Kalleh's confusion between GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) and BST (British Summer Time) led me to think about the terminology we use for the period when clocks are advanced.
In Britain, as in Europe generally, it's known as "summer time". This term always strikes me as a little unsatisfactory since it could be confused with "summertime", meaning the season of summer, whereas the period in question takes in most of spring and a part of the autumn as well. I always thought the American term "daylight saving time" was more logical, if a little more unwieldy.
Then I noticed that Kalleh had written "savings time" rather than "saving time". I looked this up and it appears to be an acceptable alternative, apparently by analogy with "savings account". The idea that the clock change is somehow analogous to a bank account is a new one to me!
Perhaps the best option is simply to call it "daylight time", which is listed as yet another alternative. Thoughts?
Originally posted by BobHale: The people who want us to use Summertime in winter and double summer time in summer and forget all about GMT have been vocal again of late.
Actually that's a misnomer. What they want is for Britain to adopt Central European Time (GMT + 1) during the winter and Central European Summer Time (GMT + 2) during the summer, so that London would effectively be on Berlin time. I don't support it, but it's interesting that both France and Spain observe CET/CEST, even though France is bisected by the Greenwich meridian and Spain is mostly to the west of it.
Incidentally there was an experiment in 1968-71 when Britain was on "British Standard Time" (GMT + 1) all year round, but it was discontinued because of the number of road accidents in the dark winter mornings.
I remember that experiment. I was at school at the time and it was horrible to go to school on the dark mornings.
Also remember that Spain and France lie south of us and that the chief objections to this use here are effects it would have in the north of England and in Scotland, especially on rural communities.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
Kalleh's confusion between GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) and BST (British Summer Time) led me to think about the terminology we use for the period when clocks are advanced.
Where was that? In the Community forum? I purposely have been posting about GMT, and not British standard (or summer) time because the British who post here had asked me to do that.
Originally posted by Kalleh: I purposely have been posting about GMT, and not British standard (or summer) time because the British who post here had asked me to do that.
Who asked you? I can't imagine why anyone in the UK would do so since we don't use GMT at this time of year. The only reason for quoting the time as GMT would be to give a neutral benchmark for people in different time zones around the world.
Incidentally the phrase "British Standard Time" no longer has a meaning - it was only used during the 1968-71 experiment when the clocks were 1 hour ahead of GMT all year round. "BST" now always stands for "British Summer Time".
Who asked you? I can't imagine why anyone in the UK would do so since we don't use GMT at this time of year. The only reason for quoting the time as GMT would be to give a neutral benchmark for people in different time zones around the world.
We have a fair amount of history here on WC. One of our British posters had asked for us to use the more neutral GMT. I've been trying to do that ever since, though sometimes I get confused.
Yes, arnie, I found the Community thread after I posted this. I should have remembered that problem from last year.
Originally posted by Kalleh: We have a fair amount of history here on WC. One of our British posters had asked for us to use the more neutral GMT. I've been trying to do that ever since, though sometimes I get confused.
Well I have to say it doesn't help me in the slightest. As far as I know Bob and arnie are the only two other British posters who attend the chats, so unless one of them has some reason for preferring GMT, I suggest you switch to BST since there's no point in creating confusion for the sake of it.
I did have a friend once who insisted on keeping his watch on GMT all year round, but he was pretty eccentric in many ways
Thanks for that, Kalleh. Having browsed the archives on the subject I see there's been no end of discussion on the topic over the years, so I'll shut up about it.
