Interesting facts about the clocks changingĬurator of the Royal Observatory, Louise Devoy, shares her favourite facts about the day the clocks change. For countries in the equatorial regions, there is little variation in the length of daylight across the year, with roughly 10-12 hours of daylight and 10-12 hours of darkness each day, so daylight saving offers no benefit. Daylight saving time around the worldĬurrently, about 70 countries worldwide adopt some form of daylight saving, mainly in Europe and North America. For the time being, EU nations continue to implement seasonal time changes. Initially the plan was for EU nations to change their clocks for the last time in 2021, but the legislation has stalled in recent years. In March 2019 the European Parliament backed a proposal to end the practice of changing the clocks in European Union states. Iceland is exempt from this directive, due to its northerly latitude and extreme variations in daylight and darkness throughout the year. Twenty years later, the changing of the clocks in Britain was aligned with other European countries and from 2002 onwards, the EU stipulated that all member states should adjust their clocks on the last Sunday in March and October. The British Summer Time Act was created in 1972 which started the tradition of changing the clocks in late March (subject to the date of Easter) and late October. Sunset view from Cutty Sark British Summer Time and the European Union Opponents pointed out that in the north it would create social disadvantages: for instance, in the far north-west of Scotland sunrise would occur at about 10am in winter, and over much of the north children would have to travel to and from school in darkness. An attempt was made by backbench MPs to change BST but The Daylight Saving Bill 2010–12 was not passed by the House of Commons. Should we change British Summer Time?Ĭampaigners have sought a return to British Double Summer Time or a permanent British Summer Time to save energy and increase the time available in the evenings. The experiment was discontinued as it was found impossible to assess the advantages and disadvantages of British Summer Time. With the war over, Britain returned to British Summer Time except for an experiment between 19 when the clocks went forward but were not put back. Has British Summer Time ever been changed since? During the winter, clocks were kept one hour in advance of GMT to increase productivity. The Second World War and 'British Double Summer Time'ĭuring the Second World War (1939-1945), British Double Summer Time - two hours in advance of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) - was temporarily introduced for the period when ordinary daylight saving would be in force. However, the benefits of it have been an ongoing debate since it was first introduced. Within a few years of its introduction, many countries across the world adopted Daylight Saving Time.
The UK did the same a few weeks later, along with many other nations involved in the First World War (1914-1918). In 1916, a year after Willett’s death, Germany became the first country to adopt daylight saving time.
Angry at the waste of daylight during summer mornings, he self-published a pamphlet called "The Waste of Daylight". However, it wasn't until 1907 that a serious proposal for daylight saving time was made in Britain by William Willett. The idea of summer time or daylight saving time was mentioned in 1784 by Benjamin Franklin, the American inventor, scientist and statesman.
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