To ask if we can stop dicking about with the clocks?

[ThirdElephant]

Just that, really. I'm up at 4:30 for the second day in a row because of this clock nonsense. Changing bedtime is not adjusting wake-up time, just resulting in a tired infant. Can we all just leave the clocks where they are from now on?

I like going back to GMT in the autumn. Why not just stick with it and keep GMT all year? Activities can be moved to a different time if needs be. The sun is highest in the sky at 12 noon with GMT, which seems best.

Biscoff, where I live most children are definitely not driven to school.

I’m all up for stopping changing the clocks - as long as it’s always BST

Have you tried holding in the plus and minus button at the same time on the cooker? That gets the time change option on ours

It’s worth remembering that there is about an hour’s difference between dawn and dusk times from the north to south of the uk anyway. By the winter solstice, there’s only about 6 hours of daylight in northern Scotland; it does makes sense to align them with normal waking hours as much as possible.

But surely with only six hours of daylight that's going to happen anyway. Whether hours of light are 8-2, 9-3, or 10-4, it's still normal waking hours.

I remember the trial of permanent BST. We thought it was great not messing around with the clocks, we thought it was a real shame when it stopped.

Lois I hate the long summer days as get woken really early and can't sleep at night. Had to move north for work but the longer/shorter days is one of the few things that I hate.

While I do understand and appreciate the brighter mornings, for me, if I had to choose, I'd choose longer daylight in the afternoon. Because let's face it, if it's light at 7:30, I'm still not going to get up at 6am so that I can take the dog for a walk or go for a run in the dark but f it stayed light in the evenings until 5:30 or so I'd conceivably be able to squeeze a quick one in later. Also, for children, I'd rather they walked in the dark in the morning than the afternoon. Appreciate for junior school less of an issue but eg DS starts year 7 next year and if he stays after school for football practice or whatever, he'll then have to walk home in the dark. As someone said upthread - you don't tend to hear of people being mugged at 7am....

I’ve just googled and the experiment of year around BST was actually over three years from 1968-1971.

@risefromyourgrave

I’m sure they had a trial where they didn’t change them one year. My mum has said about it, she said it was horrible.

I remember it, it was the 1960s but I can't remember the year. I can't remember why they went back, might have a google.

@BiscoffAddict

I’ve just googled and the experiment of year around BST was actually over three years from 1968-1971.

Saved me googling it. I didn't remember it was 3 years but I probably don't remember lots of things that far back.

I once had babies and toddlers and bemoaned this but now my 14 and 11 year old leave the house at 7am to get the public bus to the next town for secondary I am relieved they aren’t leaving in the dark. Before the pandemic they left at 7.20 but the bus service has been cut.

All those moaning about tired toddlers, you will be thankful the clocks change when they go to school, unless you don’t mind them walking home in the dark when they are 11 because your second child goes to a different primary school and you can’t be in 2 places at once and the 6 year old can’t walk home alone

Still, only 7 weeks until the Shortest Day!

You sound like me, counting the days until peak darkness so I can look forward to longer days. Unfortunately sunrise continues to get later until about January 6th. I hate dark mornings, there's nothing like being out with the dog when the sun is up and everyone else is still in bed.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30549149

Nearly every country in the world changes their clocks. I want this time to stay. The past two weeks has been so dark in the mornings so hard to get up and motivate to do things. If Summer time stays it will be 10am in the morning before it will get bright. If you give the time we have no you still get your brighter evenings in the summer time.

It’s to do with light, not how much cows do or don’t sleep.

As long as southern England is happy to hell with the rest of us ! We have very few daylight hours here in winter, even one hour makes a huge difference to the quality of lives.

@ColinTheKoala

Women don't usually get attacked in the mornings, predators like their lie-ins. Seriously, it's far more likely to happen at night.

What time does night start? I mean is it more dangerous at 5 pm or is it later, I think it is getting dark at 4 pm in December and I wouldn't call that night.

The EU said everyone should stop though so there are some murmurings about next year being the last time and then us staying on British Summer Time.

If we are going to pick a time, I hope it's GMT (UTC) rather than BST. It would be ironic and stupid for the time that is used around the world as the ultimate reference point not to be used in the country that invented it.

Shifting the clock was invented in a time when (I think) most people didn't even own watches. With todays technology and communications, everyone always knows the time and can easily find out the opening hours of the places they need to be, so it would be perfectly possibly to vary the times of everything (schools, work, shops) throughout the year as daylight hours change without actually changing the clock. For that same reason, it doesn't actually matter what time zone we adopt, so we might as well go for the one with some history to it.

I remember it being a nightmare when my kids were small. But I do appreciate the change now though - both kids at secondary and one has to leave at 7.30 (SN school some distance away).

Having said that isn't there generally a spike in heart attacks and car accidents the week after the clocks change?

We had permanent BST as an experiment - I think it was in the '70s.
I think it was stopped because the Scots didn't like it.

I agree we should stop changing them - but we need to leave them on BST not on GMT so that it's lighter in the evenings.

@UsedUpUsername

I lived many places that didn’t and it always got dark earlier than I expected. I kind of value that extra hour of sunshine in the evening

Yes!!! Extra sun in the afternoon is better! For commerce, for getting home from school safely, ....

This is a nonsense!!! Especially in the UK!! It doesn't change at all the fact that we get a very small number of sunlight hours!! So farmers wake up earlier but they still don't get any more sun!

@Platax

It’s worth remembering that there is about an hour’s difference between dawn and dusk times from the north to south of the uk anyway. By the winter solstice, there’s only about 6 hours of daylight in northern Scotland; it does makes sense to align them with normal waking hours as much as possible.

But surely with only six hours of daylight that's going to happen anyway. Whether hours of light are 8-2, 9-3, or 10-4, it's still normal waking hours.

Having those 6 hours of daylight 9-3 makes the most sense, aligns with school hours. Means kids are moving in dawn / dusk rather than one end of the day being complete darkness.

@Georgyporky

We had permanent BST as an experiment - I think it was in the '70s. I think it was stopped because the Scots didn't like it.

I think you'll find it was more than just the Scots, Northern England and Northern Ireland don't like the dark mornings either.