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Another Reason To Stay

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weecalf | 17:26 Tue 26th Mar 2019 | ChatterBank
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Getting rid of summer time hour change .Bring it on .
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// Older readers may remember the three-year experiment launched in 1968, when British Standard Time (GMT+1) was employed all year round //

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11643098
remember that Balders..we all had to get reflective arm bands and vests for going to school..they were compulsory and I hated them
Yes but leaving aside the merits (or otherwise) of the idea can anyone come up with a compelling reason why the EU should need to produce such a diktat?
"If we choose the latter I hope our Scottish colleagues, many of whom seem rabidly in favour of remaining in the EU, are happy when they are scrabbling about in the half light at 11am on a winter's morning in Ardlui."

Hear, hear
NJ, DST was introduced by the EU in 1996. They’ve now voted to abolish this and let countries decide for themselves. How is that a diktat?
// What Earthly business is it of the EU to determine whether or not we change our clocks twice a year? What difference does it make to anybody other than those in the UK? How does our changing clocks impinge on anybody else in Europe? //

Assuming the UK isn't planning to cut itself off from Europe altogether, then the EU will need to now what the time is in the UK, and vice versa. At the very least, then, the EU certainly cares about whether or not our clocks change: they'd need to know. Then the rest follows because it is generally easier to organise meetings and trade across time zones if those time zones are roughly aligned, and it can be a pain to keep track.

In the good old days, when time zone policy wasn't even a thing, every city kept its own time. This turned out to be a bit silly when cities started to be more easily connected to each other, so very quickly it was realised that cities needed to abandon the concept of local time and facilitate trade and transport by aligning their time zones.

The exact same principle applies to the EU. It is, incidentally, *not* a diktat: EU members just voted for it in Parliament. They were perfectly at liberty to reject the proposal, but as it happens the policy has broad public support across the EU members and citizens.

I get what you are saying about setting aside the merits of a particular policy, but in this case the entire point is to ensure that the EU is aligned as much as is feasible on a matter that it's worth coordinating across states anyway.
"...the EU will need to now what the time is in the UK, and vice versa."

They do now. They always have done. It's never been a secret.

The USA manages perfectly well with four time zones, It can be an hour different in the next town up the road. But this is not about time zones. The UK changes its clocks twice a year for a perfectly valid reason and it suits most people in the country. I don't know (or particularly care) what other countries do but it may not suit them to do likewise. After 2021 they will not be permitted to do so. It's all about forced conformity for its own sake. Yes the EU Parliament did vote the measure through. I haven't bothered to find out how our MEPs voted though since the UK has only a small minority of the votes it doesn't really matter.
I take issue with you on one point NJ.

You say that the UK changes its clocks twice a year for a perfectly valid reason. However I'm damned if I know what it is.

Although I am Eurosceptic like you, on this point I applaud them.

We can at last stop this ridiculous and pointless activity.

"However I'm damned if I know what it is. "

So we can have more hours in the day time and to make the mornings safer.
It may make the November/winter mornings lighter but doesn't that make the evenings darker,spath? Maybe it is partly to do with children going to school in the mornings though as it's probably always reasonably light when they go home at all times of year. I recall it was also something to do with farm workers being able to work outside earlier in winter after the clocks change.
Daylight saving doesn't save any daylight.
"Daylight saving doesn't save any daylight."

No it doesn't. That's a misnomer.

But that isn't my point. Whether it suits the UK to change the clocks or not should be entirely a matter for the UK Parliament and nobody else. I don't doubt if it was put to them they'd come up with six different options all of which purport to do the same thing but that's their privilege. I cannot believe how anybody can accept that a proposal which effects every single person in the UK - to a greater or lesser degree - can be made by unelected foreign bureaucrats and passed by a forum which contains fewer than 10% of members representing the UK.
I'm with you on that

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