GMT or BST/DST?

[Irene]

I hate this time changing!

 

What would you vote for if we had the option to choose one or the other?

 

... BST for me.  

[AlanHo]

GMT for me - it would keep us at least an hour away from Brussels.

[-pops-]

There is CET (Central European Time) which operates in a similar fashion to BST/GMT and there is a one hour difference between the two.

 

It used to be when I lived in France that the time changeover was one week different Europe/UK so that for one week in the spring the times matched and for one autumn week there was a two-hour difference. I found that particularly confusing as I always seemed to be travelling on those weeks. I could accommodate the main one hour difference but the two-hour and the time match caused my body clock great problems.

 

Nowadays I don't have too much of a problem BST or GMT. Time has nowhere near the same importance as it used to have. I get up when I want and go to bed when I want. If I have any outside appointments I make sure they are for a middle part of the day so that I can be certain I am up and about although I usually get up very early in the day (five o'clock or so)

[Irene]

My reason for choosing BST is that I hate the even earlier close of day during the GMT period.  

 

If I could had the power, I would change the sun rise and sunset to permanent values. 

I would love full daylight to be at 7am and sunset to be at 9pm.  Sadly, we do not have those powers.  

[catgate]

I think the man who introduced this silliness should be castigated with a BLUNT KNIFE !!!!

[Irene]

12 hours ago, catgate said:

I think the man who introduced this silliness should be castigated with a BLUNT KNIFE !!!!

This might be of interest you...

 

Quote

 

Daylight Saving: Whose idea was it?

Edwardian builder William Willett introduced the idea of British Summer Time, also known as Daylight Saving Time, in 1907.

 

A keen supporter of the outdoors, he noticed that during the summer people were still asleep when the sun had risen and wanted to stop Brits from wasting valuable daylight hours. Back then the clocks were set to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) meaning it was light by 3am and dark at 9pm midsummer. 

Willett published a pamphlet called 'The Waste of Daylight' in a bid to get people out of bed earlier by changing the nation’s clocks, arguing it would not only improve health and happiness but it would save the country £2.5 million.

William Willett laid out a serious proposition for the daylight saving scheme 

He proposed that the clocks should be advanced by 80 minutes in four incremental steps during April and reversed the same way during September. However, his idea was ridiculed and the Daylight Saving Bill got nowhere in Parliament when it was introduced in 1909. 

Willett, however, would not be deterred. He spent the rest of his life trying to convince people his scheme was a good one. Sadly, he died of the flu in 1915 at the age of 58; a year before Germany adopted his clock-changing plan on April 30, 1916 when the clocks were put forward at 11pm. Britain followed suit a month later on May 21 and Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and Turkey all followed.

Home Office poster announcing restoration of Greenwich Time, 1916

By then Britain and Germany had been fighting each other in the First World War (1914-18), and a system that could take pressure off the economy and conserve fuel was worth trying.

 

The Summer Time Act of 1916 was quickly passed by Parliament and the first day of British Summer Time, 21 May 1916, was widely reported in the press.

Back then the hands on many of the clocks could not be turned back without breaking the mechanism. Instead, owners had to put the clock forward by 11 hours when Summer Time came to an end on 1 October 1916.

Willett's pamphlet

The Home Office put out special posters telling people how to reset their clocks to GMT and national newspapers also gave advice.

Willett, who died at his home near near Bromley in Kent,  is commemorated for his efforts by a memorial sundial in nearby Petts Wood, set permanently to Daylight Saving Time.

The Daylight Inn in Petts Wood is named in his honour and there's a road there called Willett Way.

Willett wasn't alone in realising the potential of utilising wasted daylight hours. As far back as 1784, Benjamin Franklin, one of America's Founding Fathers, had written a letter to the Journal of Paris making fun of the fact people were sleeping through daylight and burning candles and fuel for light at night. Franklin even suggested a tax on shuttered windows and public alarm clocks to solve the problem.

 

 

Source: More info HERE -  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/0/time-do-clocks-go-back-weekend-do-still-change/  

[andsome]

I am quite happy with the twice a year changed. Nice to have the later nightfall in the summer.

[catgate]

The entire idea of switching time is an insult to the intelligence of mankind.

If it is important that the timing of the working day should be advanced, then let us leave the clock alone, and just get up (and go to bed) an hour earlier (or two if you are greedy)

[Irene]

It takes several days for my 'body-clock' to adjust - it is still operating on Summer Time.  

 

My brain, such as it is, insists on waking an hour earlier than the current adjusted hour. 

 

...Perhaps I am an extreme follower of habitual behaviour.     

[AlanHo]

Surely, with the clocks going back - that's the wrong way round.

 

7:00 am today was 8:00 am last week. Hence if you are now waking at an hour before the current time - say 6:00 am - that is a slip of 2 hours.

 

(I'm probably wrong - my brain wiring is jumbled up today).

[Irene]

  The whole perishing thing is thoroughly confusing.  

 

My usual wake up time last week was around 7am, which is now 6am.  The trouble then is I am looking for my bed in the evening at 8pm instead of 9pm.  My stubborn brain just will not adjust... yet.  

 

By the way, I don't sleep 10 hours per night. 

I wake throughout the night - about every couple of hours - because of fluid retention.  ...OK, I know, too much information!  

[AlanHo]

Is it red wine or white?

[Irene]

23 minutes ago, AlanHo said:

Is it red wine or white?

  Red tonight...  

[morty]

I know one thing ... it's a right pain for an astrologer when calculating a chart.

Because ... in Autumn someone can be born from 1AM to 2AM .. and then another batch can be born again from 1AM to 2AM.

But in spring there's an hour when no one can be born.

 

 Hee..hee I was teasing there. It's simpler to always work in UT/GMT.

 

I can't remember it myself but wasn't there a trial in the late 1960's , early 70's to see what it would be like without it?

 

[Gandalph]

I've voted, but really couldn't care less. Time to me is just something on the face of a clock. It has never bothered me in the past as I have worked all hour's. 

[D4\/!d]

1 hour ago, Gandalph said:

Time to me is just something on the face of a clock.

I have stopped using a clock and I cannot read a watch face without specs. These days I just use a Calendar.

[Gandalph]

Good for you David. I think that would do for me as well as I don't stick to any time tables apart from Doctor's appointments and the like.