Gmt

[bogib]

Welcome back to ICELANDIC time

Bogi

[TonyC]

still got half an hour to go

rolls back at 2am

[bogib]

Shite.... ok you are about then

Don´t run to fast you all will gain an hour we will never get

Bogi

[The Grocer]

I've never been able to understand the logic behind this whole summer time thing.

1) GMT/UTC whatever (I'll ignore the atomic niceties, which let's face it make no difference whatsoever to Mr. J. Public who gets his time check from a flawed system - DAB radio is out by n seconds) is historically based on the the 0 degree E/W line at Greenwich, so at noon in winter the sun is due south. It should, in my humble opinion, be in the same position in summer. This would allow me to use Ailsa Craig as a sundial all year round.

2) We floaty types (and if you're reading this you must be one of us) refer to GMT/UTC all year round. The tides don't suddenly rush in or out in March or October to allow for cows being milked.

3) If you want an extra hour of daylight, either get up an hour earlier or stay up an hour later as appropriate. Just don't rattle my door on your way past. There's still the same amount of daylight on any given day of the year as there always was/is/will be - and yes, I'm ignoring the gradual slowing of the earth's orbit velocity. Will that affect you in your lifetime? Didn't think so.

4) All this stuff about road safety is rubbish - you're just as likely to get squished in the dark at either end of the day. Carry a torch if you're that worried. Or hibernate.

5) If you really care that much about daylight, move to the equator. 12 hours a day, every day, all year round. If like me you live above the 55 degree line - tough luck. Did you hear about the eskimo girl who slept with her boyfriend? Next morning she found she was 6 months pregnant...

And with that thought - g'night all.

[Nos4r2]

Originally Posted by The Grocer

I've never been able to understand the logic behind this whole summer time thing.

1) GMT/UTC whatever (I'll ignore the atomic niceties, which let's face it make no difference whatsoever to Mr. J. Public who gets his time check from a flawed system - DAB radio is out by n seconds) is historically based on the the 0 degree E/W line at Greenwich, so at noon in winter the sun is due south. It should, in my humble opinion, be in the same position in summer. This would allow me to use Ailsa Craig as a sundial all year round.

2) We floaty types (and if you're reading this you must be one of us) refer to GMT/UTC all year round. The tides don't suddenly rush in or out in March or October to allow for cows being milked.

3) If you want an extra hour of daylight, either get up an hour earlier or stay up an hour later as appropriate. Just don't rattle my door on your way past. There's still the same amount of daylight on any given day of the year as there always was/is/will be - and yes, I'm ignoring the gradual slowing of the earth's orbit velocity. Will that affect you in your lifetime? Didn't think so.

4) All this stuff about road safety is rubbish - you're just as likely to get squished in the dark at either end of the day. Carry a torch if you're that worried. Or hibernate.

5) If you really care that much about daylight, move to the equator. 12 hours a day, every day, all year round. If like me you live above the 55 degree line - tough luck. Did you here about the eskimo girl who slept with her boyfriend? Next morning she found she was 6 months pregnant...

And with that thought - g'night all.

I'd agree-but those of us who don't get to set our own start times in the morning get quite screwed over by it.

[The Grocer]

Originally Posted by Nos4r2

I'd agree-but those of us who don't get to set our own start times in the morning get quite screwed over by it.

Why though? It's a natural phenomenon. Surely any resulting stress is brought about by the sudden change twice every year; whereas if we just let nature run its course we'd probably gradually adjust to the situation - as we do for all the other days in the year.

As Scottie may have said - "Ye cannae mess with the laws of physics, Cap'n".

[willk]

Originally Posted by The Grocer

There's still the same amount of daylight on any given day of the year as there always was/is/will be - and yes, I'm ignoring the gradual slowing of the earth's orbit velocity.

i c wut u did there - Nicely Cod-proofed!

[Poly]

Originally Posted by The Grocer

This would allow me to use Ailsa Craig as a sundial all year round.

to be fair there is a very significant ingredient in that idea for most of the year

4) All this stuff about road safety is rubbish - you're just as likely to get squished in the dark at either end of the day

Actually the evidence (http://www.ajph.org/cgi/reprint/85/1/92.pdf) seems to suggest otherwise.

Someone once told me it had nothing to do with safety though - and was economically driven as we go to spend money in shops more if its daylight... not sure if that still applies when we buy stuff frrom behind a PC or in 24 hr tescos...

I haven't given much thought to this, but it strikes me that the effects of days shortening are so much more significant up north than down south that one (or both) of us are compromising with a system than moves 1hr twice a year... i.e. we have the inconvenience of moving but don't actually get all the benefit as it still gets dark in the afternoons a few weeks later etc. Perhaps Mr Salmond would support a new timezone?

[JSP]

Didn't it all start off with farmers wanting lighter mornings in the winter months? And then it was kept on for other reasons.

[chewy]

Originally Posted by JSP

Didn't it all start off with farmers wanting lighter mornings in the winter months? And then it was kept on for other reasons.

Thats what thought, it was the Scottish farmers wasn't it?

[Poly]

Originally Posted by chewy

Thats what thought, it was the Scottish farmers wasn't it?

Not according to the National Maritime Museum:

British Summer Time (BST)

Dates 2009-2012 | 100 years of BST | Podcast stories | About time | History of daylight saving time | Summer time all year?
At 2.00 am BST (1.00 am GMT) on Sunday 25 October 2009 the clocks will move back by an hour as civil time moves from British Summer Time (BST) to Coordinated Universal Time (almost identical to Greenwich Mean Time).
The Ninth European Parliament and Council Directive on Summer Time Arrangements states that summer (or daylight saving) time will be kept between the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. The changes will take place at 01.00 GMT.
Summer time dates, 2009-2012


Year Date 2009 29 March to 25 October 2010 28 March to 31 October 2011 27 March to 30 October 2012 25 March to 28 October
100 years of British Summer Time

2007 marked 100 years since British Summer Time was first proposed. But why change the clocks, which way and whose idea was it? Find out in our Spring Forward pages.
Time tales: podcast stories

• David Rooney discovers more about British Summer Time
• David Rooney introduces St. John Wynne
• David Rooney reveals the story of Ruth Belville
• David Rooney visits the Daylight Inn

About time

• John Harrison's Fourth Marine Timekeeper, H4 See all our time and timekeeping fact files, including leap seconds, calendars, equinoxes and solstices and the equation of time.
• Read our FAQs about time, including 'Is noon 12 am or 12 pm?' and 'Why isn't the earliest sunrise on the longest day?'
• Download Calendars from around the world, an in-depth look at the different calendars used throughout history and those still in use today.
• View the new Time galleries at the Royal Observatory.
• Buy clocks and watches online from the Museum.

The history of daylight saving time

The idea of summer time, or daylight saving time, was first suggested in a whimsical article by Benjamin Franklin in 1784. In 1907 an Englishman, William Willett campaigned to advance clocks by 80 minutes, by 4 moves of 20 minutes at the beginning of the spring and summer months and to return to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in a similar manner in the autumn. In 1908 the House of Commons rejected a Bill to advance the clocks by one hour during the spring and summer months.
Summer time was first defined in an Act of 1916 that ordained that for a certain period during the year legal time should be one hour in advance of GMT. The Summer Time Acts of 1922 to 1925 extended the period during which summer time was in force and so, from 1916 up to the Second World War, clocks were put in advance of GMT by one hour from the spring to the autumn.
During the Second World War, double summer time (2 hours in advance of GMT) was introduced and was used for the period when, normally ordinary summer time would have been in force. During the winter clocks were kept one hour in advance of GMT. After the war, summer time was invoked each year from 1948 to 1967. In 1968 clocks were advanced one hour ahead of GMT on 18 February and remained so until British Standard Time, during which clocks were kept in advance of GMT all year, came into force between 27 October 1968 and 31 October 1971.
The Summer Time Act 1972 defined the period of British Summer Time to start at 02.00 GMT on the morning of the day after the third Saturday in March or, if that was Easter Day, the day after the second Saturday. It was to end at 02.00 GMT on the day after the fourth Saturday in October. The duration of British Summer Time can be varied by Order of Council and in recent years has been changed so as to bring the date of the start of Summer Time into line with that used in Europe. (In the 1980s the European Community started issuing directives which required member states to legislate specific start and end dates for summer time in order to improve coordination of transport and communications.)
The rule for 1981–1994 defined the start of summer time in the UK as the last Sunday in March and the end as the day following the fourth Saturday in October. The time of change was altered to 01.00 GMT.
There was no rule for the dates of summer time for the years 1995, 1996 and 1997, but the ad-hoc dates were:

Year Dates 1995 26 March to 22 October 1996 31 March to 27 October 1997 30 March to 26 October all changes taking place at 01.00 GMT
In 1998 the end date was adjusted to be the last Sunday in October; the ninth directive, currently in force, has made this permanent. According to this directive, summer (or daylight saving) time will be kept between the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October, all changes taking place at 01.00 GMT.
Summer time all year round?

Some people advocate that summer time is kept all year round but this is opposed by other groups on the grounds that in the north this would have social disadvantages including, for instance, the problem that in the far north-west of Scotland sunrise would occur at about 10.00 in the middle of winter and over much of the north small children would have to travel to/from school in darkness.
Many countries around the world use daylight saving time, including the USA, Russia, most of Europe and the Commonwealth.
The main reasons given for the use of summer time are the saving in power given by the longer hours of daylight in the evenings and the increased useful daylight leisure time available to those who work.