British Summer Time

[Samuraisan]

Why do they call it British Summer Time, when all Europe changes their clocks ?

[Jackdaw33]

We don't do it at the same time as Europe does.

[Mamyalynne]

Historic I suppose.

// This is known as British Summer Time or BST for short. The UK is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain consists of England, Wales and Scotland.

Since 1996 all clocks in the European Union, of which the UK is a member state, have changed on same dates and at the same time, 1am GMT.//

[stuey]

I would think that it's only BST in the UK. For example, in North America we call it DST (daylight saving time).

[Mamyalynne]

So Eu, yes, but maybe not all Europe as a continent.

[Samuraisan]

Yes you do Jackdaw

[Baldric]

Because we're British?

[Jackdaw33]

Well we didn't use to. Although France is 1 hour ahead of us it used to be that for a couple of weeks at either end of the year we were on the same time.

[Mamyalynne]

Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Although these countries are not members of the EU - only Iceland is not observing Daylight Saving at the moment.

[Hopkirk]

Stupid bloody idea.

We should stick the clocks on GMT +1 and leave them alone.

[jno]

all Europe doesn't change its clocks to the same time as Britain does, though. French summer time is an hour ahead of BST, so they naturally have different names.

[Jackdaw33]

We tried that in 1968, Hopkirk, but it proved unpopular, especially in Scotland as in the north it didn't get light till 10 a.m.., so we changed back in 1971.

[Old_Geezer]

We call it that because we are British.

Stupid idea, we should change the clocks every month (or week maybe) so sunrise is the same time all year around.

[ichkeria]

Because BST isn't the same. It refers to the actual time.

[ichkeria]

I spent my first day in France as a student with my watch set to the wrong time as I hadn't realised that the clocks had not gone forward at the same time as the UK:-)

[tamborine]

Coz British is best!