Back to the darkness

On Sunday,  we will plunge ourselves into darkness for the next five months,  as we do at the end of every October.  For the sake of a few Scottish farmers,  we will move the mid-point of our daylight to a time that is well short of the middle of most people's waking hours.  The result will be daylight in the morning, when we don't need it,  and darkness from the late afternoon.

As I explained last year,  it's a stupid waste of daylight.  We should leave our clocks set an hour ahead of GMT and abandon this annual ritual of gloom.

Comments

[Dave]

A guy on skynews was arguing for us being one hour ahead of GMT in winter, and one hour ahead of BST in summer, ie Central European time although he didn't say that..

Do you think that would be a good idea, or just better not to change times at all?

[Steve]

Dave, i'm less bothered about the summer.

There is a logic in being 2 hours ahead of GMT in summer as it would take some of the light from the early hours of the morning and enable us to enjoy it in the evening. Having the middle of the daylight at 2pm is probably closer to the middle of most people's days.

That said, for much of the high summer, it wouldn't get dark until after midnight in the northern half of Britain. even in London, it would probably be light until 10.30. Most of People might not like going to bed in the light.

The argument for a single EU time zone has been blown away by the eastward expansion. In any case, Russia, America and others run across a number of timezones, so it can't be that difficult.

I'd settle for setting the clocks to GMT+1 and leaving them there all year.

[James G]

I loved it living in Portugal when they experienced CET for a year or so. Out on the beaches until 10 pm or so.

Fantastic!

We should just let the Scots secede and have their own time zone, though.

[Leo]

Ditto. We need to quit this nonsense here in the states as well. It's even worse b/c some states don't abide by so there is confusion.

[G. Tingey]

BOLLOCKS.

Having it darker in the mornings, and lighter in the evenings, even in London, when at the minimum, there are only 8 hours of full daylight, means you can ony fiddle with when the "light hours are....
And Dark in the morning means more, not less road-deaths.

The thought of it not being sunrise until after 09.00 in mid-December is ghastly.

Bloody well grow up!

[Dave]

I like the idea of it being an hour later in the summer, in the summer it gets light at 4am and goes starts to go dark after 9:30pm most of the time apart from the height of summer when its a bit after 10pm.

It would be great if that extra light was not wasted in the morning and we had guaranteed light evenings.

[Steve]

GT - I know there are only a set number of daylight hours. That's my point. Wasting some of them while we are still in bed is what is so bloody stupid.

Where's your evidence about dark mornings meaning more road deaths than dark evenings? ROSPA say just the opposite.

[Leo]

This is ridiculous. It was effectively dark by 6:30 this afternoon. Unbelievably depressing. This is civilizational inertia at it's worst. There is no point to beginning the evening 4 hours earlier in the winter than in the summer. I am in the states now, but my grandfather said that the reason they did in Russia was to save on electricity in the morning. Apparently, if you wake up and it's daylight, you waste less electricity on lights. I always thought, as Steve mentioned, that it was so farmers could wake up and work on their crops earliers. So 99% of the population has to suffer so a couple of farmers don't sleep in. This is insanity.

[AgainsTTheWall]

There is a curious imbalance in the way the time change is applied. GMT comes in around 55 days before the winter solstice. One could be forgiven for thinking that the change back to BST would be 55 days afterwards ie around mid-Feb. Of course we get an extra 6 weeks of GMT before BST returns at the end of March. Anyone know why?

[Paul of Suffolk]

I agree with not changing the clocks, but let's stick to good old GMT !

[Steve]

But Paul, it's GMT that's the problem. It puts the middle of our daylight at 12 o'clock, which is no longer the middle of most people's day.

Sticking with GMT would just entrench the problem.

[Alison]

I didnt realise we had, in theory at least, the option i must admit..interesting post Steve. Id much rather have the extra daylight at the end of the day. I *hate* walking home in the dark.