http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/clocks-go-back-remember-to-change-yours--for-possibly-the-last-time-ever-9817740.html
The clocks go back, so remember to change yours – for possibly the last time ever
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| The Persistence of Memory - Salvador Dali |
British Summer Time (BST), officially ended at 2 AM this morning, which means that we are now all on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), and will remain so until sometime in March of 2015. This ludicrous practice of changing the clocks by one hour twice every year, was originally a wartime measure designed to boost production. Even after the war the practice has continued apart from the short experimental break during the period 1968 two 1971.
The experiment did not continue beyond this time as it was considered that darker mornings would somehow provide a more dangerous environment for schoolchildren and early-morning workers.An argument that I have never really understood or accepted. Notwithstanding all the available evidence on the contrary, the powers that be decided that the country should remain on the historic time changing in March and October of each year.
Now there are those people who still argue that changing the clocks in the winter somehow assists with road safety and is of benefit to society. If road safety and the safety of children getting to school in the morning are the only two arguments the campaign to retain his ridiculous practice can muster, then it is high time we scrapped this nonsense completely. It seems that there are moves in Parliament and elsewhere to end the practice which would make last night's changing of the clock the last one that we should experience.One can only hope that sanity will prevail.
On a personal note, I woke at my usual time this morning. My usual time that is according to my body clock, which for many, many years, has determined that I should wake (all other things being equal) at any time between 04:00 and 05:00 every day, including weekends.This morning, I woke at 04:00 I knew it was that time, because the little traveling clock, which has served well for a number of years, indicated such when the button on top was pressed to turn on the light to illuminate the digital face.However, it soon dawned on me that everyone else in the country, would understand the time to be 03:00. The realisation was not pleasant, as I knew that I would not go back to sleep, and that for the next 6 months, the disruption to my personal clock would rage on unabated until sanity returns to the nation and we can revert to a sensible standard of BST.
Perhaps legislation will be made over the coming months and this antiquated, ludicrous and disruptive practice will be ended once and for all.
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