If the clocks didn’t change, would you prefer BST or GMT?

[Rainbowheart1]

If they decided we wasn’t going to change the clocks anymore would you prefer this time staying GMT (being as the summer time has lots of daylight anyway) or would you prefer to always be on BST?

YABU -this time GMT
YANBU- BST

@JudgeJ I noticed this too late and I was running behind .

BST

I mean on SKY channels .

@Mycatismadeofstringcheese

We could split the difference by half an hour and be GMT+0.5 all year round, just to be awkward and out of step with everyone else.

Except India - they're GMT + 4.5

Either. BST, GMT, heck I’d move to EST if it would just stop moving. It’s absurd to move clocks, farmers or whoever should just move the timing of their activity instead if it’s so important not to milk cows in the dark. You get the same number of hours of daylight regardless.

Except India - they're GMT + 4.5

And South Australia and the Northern Territory which are +9.5 or +10.5

Another vote for BST here.

@GunsNShips

Being dumb, what difference would it make? Surely it would be the same but shifted by about 3 weeks? So the travelling in the dark mornings would still happen, just three weeks later. And the summer evenings would again be better light it would just peak 3 weeks earlier/later (my brain can’t quite work that out!)

That's exactly what I don't get when we hear protests from Scotland about how any proposed change would affect road safety for school kids. If schools in the far north are worried about kids travelling in the dark, why don't they just set their teaching hours to reflect daylight hours? Then the whole country doesn't have to dig out the car manual twice a year to work out how to change the clock, you just change your alarm (as I have to do every day anyway because I work shifts).

The days are shorter in Scotland in the middle of winter so starting school later would mean they would finish after dark (day length in N Scotland is about 6.5 hours in midwinter vs nearly 8 hours in Southern England).

@sbhydrogen

British Summer Time allllll year round, thanks.

I would also wish for a British Summer all year round, but that's not what the OP asked 🤣

Does it have to be the British Summer? Can't we have something a little less rainy?

Absolutely GMT, for us PST. I truly hate the sun still shining at nearly 10:30 at night in the summer, and the dark dark mornings right now.

We apparently are going to stick with summer time (we call it Daylight time in Canada). This is supposed to be the last time we switch to standard time (next week, we are later than the UK).

We had a referendum but of course no real choice. They just asked if we wanted to stick with daylight time all year.

It really annoyed me not to be given a proper choice.

It is so hard to get up in the pitch dark and cold.

@DdraigGoch because that sound mean it being dark in Scotland in midwinter before hometime for schools 🤦🏻‍♀️. GMT is the timeline we should be following naturally. We don’t get enough hours to ‘just change school hours’ what about working parents who then can’t drop off kids till after 10am? Maybe just learn how to set your car clock, I did it today without referring to the manual. The manual is also in my glove box so doesn’t need much ‘digging out’.

I’ve never understood why the clocks go back 2 months before winter solstice but we have to wait 3 months after to wind them on again. I’d be happy if they went forward at the end of February instead.

GMT. Getting up before dawn is miserable and unnatural, let's keep it to a minimum.

[quote notimagain]Wasn’t the approach in olden times that everywhere had it's own time?

Yep based on the local position of the Sun (roughly speaking, to a first approximation, local Noon was deemed to be when the Sun was due south in the sky at that location)

All supposedly had to standardized in the Uk with the arrival of the railways….

www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/d.html[/quote]
Yes, if you were catching a train you needed to be following the railway companies time, not local time (bearing in mind that the guard of a London-Bristol train would have seen about ten minutes worth of mini-time zone change in his journey and he only has one watch). So railways standardized on GMT in 1847 but it took until 1880 for it to be officially adopted for other purposes (what time polling booths open being one). To this day, the Corn Exchange clock in Bristol has two minute hands, one showing "Railway Time" (GMT) and the other showing local time.

[quote BashfulClam]@DdraigGoch because that sound mean it being dark in Scotland in midwinter before hometime for schools 🤦🏻‍♀️. GMT is the timeline we should be following naturally. We don’t get enough hours to ‘just change school hours’ what about working parents who then can’t drop off kids till after 10am? Maybe just learn how to set your car clock, I did it today without referring to the manual. The manual is also in my glove box so doesn’t need much ‘digging out’.[/quote]
If there are six hours of daylight in Scotland in the winter, it doesn't matter whether we adopt GMT, BST or Eastern Pacific Time, there will still only be six hours of daylight in Scotland. Just arrange your lives to best match with the daylight available in a way which suits you.

Just arrange your lives to best match with the daylight available in a way which suits you.

Well why don't we stick to GMT and all the people in the SE who want to sit out in daylight in their 'warm summer evenings' just set their alarm to get up an hour earlier and negotiate to shift their hours with their employer so they have more time after work. It's daft to run the entire country an hour or more earlier than it really is, if Bristol is 11 minutes behind Greenwich then think how far behind Edinburgh, Glasgow or Belfast are. The practical issues in the north and west of the country should be more important than the social life of rich Londoners (where there is so much light pollution they have no idea how dark it gets in the winter and why it's important to be at GMT in the winter).

Isn’t GMT the “real time” in some sense (at noon sun directly overhead at the middle of the timezone)?

Definitely GMT. The limited light in the winter is better spent in the morning. In the summer there’s enough light to go around, we need thick curtains both mornings and evenings anyway!!

Dont mind although be good if same time as my car clock as no idea how to change that!

@ditavonteesed

GMT because that's what the clock in my car is and I have no idea how to change it.

@mellongoose

Surely this thread implies that the great British public cannot even decide decisively on this simple question, so it should probably stay the same as it is.

I really don't mind changing the clocks. I quite like it as a quirky twice yearly ritual and something to look forward to as the seasons change. No biggy for me!

This!

It shows exactly why we change the clocks twice a year - advantages to some at each change.

If we had to choose one, for me it is gmt. Would rather be able to get to work in daylight for the majority of the year abs have kids go to school in daylight too.

Definitely GMT.

I'm in the North West and would hate to get up and work for two hours everyday before it got light, only to finish after it got dark as well.

I much prefer lighter mornings in winter.

@JaninaDuszejko time difference is how far east or west you are of the Greenwich line, not how far north you are. At midday, the sun will be at its highest point in the sky all along that line running north to south. In Scotland the sun just doesn’t get as high up from the horizon compared with those further south so the days over all are shorter but everyone’s midday happens at the same.

@MaybeAMoaner

When the OP says “we wasn’t going to change the clocks” That’s wrong isn’t it? Shouldn’t it be “we weren’t going to change the clocks?”

Genuine question, not being goady. I might be wrong.

Yes, "we weren't" is correct in standard English because the question is hypothetical so the subjunctive form of the verb should be used. OP may be using a colloquialism.

BST I'd rather have light evenings