Every spring when the clocks go forward, and every autumn when they go back, there are people who say that Britain should stop messing about with the clocks and stick to one time all the year round.
Many of those people say we should fix on British Summer Time, claiming that the longer evening is always better.
I disagree. In the winter I wish to get up at dawn, or not too early before dawn. I show two maps of the boundary between day and night at 8am on the 1st January. This is nearly the latest sunrise of the year in Britain.
It is therefore clear that Central European Time, one hour ahead of GMT, is fine for most continental countries except perhaps parts of Scandinavia. For Britain and Ireland, however, we should stick to GMT.
Copyright © M. J. Gorman 2007