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Time in Line with EU

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DTCwordfan | 19:20 Mon 21st Feb 2011 | News
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2hrs on for BST....

Want it?

What about the Scots, Northern Irish (and even the Irish) - Let them decide if they want to be in line or stick with current time? Would it matter if they are on a different time zone?
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No it wouldn't matter.

But neither does it matter that the UK operates on different time to mainland Europe (and this is the principle reason given to support the change). The USA manages perfectly well with four time zones and we manage to conduct business perfectly satisfactorily with them.

Noon should be, as far as practicably possible, when the sun is at its highest point in the sky. There should be (again as far as possible) equal amounts of daylight either side of noon. To depart from this makes the notion of "noon" meaningless (so much so that I consider even the twice yearly change to and from “British Summer Time” to be nonsense).

If this change is adopted, even in the south of England it will not get light until around 9am in the winter and it will not get dark until about 11pm in the summer – both highly undesirable. It was tried forty years ago and the trial was abandoned. The idea should be kicked into touch at the earliest opportunity.
At a personal level I would love to have longer hours of daylight in the afternoon . I find the long hours of evening darkness depressing. When I was in business an extra hour of darkness would have been a godsend especially for all our van drivers searching for addresses. It would also have saved money on lighting our premises.
However we are all affected in different ways. On another point it was abandoned 40 years ago mainly because of the Scots' objections . A case of tail wagging dog I think.
One of their main objections was the risk of accidents to school children going to school in the dark in fact there are far more accidents when going home in the dark . However if it is an arguement why not start the school day one hour later. In that way they would also miss the rush hour when most accidents occur.
With regards to business, being different from the rest of Europe does cause unnecessary problems , when making video/phonecalls and working to a different timetable.
We are told by farmers that animals e.g. cows, don't go by the clock so why can't the few farmers affected do the same. Judge // it will not get light until around 9am in the winter and it will not get dark until about 11pm in the summer – both highly undesirable.// Why ?
I don't really see how you can change UK time to match the rest of Europe when the rest of Europe is not all in the same time zone (and it's not).
> the UK operates on different time to mainland Europe

Apart from Portugal...


> The USA manages perfectly well with four time zones

Plus Alaska and Hawaii...
Personally I'd be up for it - get more hours of daylight in the evening when we make best use of them.

No reason at all why Scotland couldn't have a different time zone

The last trial was for the whole UK - I think we should have another trial just with the UK.

Now if we could just get the EU to insist that we stay as we are for Human Rights reasons we'd get everyone on board
I can't wait for them to change.

Nothing to do with being in line with Europe, I just want that extra hour of light in the winter afternoons.

I would also stop changing the clocks in winter, just keep on the same time all year round.
We need to move away from the notion that time should be a matter of political, commercial or social convenience. Instead we should concentrate on the fact that time should be related to geographical location. Otherwise we might as well make the entire world a single time zone and people could simply vary what they do at different times of the day dependent upon where they are. (People in the Australia might find themselves going to bed at 10am, for example). Except, of course, we expect it to be daylight around the time we get up and dark around the time we go to bed (shift workers excepted).

This means that time should vary by an hour every fifteen degrees of longitude (again, as far as practically possible) so the zone based around zero degrees longitude (7.5 degrees W to 7.5 degrees E) is the most appropriate for the UK and Ireland. (Lowestoft in the East is 1.75 degrees E, Galway towards the western extremity is 9 degrees W). It is also appropriate for Portugal which lies between about four and nine degrees W. Strangely it is also the most appropriate zone for almost all of Spain (9.5 degrees W to 3 degrees E) and France (Strasbourg on its eastern extremity is 7.7 degrees E).

The time zone centred on 15 degrees East (the “Central European Time” which it is suggested we adopt) is the most appropriate for places no further west than 7.5 degrees E (as far as practical). Since this excludes all of Spain and almost all of France there is, if anything, a strong argument for those countries to adopt “Western European” time as we have in the UK.
If the Scots are worried about their children going to school in the dark there is a simple solution. Start lessons 1 hour later! Then they will not have to be out of step with England's time zone.
I would love to have lighter evenings longer
But they won't be any longer or shorter, marval. You will just be saying that the time is different.

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