So, we put our clocks back last night and enjoyed our extra hour in bed. Now we are bracing ourselves for tomorrow, when the sun will set at around 4.30 and we will leave work in the pitch dark.
As usual, RoSPA have produced figures to show the negative effects of putting the clocks back, while the SNP have argued that the opposite is true in Scotland. This is as much part of the annual ritual as the clock change itself. For most of us in the southern half of Britain, though, it means that we will gain an extra hour of daylight in the morning, when we are getting ready for work and don't notice it, and lose an hour in the evening, making our day feel shorter. Most of us do not welcome the change.
Tomorrow in London, the sun will rise at 6.50, so it will start to get light at around 6.30. Apart from long-distance commuters, most people don't start their journeys to work until 7.30. This extra hour of morning daylight is missed by most of us. Even in the depths of December, it gets light at 8am. If we did not put the clocks back we would have to endure a couple of weeks where the sun rose after 9 o'clock but we would still have a sunset at just before 5pm. We would notice the light more in the evening than in the morning when we are struggling to work on auto-pilot. If we stuck with British Summer Time all the year round, the days would feel lighter.
At the root of this issue is the change in our work patterns and lifestyle over the last hundred years or so. Mid-Day Greenwich Mean Time is roughly the time at which the sun is at its highest point at zero longitude. It is the mid-point between sunrise and sunset. When most people worked on the land, they started work when it got light and stopped when it got dark. For 12.00 mid-day to mark the middle of the daylight hours made sense as this was the middle of the working day.
During the last century, the middle of the working day has shifted. In the UK, most people work around a core day of 9am - 5pm, or "normal office hours". In London, this is more likely to be 9.30 am to 5.30 pm. This means that the middle of the working day has shifted from 12 mid-day to 1.00 pm or even 1.30 pm.
Add on leisure time, which most of us take in the evening, and the middle of our day is later still. If I have an early start and get up at 6.00 am, then go to bed early-ish at 10.00 pm, the middle of my day is 2 o'clock . A more normal 7 to 11 day would see my "mid-day" move to three in the afternoon. For most of us in the first decade of the 21st century, 12 o'clock midday isn't 'mid-day' at all, at best it's late morning. Setting our clocks so that the mid-point of our daylight hours is at 12 o'clock might have made sense to our ancestors but for us, it means that we have daylight in the morning when we don't need it and darkness falls too early in the afternoon.
British Summer Time, with the mid-point of the daylight at 1pm, brings the middle of the day closer to the pattern of our modern lifestyles. It is no coincidence that those European countries on the same latitude as the UK choose a time zone one hour ahead. They have recognised that this is a better fit with their patterns of work and leisure.
Greenwich Mean Time, though it might be traditional, is out of step with the lifestyles of most of the population. Reverting back to it during the winter doesn't save daylight, it wastes it. British Summer Time, one hour ahead of the sun, fits more easily with the way that we live our lives now. Bringing the mid-point of the daylight closer to the middle of our waking hours would make us all feel happier. It's time to scrap this annual ritual of darkness. Next year, we should leave our clocks set an hour ahead of the sun.
Good post. I think consideration should be given to a trial period where the clocks aren't put back.
Posted by: United Irelander | 30 October 2005 at 05:31 PM
Didn't they try out not changing the clocks back in the late sixties or early seventies? I can just about remember going to school in the dark and having to wear a reflective jacket or something like that. Or was that just my mum thinking I looked cute in bright yellow and orange?
Posted by: Stevo in Taichung | 31 October 2005 at 01:26 AM
Yeah, yeah, yeah. you are hard done by. Tell me about it.
Here in Edinburgh, which is of course quite far South (that's right - South) the day is already two hours shorter than in London.
Until the clocks changed yesterday, it was only getting light at about 8.30 am and it was dark at 5.30
Now it is light at 7.30 and will be dark at 4.30. Not such a big deal you say. But in midwinter this is no joke at all.
Without the clock change, it would not be light until 10am, later further north where I hail from and would be dark at 4 (which is useless for your purposes).
Besides, enough whining from you poncy Southerners: it never actually gets dark for you lot due to all the light pollution. You should try night time in rural Scotland in the depths of winter.
Meh.
Posted by: The Pedant-General | 31 October 2005 at 08:14 AM
Yes, but you have it alright during the summer. Swings and roundabouts.
Posted by: Joe90 | 31 October 2005 at 09:34 AM
Pedant, surely when you have so little light during the winter, does it really matter whether the extra hour of daylight is at the beginning of the end of the day? It's still bloody dark most of the time. If it bothers you that much, you could have "Scottish Winter Time" and put your clocks back an hour while leaving the rest of us on BST.
Stevo, they tried it during the winters 1968-69 and 1969-70. Kids were advised to wear reflective clothing as there was a scare about them being run over in the dark, although in the event, accidents were reduced as fewer were run over in the evening. As you probably remember, most kids walked to and from school then. Even the little ones walked accompanied by adults.
That was the year I started school and I do remember arriving in the pitch dark. I didn't think it all that strange because I thought everything about school was bloody weird anyway.
Posted by: Steve | 31 October 2005 at 10:59 AM
Stevo in Taichung is right about the early '70s experiment with GMT+1 through the winter. It folded after a couple of years, partly on complaints from Scottish farmers - something about feeding cows in the dark. So every winter, we move on to "Scottish cow time". Here we are again!
Posted by: Sam Roony | 31 October 2005 at 11:00 AM
Really wish everyone would just leave the clocks alone. As an example yesterday, our poor dog walked around with that "hang-dog" look on his face, thinking that we forgot to feed him.
Posted by: "Alice" | 31 October 2005 at 11:03 AM
Would all you whingers please just get up whenever you want and go to bed whenever you want and call it whatever time you care to call it and LEAVE THE REST OF US ALONE?
Please?
Posted by: Andrew Duffin | 31 October 2005 at 03:42 PM
Andrew, I assume you must be idle rich or unemployed. Most of us can't just get up and go to bed when we want to, we have to fit in around the rest of society.
Posted by: Steve | 31 October 2005 at 03:49 PM
Joe90,
A fair point, though you should try getting small children to sleep when it is bright daylight outside at 10pm...
Still, can't grumble - I only come down to London to remind myself what an excellent decision it was to move back home to Scotland....
Toodle Pip!
P-G
Posted by: The Pedant-General | 31 October 2005 at 04:08 PM
"It is no coincidence that those European countries on the same latitude as the UK choose a time zone one hour ahead." No coincidence indeed, but it might relate to their being east of us, do you think?
Posted by: dearieme | 01 November 2005 at 01:32 AM
France and Spain aren't east of us.
Posted by: Steve | 01 November 2005 at 10:31 AM