If we were to change the time system, we need to replace it with a much simpler alternative. I propose the following:

Instead of numbers, years become letters. 2017 will be 'A'.

Months become lower case letters, so Jan 2017 will be Aa.

Days become vowels, so 1 Jan 2017 will become Aaa.
2 Jan 2017 will become Aae etc...

When each vowel is exhausted, each subsequent day adds a consonant, so for example, 6 Jan 2017 will become Aaub.

Any disputes in this date format will be resolved by an international panel of adjudicators.

Hopefully with this system, it is possible that some date in the future spells out 'boobies' and this could become known as 'national boobies day' - with all the related festivities you can imagine.

It's clear and simple.

Not everything needs changing, whatever half-arsed theory you decide to use as an excuse.

You could always think of the date as being referenced to an arbitrary datum if you prefer.

Just because Christianity in the UK is fading, it doesn't mean we should erase it from our history. I'm not religious, but I respect the vital place Christianity has in our history and heritage.

Personally speaking, you could start Year 0 from:

* when the Earth was first formed

or

* from when the first, earliest recorded humans inhabited the Earth

a believer in the ''block universe'' ? In which case, there's no such thing as free will, either. I like to think that, in our ''here and now'', perspective ('the specious present'), the future has not been written, and we do have some free will .........

Has anyone mentioned Julian Dates yet; very popular with astronomers. I think it's about two and a half million at the moment.

And what about the French Revolutionary calendar? Never mind meek and mild non-religious, this is the calendar for the actively anti-religious. And the names of the months have real class. I mean; Thermidor, Floreal, Brumaire. Try competing with that January and February.

No, but I imagine the poor sod hates these discussions, what were Mr and Mrs Dates thinking


Right, 'thermidor' is that thing you use to keep cigars warm, 'floreal' is obviously a flowery thing, and I'm guessing 'Brum air' is a kind of pea soup...?

I think the Islamic year equates to the Christian year some of them think they're living in.

The whole system of time is outdated, it should be based on 10s and 100s, not 60s and 24s, and other random numbers.

100 seconds should be a minute, 100 minutes an hour. 10 hours a day. 12 months of 30 days plus 5 (or 6) days holday at the end of the year.

And there should be no time differences around the world. Same time throughout. Why does it matter?

At the moment, there's no need too. However, I think there will be a point in the future (likely when we develop intergalactic travel and start colonising other worlds) that there will be a requirement for it. Until such a time, there's really no need.

If all the time was the same throughout the world, it would be pitch black at midday somewhere.

MID DAY. Day, as in day time, a time when it's light.

There's no need to change to another system when we start colonising other planets and moons.

They can just adapt to Earth time and bloody well like it!

I think that's a little unfair. They should be allowed to adopt whatever method they feel is most appropriate, given their days and years are more than likely going to be different lengths from ours.
In any case they would be very much aware and possibly even proud of their own time system so there would be little doubt when reading that tea-time* will be at three daisies past a crayon, give or take a blob of plasticine.


When talking to us you're damn right they will



* as in time for tea, as opposed to teh-ah-ti-meh

It's fine as it is and it would be a pain to change it.

No it wouldn't because mid-day would be at whatever time mid-day was in that country.

Don't the Japanese mark their years as the year of the reign of the Current Japanese Emperor? So maybe we could do it with Liz ?

So she's the 51st Monarch of England and this is her 64th year, so we'd be in 51 64. Scotland may want a different year though

Don't give the SNP any ideas. They'll probably count from the year of Mel Gibson playing Braveheart, or more likely from Queen Wee Krankys birth.

Supposed birth ? Do you think that he just appeared on earth as an adult ?


May or may exisited. His birth was the most significant thing in history.


Only that it is a few years out


and what is the start of the common era based on ?


Your days would be too long unless you altered the time of the second. All watches and clocks would be automatically useless.

The Wiki entry for Jesus has him born around 4BC, which causes problems for Dating, but is a neat trick. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus

Or 13 months of 4 weeks each, with a one day intermission at the end of the year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcMTHr3TqA0

Is that like a mini Babybell?

Sounds so useful for international business.

Business would be much better off adapting to country specific calenders so as not to offend those in other countries.

Just image I could book my holiday to New York on 37/14/240 USAC and book my time off from work on 19/2/00 UKBREXCAL and while I'm there upgrade my package for a UKBREXCAL 7 day week in Canada which would equate to 9.4 Canadian days using their metric calendar system.

It would be a piece of cake for Dan Air to make sure the booking went to plan.

Ah, but in years it's only 45. I'd use GPS time, that's only 35 years.