Are You Happy With Changing The Clocks Twice A Year?

[satprof]

Jean-Claude Juncker seemed to want to leave a legacy of removing the (bi-) annual changing of European clocks. He organized an online referendum on this topic with little publicity and hence a tiny participation. Subsequently he claimed that no-one wanted this change and got the European Parliament to pass some half-baked legislation to ban the practice.

Now that he's gone, this seems to have been ignored. What do ABers think about this?

Personally, I would hate having darker mornings in the Winter at the cost of lighter evenings but others may choose to differ.

[barry1010]

If we kept to Greenwich Mean Time the winters wouldn't change - this is the 'proper' time so we wouldn't have darker mornings in the winter. It is British Summer Time that is artificial and the UK followed Germany in putting the clocks forward in spring.

[Bobbisox1]

Not bothered one bit

[barry1010]

If we kept to GMT throughout the year, in June sunrise would be at 3.45 give or take a few minutes either side and sunset would be 8.21.

Easier to get little children to bed but blackout curtains or blinds would be a necessity. Many folk love the long, light evenings.

[ToraToraTora]

Well we are not in the EUSSR so I don't really care what they do with their clocks.

[Bobbisox1]

And I like the long dark ones :0)

[Tilly2]

Chocolate eclairs Bobbie?

[burlyshirley1]

I like the long dark nights when it's all cosy inside, so no, doesn't bother me at all.

[Bobbisox1]

Haha, Nah, nights Tilly , but come to think of it ? Yummmm

[lankeela]

Unless you go to bed and get up at exactly the same time every day of the year it makes no difference whatsoever - there is the same amount of daylight no matter what the clocks say. I just change them during the evening before they are due to change so the following morning they are correct anyway.

[pastafreak]

I want the one that will give me the longest amount of light during my waking hours. :)
Right now I'm not looking forward to drawing the curtains at 5pm...or coming home in the dark from afternoon shopping.

[davebro]

makes no odds to me either way

[Old_Geezer]

I aporove of the present system. There are others that would suit me more but would be too disruptive to implement.

What they do in the EU isn't going to have a great effect here anyway.

[10ClarionSt]

As everybody knows, it was war time thing that has not been changed since. Who gains from it now?

[Bobbisox1]

Isn’t something to do with milking time for the cows in Scotland? :0/

[Old_Geezer]

Why, everyone gains from it now, just like during the war when everyone gained from it then.

[THECORBYLOON]

If we stuck to GMT throughout the year, these would be the sunrise and sunset times on 21.12.22,

Ventnor, Isle of Wight
Sunrise 09:03
Sunset 17:02
Daylight 7:59

Lerwick (Shetland)
Sunrise 10:08
Sunset 15:57
Daylight 5:49

[barry1010]

We started BST in 1916 to conserve coal and in 1941 we had Double Summer Time when clocks went forwards two hours during the summer months, until 1945.

It did seem odd to me whilst in Spain that summer evenings got dark early.

[satprof]

My understanding was that Germany introduced Summer Time during WW1 and that the UK followed them. (There had previously been a campaign in the UK for this led by William Willet.) It was dropped on the Continent for a long time but came back there after the 1973 oil crisis to save energy. There are those who argue that it doesn't really save energy but in these energy-critical times I'd need a lot of convincing.

[barry1010]

Corby, winter is GMT so the times of sunrise and sunset would be as they are now. On 21.12 on Isle of Wight sunrise would be 08:05

[Bobbisox1]

People also ask
Do the clocks change because of farmers?
There are many other reasons why we change our clocks twice during the year. Agriculture is a major concern, with farmers' working hours being more affected by the amount of daylight available in the morning than the rest of us. Farmers often rise or begin work at around 5 in the morning