so 5am is a lie-in, "night owls" work on a longer one so can stay up late but have trouble getting out of bed.

 

[telstarbox]

I agree with you. I used to go on walks from Chislehurst Station about forty years ago and, on one of these, chanced upon a plaque in honour of Mr Willett (if my memory's correct) who ' invented' Daylight Saving about 1916 (?) and who lived at Pett's Wood.

I was in those woods a few weeks ago and the memorial is still there

 

[talltim]

One summer holiday when I was at school I slept and woke when I felt like it. Halfway through I was pretty much nocturnal and I had returned to normal hours by the end of the 6 weeks. I had one day less, but each one was longer

 

[adrock1976]

Some food for thought here:

No matter how many hours the clocks are moved forwards and backwards, there is still exactly the same amount of daylight hours, plus there is still 24 hours in a day (after adjustment).

 

[Groningen]

Only the sunrise plus 1 hour in the morning is moved to the evening. Say sunrise in the summer is at 5 o'clock; with no summertime it would be 4. Normally during the longest day it get dark in the Netherlands at 22.30. Without summertime it would be 21.30.

 

[fowler9]

Something I am willing to be flexible on. Ideally I would rather it was BST all year round but it doesn't make a hell of lot of difference. A few hours of sunlight after work would be preferable to me personally. In the depths of winter it would have to be more than a one hour change though, ha ha, never going to happen.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Some food for thought here:

No matter how many hours the clocks are moved forwards and backwards, there is still exactly the same amount of daylight hours, plus there is still 24 hours in a day (after adjustment).

The solution to that is obvious... Instead of moving the clocks forward and backward, we should just move the sun instead. Move the sun forward by an hour, every night at midnight, and compensate by moving it back by an hour at midday. Do that every day and we'll have a permanent extra hour of daylight. Easy!

 

[bramling]

Some food for thought here:

No matter how many hours the clocks are moved forwards and backwards, there is still exactly the same amount of daylight hours, plus there is still 24 hours in a day (after adjustment).

That’a true, however most things don’t get adjusted by an hour to align with this, which can be a pain if this happens to make the difference between doing something in the daylight and not. One wonders if sticking with BST could be good for the economy.

Personally on balance I’d go with BST all year. Adjusting loads of clocks twice a year is a nuisance, and personally I’d prefer more daylight in the late afternoon and early evening.

 

[Starmill]

I find it a little strange how there are some people who want to erode British heritage, but then are desperate to keep HSTs and Loco hauled stock on the tracks (not getting at anyone in particular).

What does British heritage have to do with anything in this thread?
How are our currency choices linked to our time zone requirements?
I really feel there is a logical disconnect in some of this discussion.

 

[whhistle]

What does British heritage have to do with anything in this thread?
How are our currency choices linked to our time zone requirements?
I really feel there is a logical disconnect in some of this discussion.

Because it's partly eroding British heritage if we stopped changing the clocks?
While other countries also change their clocks, I see it as a British tradition... after all, we are the centre of time.

 

[ooo]

Because it's partly eroding British heritage if we stopped changing the clocks?
While other countries also change their clocks, I see it as a British tradition... after all, we are the centre of time.

Considering it was first introduced by Germany I'd say it isn't that much of a British tradition

 

[edwin_m]

The solution to that is obvious... Instead of moving the clocks forward and backward, we should just move the sun instead. Move the sun forward by an hour, every night at midnight, and compensate by moving it back by an hour at midday. Do that every day and we'll have a permanent extra hour of daylight. Easy!

Stupid idea. Everyone from Galileo onwards could tell you it was easier to move the earth instead.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Considering it was first introduced by Germany I'd say it isn't that much of a British tradition

Let us overlook the monarchical connection.

 

[Howardh]

Stupid idea. Everyone from Galileo onwards could tell you it was easier to move the earth instead.

Isn't the earth - over time - slowing down so we will have 25 hr days and so on? Take a few million years, of course, but that's nothing on the time-scale to get the Bolton line electrified.

 

[Harlequin]

I quite like the extra hour in bed we get when the clocks go back. I know it's a pain losing the hour when it goes forward in spring, but that could be easily changed if, instead of moving the clocks forward first thing on a Sunday morning, they did it at 3:30pm on a Monday afternoon instead. Everyone's a winner.

 

[Starmill]

Because it's partly eroding British heritage if we stopped changing the clocks?
While other countries also change their clocks, I see it as a British tradition... after all, we are the centre of time.

I have never heard anyone who thinks that the changing of clocks is traditional, or part of 'British Heritage'. There is a long list of other countries that do this. Stopping doing it wouldn't even necessarily be changing our tradition depending on which 'time zone' we choose.

To most people this is a practical consideration rather than an emotional one. The evidence suggests that the most practical solution is to remain at BST all year - and incidentally so do the results of the poll, for what they are worth.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I quite like the extra hour in bed we get when the clocks go back. I know it's a pain losing the hour when it goes forward in spring, but that could be easily changed if, instead of moving the clocks forward first thing on a Sunday morning, they did it at 3:30pm on a Monday afternoon instead. Everyone's a winner.

Lol! Everyone except the people who have to figure out the rail and bus schedules on that day

 

[Busaholic]

What I don't understand is why we put the clocks forward at the end of March, three months after the winter solstice, but we put them back at the end of October which is only two months before the solstice. I think the ideal for the UK would be to go to UTC for only a month or so either side. During November it gets light about 0700 when nobody really needs it and gets dark about 1630 which makes quite a big difference.

We used to put the clocks back at the end of September but changed sometime in the 1970s (?) to fit in with when the French (in particular) altered their clocks. There was always a special timetable for cross-channel ferries/hovercraft with onward train connection times for the month from late September to late October and iirc it wasn't a great month to be making these journeys.

 

[edwin_m]

We used to put the clocks back at the end of September but changed sometime in the 1970s (?) to fit in with when the French (in particular) altered their clocks. There was always a special timetable for cross-channel ferries/hovercraft with onward train connection times for the month from late September to late October and iirc it wasn't a great month to be making these journeys.

I do agree that if we have to change the clocks, changing at the same time as our neighbours is the least bad option. To me changing at the end of September would be worse than the current situation because it increases the period (currentliy approximating to November) when it's dark at the time many people are around in the evening and light at the time few people are around in the morning. Again if we aren't ready for BST all year round it might be better to have the Spring change a month earlier so it's at least symmetrical around the winter solstice.

 

[Antman]

A bit of a no brainer really, surely the daylight is far more beneficial in the evening than in the morning when many people are still in bed.

 

[43021HST]

All this regular discussion seems to ignore the source of the issue in the first place; namely the habit of people gradually staying up later and later - we appear to have collectively forgotten why midnight is called midnight...

When I did evening shifts, that was the time I got in from work, not much of a habit, more of a necessity, unfortunately not all of us can have the luxury of sleeping throughout the night in todays 24/7 world.

I'm one of the minority who prefers the clock at GMT, as it's more in sync with my own body clock, getting up early isn't so difficult. Not all of us can be nauseating bright shiny morning people.
I find when I go to bed early I don't sleep as well. As I'm writing this, I had to be up early for an important appointment, so I already feel tetchy and tired.

 

[Harpers Tate]

Aside from my huge distaste for the process (I'd go BST all year, as was the case during the 3-year experiment 1968-71) I have a further very pedantic hate for all this: it's the term "Daylight Saving". Because it saves absolutely zero seconds of daylight. The duration of daylight on any given day in any given place is determined solely by the relative position of the earth, the sun, and its axis, and not at all by how we decide to adjust our clocks.

 

[krus_aragon]

Where is the ‘change it four times a year’ poll option?

How about changing it three times a year? That'd mix things up a bit.

 

[Jonny]

Besides, if you've ever tried waking up early in November "up north", the extra hour of sunlight may be quite vital. Bear in mind that sunset in winter is later further north, and also later to the west throughout the year. Also that the whole of the North of England is relatively westwards; both Leeds and Newcastle are over 1.5 degrees west (never mind west of the Pennines)!

Scotland would be even worse!