The clocks go back this Sunday. Yes, it's that time of year
again when we say goodbye to British Summertime and lighter
evenings and give some daylight back to the mornings.

I'm just wondering what people's opinions are in regards to
whether we should keep changing the clocks as we are, or should
we do it differently?

In my opinion I'm happy with the status quo, we put them forward
to give us nice long summer evenings, and put them back so the
mornings (at least for a while) aren't so dark.


I know a lot of people don't like the clocks going back, saying
it's depressing, it's pointless etc, but I think many people do
not realise that if we did not put them back, the winter
mornings would be super dark.

I think many people would want to stay on British Summertime all
year round but in my view it would just be horrible. I like light mornings. The sun
would not rise in most places in Britian until after 9am. Think
how dark the mornings are in winter already, then imagine if you
had to get up an hour earlier for work. The mornings would be
colder as well. That period where you get up and it's pitch dark
would be significantly lengthened.

Some others would like GMT all year round, but then we wouldn't
have such long summer evenings and in summer it'd be light at
Stupid O' Clock in the morning.

Some others even want us to switch to european time which is
always one hour ahead of Britain, meaning we'd still have to
change the clocks but our evenings would be lighter all year
round at the cost of darker mornings.

Other suggestions raised in the past are to put the clocks back
in Novemeber and put them forward in February.

Another suggestion is to come to a compromise and keep them 30 minutes
ahead of GMT (winter time) but 30 mintues behind BST (summer time) all year round.

It has even been suggested that we keep GMT in winter but put
our clocks an extra hour forward in high summer (may/june),
involving four clock changes every year.

Seeing as most people go to work in the morning, I fail to see the advantage of putting the clocks back.

I would MUCH prefer lighter evenings, when one can actually do something with it. I HATE it when the clocks go back.

It's time there was a referendum on the issue.

Get radio controlled timepieces. Almost all of mine take care of it themselves.
Like what? The evenings are already too drawn in to do anything like playing golf.

Much as a I hate it now at least the opposite gives us more time in the evening next year. At least this way I won't be waking in the dark very often.

The government did a trial of not moving the clocks in the late 1960s. I can remember walking to school in total darkness as we lived in a rural area with no street lighting . It was decided to reintroduce moving the clocks as a safety measure for children. Though admittedly far few children walk to school these days.

I may be wrong but I have a feeling that it is in the winter that we are on the 'right' time and the adjustment is in the summer.

Yes. Every extra guilt free hours sleep I can squeeze in is most welcome

We only put them back for Scottish farmers, pandering to a minority once again.

This is Utter nonsense. GMT is our correct timezone. Nothing to do with Scottish farmers.

it was a campaign by the dear Daily Express what did it. There was a serious school bus type accident and the experiment was abandoned, though when the accident statistics were all in, it had been a success (if it was just for reducing accidents)

apparently, though it seems counter-intuitive, there are fewer accidents in the morning on the way to work than in the evening, coming home from work

Practically all your suggestions are impossible due to our masters in Brussels who say all EU members must change their clocks on the same days each year regardless of timezone.

So we are left with two choices. BST/GMT like now or Daylight CET/CET Wintertime. We are not and never will be in central Europe. We are on our correct timezone for our longitude and latitude. If anything Spain and France should be changing to the British timezones.

What time do you finish work? If you finish at 5:00pm and didn't put the clocks back you'd still be going home in the dark during winter. What your asking for is extra daylight. It isn't going to happen.

Is it that time of year again? The thread about putting the clocks back comes round once a year like, clockwork...?

can't we just stop the days getting shorter?

[quote=MTUK1;80085545]Practically all your suggestions are impossible due to our masters in Brussels who say all EU members must change their clocks on the same days each year regardless of timezone. /QUOTE]That's a sensible idea that simplifies business.

GMT in summer would mean light till eleven at night, which would mean most people couldn't sleep till midnight or after as most need to wind down in darkness before going asleep.

And when we had the experiment with British Standard Time from 1968 which ended earlier than it was supposed to in 1970 as it was deeply unpopular and I remember hating going to nursery school in the dark, morning casualty figures rose during the trial

Yes, that is a myth. Yes, Scotland would suffer most if we switched to year-round BST, as they are further north so have less daylight in winter than the rest of Britain. And farmers do get up early, so they would be more affected. But it is ludicrous to say that only Scottish Farmers would suffer. Nearly all places in Britain have a sunrise after 8am in the middle of winter. This would be 9am if year round BST was introduced. Therefore anyone at school or employed (vast majority of population) would have to get up and travel to school/work/college/whatever in the dark.

It is mainly southerners (in particular those living in the south east) who support the idea of year-round BST as they have earlier sunrises in winter than the rest of the country. However, we have to consider the whole country, unless we split up everywhere into different time zones, but that would cause confusion.

For example, where I live in north west England, in Winter, sunrise is 8:30 and sunset is 3:45. If we were on BST, sunrise would be now 9:30 which would be ridiculously late. Sunset would be 4:45 but it would still be dark by the time people got home from work.

no they didn't

Sorry but you are mistaken. GMT in summer would have the opposite effect - lighter mornings and shorter evenings. If we switched to Central European Time summer evenings would be longer and we would likely have problems with people going to bed and trying to get to sleep while it's still light.

Whatever we do with the clock's we still have the same number of daylight hour's.

It's just about right the way it is now with it getting light in the morning for children and most people going to work and the same in the evening when they're on there way home before it gets dark.

My scheme if we were allowed to do it:

- keep GMT but just for November, December & January.
- have GMT+1 for February, March & April and August, September & October.
- introduce GMT+2 for May, June & July.

So:
- clocks go forward 1 hour first Sunday Feb and first Sunday May.
- clocks go back 1 hour first Sunday Aug and first Sunday Nov.

⌚

No it would mean darkness at 8pm and daylight at 3am - madness! That's why we move to BST in summer as we would waste daylight as the sun would rise 4 hours before most of us got up!

We should follow the US and Canada and put the clocks forward in early March to avoid evening rush hour darkness and wasted daylight at 6am.

Perhaps you might care to clarify that rather than just dismissing it

HMSO data shows a rise in morning casualties ,during the experiment it also showed a decrease in evening ones but noted later that the decrease in evening casualties also coincided with drink driving legislation so the figures were modified accordingly and downwards when looked at again in 1989 to take into account the effect drink drive legislation had had on the reduction in evening accidents.

we put them back to placate the scots.

land of the midnight gloom, populated by the glums.

We don't - really we don't. Look at sunrise/sunset times in Northern Ireland and they are remarkably similar to Scotland, and sunrise in northern parts of England (some of which are further north than southern parts of Scotland) would also be unacceptably late if we did not make the change.

And actually, we put the clocks back because we are required to do so as members of the EU - and even if we came out of the EU we would probably still do it as do other non-EU countries such as Norway and Switzerland. It just doesn't make sense not to do it when all neighbouring countries do.