The idea behind this politically-motivated scheme was that we would save energy by not having to put the lights on in the evening. However they have already looked over the electric company power consumption figures and found it doesn't work that way. People are not turning their lights on as much in the evening but they are turning them on more in the morning. So after all of that effort and confusion no energy is really saved.
2007-04-10 08:04:55
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answer #1
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answered by Rich Z 7
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United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom the preference, when a daylight saving scheme has been operable, has been for standard time to be used during the winter, with clocks moving forward during the summer.
Starting in 1916, the dates for the beginning and end of BST each year were mandated by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. In February 2002, the The Summer Time Order 2002[4] permanently changed the dates and times to match European rules for moving to and from daylight saving time. The European compromise was closer to previous British practice than to the practice elsewhere in Europe.
Occasional debate breaks out over the validity of BST, due to Britain's latitudinal length. In 2004, an interesting contribution was made by English MP Nigel Beard, who tabled a Private Member's Bill in the House of Commons proposing that England and Wales should be able to determine their own time independently of Scotland and Northern Ireland. If it had been passed into law, this bill would potentially have seen the United Kingdom with two different timezones for the first time since the abolition of Dublin Mean Time (25 minutes behind Greenwich) on August 23 1916.
During World War II, Britain retained the hour's advance on GMT at the start of the winter of 1940 and continued to advance the clocks by an extra hour during the summers until the end of the summer of 1944. During these summers Britain was thus 2 hours ahead of GMT and operating on British Double Summer Time (BDST). The clocks were not advanced for the summer of 1945 and were reverted to GMT at the end of the summer of 1945. In 1947 the clocks were advanced by one hour twice during the spring and put back twice during the autumn so that Britain was on BDST during the height of the summer.
Safety campaigners, including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), have made recommendations that British Summer Time be maintained during the winter months, and that a "double summertime" be applied to the current British Summer Time period, putting the UK two hours ahead of GMT during summer. RoSPA suggest this would reduce the number of accidents over this period as a result of the lighter evenings, as was demonstrated when the British Standard Time scheme was trialled between 1968 and 1971, when Britain remained on GMT+1 all year. Analysis of accident data during the experiment indicated that while there had been an increase in casualties in the morning, there had been a substantially greater decrease in casualties in the evening, with a total of around 2,500 fewer people killed and seriously injured during the first two winters of the experiment. RoSPA have called for the two year trial to be repeated with modern evaluation methods. The proposal is opposed by farmers and other outdoor workers, and many residents of Scotland, as it would mean that, in northern Britain, the winter sunrise would not occur until 10:00 or even later.
In 2005, Lord Tanlaw introduced the Lighter Evenings (Experiment) Bill [1] into the House of Lords, which would advance winter and summer time by one hour for a three-year trial period at the discretion of "devolved bodies", allowing Scotland the option not to take part. The proposal was rejected by the government. The bill received its second reading on 24 March 2006; it is unlikely to pass as it is not supported by the Government. [5]
2007-04-10 08:05:19
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answer #2
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answered by daniel b 2
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When we "Spring Ahead" we gain light. It's lighter longer in the evening! If sunset was at 6:15 pm it's now at 7:15 pm.
2007-04-10 08:01:11
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answer #3
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answered by kja63 7
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Because some idiot decided this would help farmers, during the war years, and most likely it did then. But now it has out lived its use fullness to farmers: they do not farm the same ways they use too!
2007-04-10 08:04:21
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answer #4
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answered by zipper 7
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