Originally Posted by leicslad46:
“Throw this question into the mix. Is it really necessary for the UK to go through the ritual of changing the clocks in the 21st century. Shouldnt we have referendum so that the people are given the opportunity to decide seeing as our MPs are inept at deciding on our behalf what timezone we should be in.
If were to keep BST all year the argument would be the kids will be going to school in the dark. But that would depend on weather conditions. Changing the clocks is like canute trying to stop the tide.
Edmonton in canada sunrise and sunset are half later than the UK yet they are on the same latitude as us”
We change the clocks to move the daylight to where it's most needed. In winter we have few hours of daylight so we adopt GMT as that is most balanced - there is roughly and equal number of hours of daylight before and after 12 noon.
In summer it's different though - sunrise would occur before 4am in most places in the British Iles, while the sun would set as early as 8:30pm in many places. So we advance the clocks an hour to take an hour off the morning when most people are in bed, to an hour in the evening when most people are still awake.
If we were to adopt BST all year round it would mean sunrises after 9am for practically everywhere in Britain in winter. It would also mean virtually everyone would be getting up in darkness for most of the winter. And as most people hate getting up in the dark, I can't see it having much popularity.