Should we stop clocks going back?

[WarmFunKindStrong]

This practice is outdated, no longer needed (farmers have lights on their farming equipment etc). The country would reduce energy costs as we would not need to turn on the lights so soon in the evening.

AIBU to want to the UK to choose a time and stick with it?

I think the bigger question is not whether the clocks should go back on Sunday (back to normal GMT from which all time zones derive), rather whether they should go forward +1 hour in March to BST. Maybe we should do away with BST (although that means it'd be light at about 3:30am in the summer)

I am in Scotland and I would loooooove if clocks didnt go back.
The long dark evenings kill me.

Given that BST was introduced during WW1 to give farmer longer hours of daylight, couldn't agree more @BridgetJonesDaiquiri . But then it was only in the 80s we got rid of licensing hours designed to stop munitions workers getting drunk and then going back to work,

I'd rather stay on GMT if we're picking a timezone. Can't really explain why, it just feels better? 😂

I'm in Scotland (Central Belt) and I was one of those kids who was involved in the experiment in the 1960s, going to school in our reflective tabards - and I support staying on BST (as did my parents back then, with the headmaster of the primary school who practically threatened them with Social Services ) . I much prefer having slightly lighter evenings than it getting lighter in the morning especially at weekends

Iirc, the results of the experiment were that 300 children's lives could be saved if we stayed on BST: drivers are tireder/more complacent in the evening, so it reduced the accidents then more than it increased the morning accidents. Don't know how that would equate today with significantly more cars on the road but fewer children walking to school independently.

From a personal practical point of view, I'd rather have more time in the afternoon at weekends to garden

Interesting in Iceland, they only have about 4 hours of semi daylight in winter (in Reykjavik) which is between 12 and 4 because they stay on the same time all year round: the equivalent of double summer time in summer and summer time in winter (as they are further West than us)

So YANBU

Not a terrible practical solution, and along those lines could we actually hold off on changing them until the end of November too

Why is it not practical - it could easily be changed with effect from 2024, can't be done before because of airline schedules etc. An extra three weeks with extra evening daylight would be great.

And I don't think we could hold off changing them until the end of November because the mornings are too dark, even in the south-east, so they will be even darker elsewhere (including the south-west).

I'd like to stay on summer time. I'd rather have some daylight in the afternoon than the morning. Especially on weekends when I'm unlikely to be out of bed early.

Not sure if there’s been some confusion. I meant it was a good idea, and yeah would love the extra evening daylight.

Finding the whole topic quite interesting, because we are a relatively long thin island the differences are pretty big, so interestingly a lot of us in Scotland are saying we would happily take the darker mornings, because when light starts to disappear at 2.30pm mid winter it’s thoroughly depressing!

I much prefer lighter mornings. I struggle to get going without some light. I've always been an early riser/early to bed type and I get my "me time" exercise in the morning (and don't tend to leave the house once I'm home from work) so wouldn't want to be on bst year round.

@Poppyblush

Didn’t they test this in the seventies for a few years and accidents with kids rose dramatically as a direct link, as it was dark when kids went to school, were tired and not as aware as they would be later in the day?
^^^^^
You are quiet right

I can vaguely remember this.
I was about 5.
Pitch black mornings starting school.
It was years before I realised it was an experiment and not some usual weather conditions one year

I think it's a bit old fashioned. I don't care if we go for GMT or BST I just think we should pick one and stick with it all year

I think we should pick BST and stick with it all year. Preferably double BST from February to November.

I bloody hate winter.

My DC were at school from 8.15 - 5.30 (independent schools). So it was always dark anyway when they were walking to and from school. I'd love GMT to be abolished.

Ours need to be on in the morning regardless, we are both gone by 8am.

I'd rather have light in the morning do looking forward to it. But by the time December rolls round it's dark going to and coming home from school (train at 7.30, back at 5.

I wouldn’t see daylight so all if we didn’t move. It wouldn’t get light till I am I. Work and off would still get dark before my finish time of 5.30 even with an hour of added daylight. I’m in Scotland and I would end up really depressed. At least seeing since daylight at the start of the day for a while helps.

YABU - I live for that extra hour!

NE Scotland

It's safer here if they do.

Kids go to school in daylight and come home in daylight.

We need the clock change up here.

I would love it if we stayed on BST

We get up in the dark anyway. I would prefer a lighter afternoon. We are in Northern Scotland.

Sunrise is currently 8.10am and sunset 5.36pm

So from this weekend it will change

Kids leave school at 3.15pm and are mostly home before dark which is roughly 4.30pm in winter in nE Scotland

So they all go to and from school in daylight after clocks Change

I'm a child of the 60's and remember when they had this experiment back in the 70's.

I lived in the North of Scotland and we were all issued reflective arms bands. The smell of a certain kind of plastic takes me right back to those mornings.

It was hell! Going to school in the pitch black. Crocodile lines of little children walking to school with the parents holding torches. Awful.

It's pitch black currently when I'm driving to work so am looking forward the clocks going back so I get some lighter mornings for a few more weeks.

My kids leave the house at 7.50 for school, I much prefer that being in daylight hours, especially when it gets icy. Where as they are home 3 days a week at 3.30 so will be light, and 2 days at 4.15/20 the other days so getting dark then.

It's getting dark here just after 6 currently so haven't understood the argument that it means getting evenings back. In the height of winter it's dark just after 4 so just after 5 in British summer time.

Any change would have to be done in conjunction with the Republic of Ireland (and possibly the EU), otherwise you'd have two different times on the island of Ireland and that wouldn't be politically acceptable ... so will probably never happen.

People who like getting up for work in the dark need their bumps feeling! I suffer from SAD and the dark mornings are especially tough!