[sbowler]

Why is it every year we hear the media and MPs calling for us to scrap turning the clocks back!!! There are many valid reasons for doing so, so why dont we get on with it instead of debating the bloody issue year after year. No doubt there will need to be a commitee set up to study it for a few years!!! This country drives you mad at times.

Discuss.

[unique]

because some people want the clocks one way so they can have more light in the evening so they can enjoy themsleves more before it's dark, and it could be safer for kids going home at nite if it's lighter, but on the other hand, the farmers need the clocks to change so they have light in the morning so they can work, and thus provide the country with milk and food and stuff

so as long as there are two reasons for doing it, people are going to argue about it, and as long as it's a slow news period for papers, they are going to write about it

personally if farmers need the light, as they get up at the crack of dawn or earlier already to provide the country with food and milk and stuff, that outweighs the other argument of people wanting it lighter in evenings so they can do more.

But Farmers already get up in the dark - an hour makes no odds.

[partyweb]

Originally Posted by imclueless

But Farmers already get up in the dark - an hour makes no odds.

And tell me, how many farmers wear watches?

Can't the schools just change their opening & closing times during the winter term? Then everyone will win.

[daveaka]

I like the lighter mornings but hate the darker evenings, its a ball of confusion !.....Scrap clocks all together, thats what i say

[brendan_dj]

I dont understand why we dont leave the clocks as they are all year round.
Leave them at GMT at all times.
Lets be proud of the fact that Greenwich is the central point against which, all clocks are set.

If people want to adjust their schedule to optimise daylight hours, let them.

If areas of high latitude dont want children going to school in the mornings in darkness, simply start school 1 hour later.

If businesses and staff want nice long summer evenings, then change business hours to 8-4 rather than 9-5. That seems to me much simpler.

Getting everybody to change all their clocks twice a year has always seemed a silly concept to me.

It is us humans that should change our times and schedules accordingly. not the clocks.

[Jacob]

It's a bit ironic that you want us to discuss how mad it it makes you that year after year we debate the issue of the merits of changing the clocks!!

Discuss!

[Toasty]

give it a month and it'll be dark in the morning aswell as the evening.

[Jammyb]

I doubt the people who are saying it's simple, just start school and hour earlier/later have got kids. It seems to me that it's pretty hard to coordinate dropping off/picking up kids from school with working full time. Be even harder if they kept changing the hours.

Surely farmers can get up and get on with whatever they need to do whenever they like regardless of what time it is? The rest of us work to schedule imposed by the rest of the world. When I get home from work it's dark and I need to cut my grass, but it's always wet, maybe that something MP's should look into, cutting my grass! They can creosote my fence while they're there, or they could if they hadn't banned creosote....

[lockers]

Why don't we just split the difference? Change the clocks one more time, going forward by half an hour and then just leave it like that.

Surely everyone will be happy?!

[partyweb]

Originally Posted by Jammyb

I doubt the people who are saying it's simple, just start school and hour earlier/later have got kids. It seems to me that it's pretty hard to coordinate dropping off/picking up kids from school with working full time.....

Yup it's mad that people have to go to work at the time we have to take our boys to school. Businesses should start at 10am and shops should all open at 8am. That would ease all the traffic.

[KoThreads]

Originally Posted by brendan_dj

I dont understand why we dont leave the clocks as they are all year round.
Leave them at GMT at all times.

If people want to adjust their schedule to optimise daylight hours, let them..

Sense, common sense and light in the summer till 10 maybe 10.30

I've friends in Scotland who argue it's too dark in winter, too light in summer they like the clocks changing and want it left. I said so change your watch when you cross the border, you do it when you go to Europe and don't moan.

[Praxidike]

Originally Posted by lockers

Why don't we just split the difference? Change the clocks one more time, going forward by half an hour and then just leave it like that.

Surely everyone will be happy?!

That'll confuse the hell out of everyone though, we'd be the only country (that I know of anyway) with a random time - it'd be half past the hour here, whereas in the rest of the world, it'd be on the hour. It'd drive everyone crazy.

I think we should leave it as it is now - at GMT time. Makes the most sense, everywhere recognises GMT, but not everywhere recognises BST (I'm thinking of things like the internet, filling out forms or whatever). So if the clocks have to stay as they are, I think GMT would be the best to keep it at. In the summer, it doesn't make much difference, it's daylight for about 23 hours anyway!

[stealther]

My girlfriend walked home in the dark at 17:30 Last night and she was scared. Are farmers scared to go out in the dark in the morning?

[mason]

Originally Posted by stealther

My girlfriend walked home in the dark at 17:30 Last night and she was scared. Are farmers scared to go out in the dark in the morning?

I would be scared if I was a farmer to go out in the dark..... those scarecrows are freaky looking things!!!!

[RMCF]

Originally Posted by sbowler

No doubt there will need to be a commitee set up to study it for a few years!!! This country drives you mad at times.

I am sure that a government scientist will soon produce a report that turning clocks back/forward is bad for us and the government will end up taxing us somehow to save us and the planet.

[RMCF]

Does this only happen in the UK/Ireland?

[Steven]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time

I presume the article is locked as some people went on some anti-government rant Honestly, OK, changing the time for everything is a chore, but why do we have a new thread for this every spring/autumn?

[Mr.D]

I don't see why those people and industries that are concerned with the amount of available daylight can't just change their working habits at appropriate times of the year rather than deamnd that everyone in the country has to follow suit.

[Pat_C]

Originally Posted by unique

because some people want the clocks one way so they can have more light in the evening so they can enjoy themsleves more before it's dark, and it could be safer for kids going home at nite if it's lighter, but on the other hand, the farmers need the clocks to change so they have light in the morning so they can work, and thus provide the country with milk and food and stuff

Seems pretty simple to me - get farmers to do what they need to the evening before.

PS - it doesn't make much sense us being in a different time zone to the rest of Western Europe either.

[Mr.D]

Originally Posted by Pat_C

PS - it doesn't make much sense us being in a different time zone to the rest of Western Europe either.

Although a colleague's sister did recently ask him to phone through the results of a word cup match because he was in Slovenia and was a couple of hours ahead so would see it before the UK

[Bat-man]

Originally Posted by RMCF

Does this only happen in the UK/Ireland?

No other countries do it.
I am for sticking to GMT all the year and just starting work/school etc one hour ealier at this time of year.

[unique]

Originally Posted by Pat_C

Seems pretty simple to me - get farmers to do what they need to the evening before.

PS - it doesn't make much sense us being in a different time zone to the rest of Western Europe either.

trying to milk the cows in the evening before would be like having to go for a pee the night before, instead of in the morning.

[pingu]

Originally Posted by Bat-man

No other countries do it.
I am for sticking to GMT all the year and just starting work/school etc one hour ealier at this time of year.

Er, almost all of the EU does it and a large portion of the rest of the world:

http://www.worldtimezone.com/daylight.htm

[Pat_C]

Originally Posted by Mr.D

Although a colleague's sister did recently ask him to phone through the results of a word cup match because he was in Slovenia and was a couple of hours ahead so would see it before the UK

Was she hoping to quickly pop to the bookies?

[Pat_C]

Originally Posted by unique

trying to milk the cows in the evening before would be like having to go for a pee the night before, instead of in the morning.

I'm not sure that unmilked cows have to sit there with their legs crossed, whistling and trying to avoid thinking about flowing milk. And if you just changed the time they ate all that grass I doubt they would notice.

[unique]

Originally Posted by Pat_C

I'm not sure that unmilked cows have to sit there with their legs crossed, whistling and trying to avoid thinking about flowing milk. And if you just changed the time they ate all that grass I doubt they would notice.

i don't think the farmers put time locks on the grass so the cows can only eat at specific times, but my knowledge of farms comes from emmerdale farm in the 70s, with benny the farmboy

i think it is a problem for cows tho, i think they have to be milked at certain times. normally baby cows would sort out the problem in nature, but on a farm they need to be relieved of the milk i think. any farmers want to comment?

[sbowler]

Havent all the farms been changed into golf courses?

[Miyazaki]

I prefer the clocks back, as at least for a while the sun is up before I am.

I absolutely hate getting up for work when it's dark out.

[Philly112]

Originally Posted by Games Guru

.I absolutely hate getting up for work when it's dark out.

Or when it's light in my case...