British Summer Time 2014: Why do Clocks Change?

[sonnetpete]

Obviously this has become altogether too serious of a thread LOL. I was hinting that "wet" time might be appropriate because of last winter......

 

[Lazarus]

كنت أعرف أن، بيت

 

[Lazarus]

كنت أعرف أن، بيت

 

[sonnetpete]

الآن أنت تظهر قبالة

 

[Pride Of Cucamonga]

Stick to talking about satellites, people, because much of what's written here is nonsense!

Guy who suggested the whole world moves to GMT/UTC - well that would mean midnight (and a new day) in Sydney would happen close to midday by the sun - not in anyway practical.

Suggestions that we should abolish daylight savings i also disagree with. The advantage is we can all get up earlier in the summer and benefit from extra daylight without needing to move back the opening times of schools, offices etc, which would be far more impractical than a simple clock change.

Calls to move UK to CET: well this is basically the situation in Spain now, which is on the wrong timezone. What does it achieve? Nothing and there are calls to move back to GMT. AFterall, changing timzeons is just renaming the hours of the day, and people adjust their habits accordingly. Valencia is very close to the Greenwich Meridian so the sun peaks at 2pm in summer, which is when people start to eat lunch. Of course at the same time it's 1pm in the UK, which is when lunch is eaten there. Net gain? Nowt.

 

[sonnetpete]

Surely we can all get up early in the Summer to enjoy the daylight without the need of a clock to tell us what time it might be?

....and I have lunch at midday French time....

 

[Lazarus]

Lunch is for wimps. Oop 'ere we have Dinner at Lunchtime then us Tea at Dinner time.

And fourteen pints of Mild.

 

[timo_w2s]

Most Finns seem to eat lunch at around 11am. But they all get up far too early.

 

[sonnetpete]

Lunch is for wimps. Oop 'ere we have Dinner at Lunchtime then us Tea at Dinner time.

Ah yes.....but I'm not in Kansas anymore

 

[2cvbloke]

Guy who suggested the whole world moves to GMT/UTC - well that would mean midnight (and a new day) in Sydney would happen close to midday by the sun - not in anyway practical.

But if you think about it, that way the day changes so that you're not having to figure out what day or time it is in another country, because it's the same everywhere, you just need to know what time whatever it is your doing is available without having to figure out how many hours ahead or behind you are compared to your destination, and whether to add or subtract an hour for summer time...

A clock is only a guide, it's not the be-all and end-all of the universe, it's just there to deal with our need to perceive the passage of time, UTC is the universal time worldwide anyway, hence why you see "UTC-6, UTC+3, etc.", so the transition is just to adjust clocks to that time and change localised working hours to suit the daylight hours...

Hell, the people up in orbit on the ISS whizz round the planet several times a day, and they're fixed to UTC, and see a dawn and a dusk, a midday and a midnight, up to 16 times a day, all while the clock says otherwise, it works for them, it'd work for the planet too, assuming people didn't go all flat-earth society on the idea...

 

[Piltdownpaul]

But the managers of our firms just wont like having no clocks about to make sure your on time....

 

[Archived-1]

Its losing an hours sleep that bothers me, then having to wait until October to catch back up.

 

[Fisty McB]

The clocks moving forward are a boon to me locally, provided it isn't pissing down with rain it'll be daylight until about 8pm, and when June & July comes 10.30pm or even 11pm if it's clear. Far better an extra hour of daylight that can be used in the evening by most people rather than having it squandered between 3-4am when most people are sleeping. It's also useful for tourism purposes.

Then again I do live right on the western edge of the UTC 0 time zone, and already in December and much of January people go to school and work here in the dark. Moving the UK to CET or even BST all year round would not see sunrise here in mid December until around 9.40am. Moving the clocks forward and back once each per year is a small price to pay to make better use of the daylight available.

 

[Fisty McB]

Well, without getting too political, if the UK were to leave the EU, then adopting a timezone that is a part of the EU would not benefit us, so whether it would "suit" us or not, it's a wasted effort, the majority of the population would still refer to it as GMT, we've already aligned summer time to the EU's summertime, what else are we going to lose that is a part of the british identity?

I'm pretty sure it was more the other way around, I remember back in the 90s that while the UK & Ireland moved their clocks back in the last weekend of October as it is today, in much of mainland Europe the moved their clocks back in the last weekend of September, meaning that for about 4 weeks in mid Autumn we'd be in the same time zone as much of the rest of western and central Europe, then in the late 90s those on the continent decided to delay moving their clocks back to October in line with UK & Ireland. There may have been a bit of jigging with certain dates over the years, but the current set dates on clocks being moved has been constant for as long as I can remember. Being part of the EU or not has little to do with it anyway from a business perspective, not that long ago Jersey had a referendum wherever to move to CET from GMT which didn't pass.

Also farmers, especially pastoral farmers, are one of the groups that don't generally benefit from clocks being shifted as they generally work to whatever natural light is available at the time of year, with between sunrise and sunset being the working day. Livestock don't adjust for human clock changes!

 

[Pride Of Cucamonga]

Surely we can all get up early in the Summer to enjoy the daylight without the need of a clock to tell us what time it might be?

....and I have lunch at midday French time....

you could, but it would mean your routine would be different in the summer than the winter. I.e. in summer you would have to do something for an hour before work and have less time after work as you would have to go to bed an hour earlier. more disruptive than a clock change iw ould argue.

 

[Lazarus]

I feel like I'm always in the dark.

 

[sonnetpete]

I.e. in summer you would have to do something for an hour before work and have less time after work as you would have to go to bed an hour earlier.

Work?......who said I work LOL

 

[sat-tv-fan]

I think a part of Norway is in 24 hr daylight for a few weeks around June, is this right ? Russia has stopped putting clocks forward / back since 2011 I believe

 

[timo_w2s]

I think a part of Norway is in 24 hr daylight for a few weeks around June, is this right ? Russia has stopped putting clocks forward / back since 2011 I believe

Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland all have 24 hour daylight in the northern parts in June/July and 24 hour darkness in the December/Jan. Even in the very south of Finland around mid-summer the skies never really go properly dark.

 

[PaulR]

Youngest daughter is on holiday in Iceland - no, not the food shop, we've done all those jokes - and she tells us that Iceland is also on Western European Time but that don't put their clocks forward as we did last night.

Stands to reason when you think about it. If you have 24 hour daylight in summer so why bother to shift the clock?