Plan to bring UK clocks forward

[Jordy]

Not being fussy, but that is grossly out of proportion. Your lines are straight, not curved which they should be and the angle that has been taken looks as though it was photographed through a fish eye/convexed lens :/ Think of it like this, when one half of the planet is in complete darkness and the other isn't, you will never get a perfect straight line. Undertaker's image is more realistic. Take a look at the moon at night, it's the same principle It's all interesting to note that your picture suggests the sun comes from above or below the earth, never the sides

EDIT: Here are a few examples:

http://www.gearthblog.com/images/nightday.jpg
^ According to your diagram, the US should have a perfect line going down the middle, when in actual fact it's at an angle (the earth afterall doesn't "stand" on the south pole, with the north pole at the top, it's actually at a slight angle and the sun catches it at a slight angle, thus the space photographs).

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030324.html
^ This is the link Undertaker got his photograph from, interesting it is Copyrighted to NASA, so I assume it's accurate

Use a globe, get a straight piece of string from pole to pole, one going through the most Easterly point of England and another through the most Easterly point of Portugal and you'll see once and for all, the UK is over France and Spain. Only a small part of Northern Ireland is over Portugal.

Completely ridiculous argument.

[GommeInc]

Use a globe, get a straight piece of string from pole to pole, one going through the most Easterly point of England and another through the most Easterly point of Portugal and you'll see once and for all, the UK is over France and Spain. Only a small part of Northern Ireland is over Portugal.

Completely ridiculous argument.

And where is the sun in your experiment? The main point of this debate is sunlight and time. It may be over Spain and France, but when the sun is setting you will notice that the sun doesn't form a perfect line split between the earth, it's angled slightly. It's an interesting light experience which you can be taught in schools, assuming you understand the Earth's axis

EDIT: This image is an idea of the earth axis and sunlight. I think I had one in my science lab at school:

[Jordy]

And where is the sun in your experiment? The main point of this debate is sunlight and time. It may be over Spain and France, but when the sun is setting you will notice that the sun doesn't form a perfect line split between the earth, it's angled slightly. It's an interesting light experience which you can be taught in schools, assuming you understand the Earth's axis

The picture Undertaker has found just furthers the point that we are more closely aligned to Spain and France, both geographically and when the sun rises.

[GommeInc]

The picture Undertaker has found just furthers the point that we are more closely aligned to Spain and France, both geographically and when the sun rises.

Not entirely. The interesting thing is, if you follow the curve, we're more aligned with Western Spain than the majority of France. It's neither Portugal nor France, it's Western Spain we fall under It is a petty argument, and does suggests that the Government needs to do more research.

[Catzsy]

I'd love to know how they came with those ideas Surely there would be more carbon emissions if it becomes easier to drive (thus the less accidents)? It can only be either/or, surely?

Well this Rospa report seems to sum it up pretty well.
http://www.rospa.com/roadsafety/advi...-benefits.aspx

I don't see the argument about 'more daylight' - if you want more daylight then wake up earlier and so on? there's still the same amount of light regardless. Why don't the people who run this contry concentrate on more pressing issues rather than spend all this time (and most likely money) on a debate about time which in the end makes little difference, as you still have the same amount of light/dark as you did before.

This is a rather rediculous argument to maintain the status quo and I don't think it's a huge priority with those who run the country either. I hate the way my bodyclock has to adjust twice a year and I am sure that most of the population do as well. You may also see the benefits as mentioned above. Dan, much as you hate the EU you cannot pin this one on them.

[GommeInc]

Well this Rospa report seems to sum it up pretty well.
http://www.rospa.com/roadsafety/advi...-benefits.aspx

The environmental bit confuses me, as I always thought more leisure time meant more people will be heading "out and about", which usually involves cars and other environmentally unfriendly forms of transportation and use. They could try the experiment, but I'm spectical it will make a difference. It'll also be one of those times when something like GMT will never mean the same thing again, but that doesn't mean too much.

[Catzsy]

The environmental bit confuses me, as I always thought more leisure time meant more people will be heading "out and about", which usually involves cars and other environmentally unfriendly forms of transportation and use. They could try the experiment, but I'm spectical it will make a difference. It'll also be one of those times when something like GMT will never mean the same thing again, but that doesn't mean too much.

We are only on GMT 6 months of the year anyway. When the clocks forward in March we will be on BST. If I have this right if we stay on GMT the whole year around then it will be lighter at night which is what the proposal is.

[Zuth]

you cant just mess with time, surely?

That's what I was thinking, it doesnt sound right.

[benjamin]

Indeed, and i've argued against all those points that the coalition government has put out as has Peter Hitchens in the article I linked earlier on - time afterall is geographical and not down to opinon. But I guess we'll agree to disagree - it looks many of us will be buying blackout curtains very shortly.

you've assumed pretty quickly that it's going to happen! in all fairness, even though i'm all for it - i don't see it happening.

[Moh]

Surely that's going to be confusing, moving us ahead of GMT.

GMT - Greenwich Mean Time, and Greenwich is in England, so we're not going the timezone that's based around an area in our country

GMT was also the first timezone, hence why all the other timezones are based around it. Such as GMT+1, GMT+5 etc.. and used to be the universal time (although UTC is pretty much the same as GMT?).

So like you said, GMT is based around this country.