Is changing the clocks a waste of time?

[annie]

What do you think?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z9rhn39

[JaneJ]

This had been a discussion for as long as I remember. It is a tradition as far as I'm concerned now. Dark nights and mornings are part of the seasons.

[maureenho]

[Rosalind]

I do no like the clocks changing, it effects my sleeping pattern 9u54 .

[coffee]

hi I wonder that so looked up some info
We've been changing our clocks forwards and backwards in the UK since 1916. It's all to do with saving the hours of daylight, and was started by a man called William Willett, a London builder, who lived in Petts Wood in Kent (near our school).
William Willett first proposed the idea of British Summer Time in 1907 in a pamphlet entitled 'The Waste of Daylight'. Willett had noticed that the summer mornings light was wasted while people slept, and that the time would be better utilised in the afternoon by putting the clocks forward. After campaigning for years the British Government finally adopted the system a year after Willett's death

During the 2nd World War, Double Summer Time was introduced to maximise every last minute of daylight.
There was a 3 year experiment between 1968 - 1971 whereby we observed "British Standard Time" and the clocks were not altered. This resulted in very dark mornings - some areas of Britain not reaching day break until 10.00 a.m. The move was unpopular and coupled with a marked increase in child road accidents and fatalities, the experiment was not adopted and the traditional twice yearly clock changing resumed
Some other countries change their clocks eg
European Union - change their clocks on the last Sundays of March and October.
North America and most of Canada on the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November.
Egypt, Namibia and Tunisia are the only African countries who observe daylight saving.
New Zealand and parts of Australia are the only countries in Oceania that currently put their clocks forwards and backwards.
either way I like the extra hour in bed and don't mind getting up earlier in the summer coffeex

[annie]

Thanks Coffee, that was interesting

[maureenho]

I had already put info on with a LINK, perhaps it got missed.