Should the clocks have gone back? Poll discussion/results

jackieb

I missed this poll. I would have voted to keep changing them. I'm Scottish so I suppose that makes a difference. In December the sun doesn't rise here until almost 9am. That's bad enough. I wouldn't want it still to be dark at 10 in the morning.

chunkymunky_3

jackieb wrote: »

I missed this poll. I would have voted to keep changing them. I'm Scottish so I suppose that makes a difference. In December the sun doesn't rise here until almost 9am. That's bad enough. I wouldn't want it still to be dark at 10 in the morning.

one way you suffer, the other way i suffer, maybe we can meet half way, put the clocks forward/backward half an hour

jackieb

21 Dec 2007 08:04 15:53 7h 49m 42s (sunrise/sunset/total daylight hours) - London

21 Dec 2007 08:46 15:27 6h 40m 40s
- Aberdeen

This is just an example of 2 places in the UK. London still gets 1hr 9m more daylight as it is. It would still be dark at 9am in London if the clocks didn't change. Would that be okay? And of course the further north you go the worse it gets.

yogayogi_2

EXCUSE ME, BUT MAYBE YOU'RE ALL MISSING THE REAL POINT!

HOW MANY times a week/month/year does the average Scot/non-Scot telephone the other country??

I frequently phone from England to France, Spain, even Australia - but almost never to Scotland. And I'm sure for most people it's the same.

Given that, WHY NEED ENGLAND & SCOTLAND CLOCKS BE SET TO THE SAME TIME??

Each country (Scotland, England) should set its clocks to suit itself. Almost everyone in the other country WON'T NOTICE. In fact, being on the same time as Europe would be a big help to English businesses - as well as reducing energy costs dramatically.

Scottish businesses (such as call centres) who deal with England probably already answer wider than 9-5, so an hour change wouldn't matter to them; others would adapt if it proved necessary.

GMT made sense when the only way to tell time was the sun (so midday was when the sun was at its highest) and when people got up when it became light and went to bed when it got dark.
But the world doesn't do that now. Most of the world's 6 billion people sleep through the first couple of hours of daylight (or more), then consume vast quantities of energy lighting and heating homes for several hours after dark before going to bed. For example, most of the tropics has daylight from 5am to 7pm. What use is that?!

Clocks worldwide should be reset to double/triple summer time so we stop living in the dark. Until that happens, let's make a start by setting clocks sensibly in Scotland and England.

yogayogi

jackieb

I have no problem with Scotland and England having their own time zones. I don't like feeling guilty just because I don't want it still to be dark mid-morning. I'm sure if the shoe was on the other foot most of you would feel the same.

Unless it's summertime I don't think most people sleep through the first couple of hours of daylight. If that were the case I would have got up after 10am this morning. Most people have school or work to go too. I don't think we're responsible for the rest of the world's time zones, so I it doesn't concern us.

Gordon861

CopperPlate wrote: »

As I said before, I think all this discussion is academic, as we don't have the option to NOT put the clocks back since the EU has legislated (albeit in secondary form via Directives, but nevertheless, this still has to be incorporated into our own law, so the essence of it and its intention will have to be followed) for summer time arrangements so as one country we can't just please ourselves and do our own thing.

Considering the fight they had just trying to get people to include prices in metric I can't imagine the fight this is going to cause.

Personally most of my clocks are on GMT and stay there all year round. Only ones I change are the morning alarm clock and my watch, most of the time the only thing you need to know is how far into the current hour you are anyways, so it's just the minutes that are important.

If I want to record something on TV just highlight it on SKY+ and press record, don't care what the actual time is.

Leave the lot on GMT/UTC and be done with it, if you are a farmer working for yourself you can decide to milk the cows an hour earlier/later or even 30mins if you want whenever you want.

GiveItBack

yogayogi wrote: »

EXCUSE ME, BUT MAYBE YOU'RE ALL MISSING THE REAL POINT!

HOW MANY times a week/month/year does the average Scot/non-Scot telephone the other country??

Iyogayogi

Several times a day. What was your point?

but seriously, we could work round it.

Mudskipper_2

Scandinavia works fine on Europe time. Come winter, its dark till the afternoon and dark from early afternoon, if you go far enough north, its dark all day/ night, difficult to tell which is which. So all the arguments here regarding safety etc are spurious, we survived just fine, cows and goats got milked whether its dark or light and work gets done. Its all down to choice and personally I'd prefer to get some light in the afternoon so I can do things outside when I get home, then hopefully I won't get SAD. None of us do any gardening before we go to work do we?!

Cacran

If we go on discussing it for long enough BST will be here, nights and mornings will be lighter and the Sun just might be shining......just a thought!

chunkymunky_3

Mudskipper wrote: »

Scandinavia works fine on Europe time. Come winter, its dark till the afternoon and dark from early afternoon, if you go far enough north, its dark all day/ night, difficult to tell which is which. So all the arguments here regarding safety etc are spurious!

scandinavia and the other nordic countries have very high suicide rates,just look at finland the long hours of darkness are widely seen, though admittedly not proven, to be to blame