Clocks go back

Granger, are you going to start the countdown for Cheltenham once the NH season is " really back" Are you wishing your life away :)
 
An unmerciful copy and paste job..

It's all to do with saving the hours of daylight, and was started by a chap called William Willett, a London builder, who lived in Petts Wood in Kent.
Basically, he reckoned that you could improve the population's health and happiness by putting forward the clocks by twenty minutes every Sunday in April and do the opposite in September.
Economies

His idea was not taken up, even though a 'Daylight Saving Bill' was introduced some five years before the outbreak of World War One. But once the war started, it was considered prudent to economise, to promote greater efficiency in using daylight hours, and in the use of artificial lighting. And so in 1916, 'Daylight Saving Time' was introduced.

Even though most countries abandoned this after that war, some eventually decided that it was a good idea, and most of these nations began to keep it throughout the year.

Since 1972, Britain has decided to go with Greenwich Mean Time in winter, and British Summer Time in Summer. But back in 1968, Britain tried a four-year experiment by advancing time one hour ahead of GMT throughout the year.
But those living further north, particularly in Scotland, found it most unsatisfactory, with dark mornings for much of the year, and the experiment was dropped.
 
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I can't understand why people think it's a waste of time - if the clocks weren't put back, it wouldn't get light until almost 9am on some days! Not a lot of good for those of us up early to ride/do animals etc and not at all good for kids on their way to school.

Besides which, a lot of people seem to think it is something that is done exclusively in the UK - Europe also put their clocks back in the autumn and forward in the spring.
 
Not much good for the body's clock though. GP's get a lot of people in suffering from something vaguely referred to as "summer fatigue". GMT is natural time to our geographical location and our body's rhythms are more in tune with that.

I did hear the other day that Jersey was making a move to ditch BST and that if they managed it, the rest of the UK would probably follow rather than lose business. I wasn't paying much attention so don't know all the ins and outs. Anyone else hear this?
 
redhead said:
Not much good for the body's clock though. GP's get a lot of people in suffering from something vaguely referred to as "summer fatigue". GMT is natural time to our geographical location and our body's rhythms are more in tune with that.

I did hear the other day that Jersey was making a move to ditch BST and that if they managed it, the rest of the UK would probably follow rather than lose business. I wasn't paying much attention so don't know all the ins and outs. Anyone else hear this?
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Precisely, if anything is likely to be ditched it will be BST, not GMT, yet all the talk I've heard (on here and on the radio) is "why bother putting the clocks back, why not leave them as they are for the winter?" with people patently ignoring the fact that leaving the time as it was involves not having BST since GMT is the standard!!!!

Mind you, I'm not so sure I'd like it getting light at 3am, in high summer, would anyone else??

I'm not sure it would fit in with Europe - who also employs daylight saving time - either if we were to scrap BST. That would make the time difference two hours with the continent and I'm not sure that would work so well in business. I'd say the Government would have an eye more on Europe that Jersey when it comes to changing these things since the differences in the amounts [and value of] business done with the two regions would be colossal.
 
Choose one or the other (or one in the middle) and stick with it. Racing changes it's times to fit around the light, as do so many other industries, so why should it be such a big deal with a business changing it's opening times to fit with the light rather than the reverse.

Moses and mountains etc...
 
What about animals?? If it's dark until nearly 9am, that makes it an hour later we can ride out.

Ditto schools - should they open an hour later because of the darker mornings?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
 
Shadow Leader said:
Mind you, I'm not so sure I'd like it getting light at 3am, in high summer, would anyone else??
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It doesn't get dark in the far north of Scotland at midsummer, just a sort of greyish twilight, even at 1.00 in the morning.

I suppose our systems would adjust automatically to the varying degrees of daylight at different times of the year.
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My system doesn't/hasn't and in 30 years!!!! I hate the 4am sunrises, the light often wakes me up.
 
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Shadow Leader said:
My system doesn't/hasn't and in 30 years!!!! I hate the 4am sunrises, the light often wakes me up.
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Which is worse, though, Shadow - getting up to a bright morning (remember those?), or pitch black (and probably raining)?

It's a long while since I worked with horses, but I remember preferring an early start in the summer to one in the winter!

Mind you, there are early starts and early starts, I suppose.
 
Erm, what you have said favours the method I would rather use - the tried and trusted one! Can't say I get up and ride at 4am anyway so in the summer leaving the clocks at GMT wouldn't make any difference to when they're ridden.

Besides which, as we have ascertained already, GMT is standard so the issue isn't whether or not we would scrap putting the clocks back in the autumn in the first place.

I'm quite happy with BST also - as I said, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I'd rather the way it is now so we utlilised the light at the end of the day rather than the sun coming up at 3 and losing an extra usable daylight hour - can't say I'll be getting up at 3-4am to utilise the extra light! That's before we take into account the continent, it would then put us 2 hours adrift of Europe, presumably with business implications.
 
Sorry, didn't make myself plain enough. It was just a question regarding your personal preference for summer/winter starts, nothing to do with pratting about with the clocks. Wouldn't dream of getting up at 4am, it only confuses the animals anyway.
 
Oh, right. Bit of a no-brainer that one then, find me someone who prefers getting up early in the dark in the winter when it's cold and raining! :D
 
My point is that you still have the same amount of sunlight regardless of the time of the clock whether it gets light at 5am or 12 noon. Simply change the working hours to suit - and when it comes to fitting in with the business hours of Europe/USA/Asia, shouldn't these companies be doing this anyway?
 
...and my point, my love, is that I don't fancy getting up at 4am and going to bed at 8pm!!!! :p

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!!!!
 
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