Time warp

Published on 26/10/2012 00:00

With the clocks about to change, Peter East (Letters, 24 October) repeats a common misconception about winter time and, furthermore, seems to blame the Scots.

The “correct” time when the Sun is highest in the sky at about noon is GMT, which we use 
during the winter months.

This was recognised throughout the entire year until about 100 years ago, when Britain introduced British Summer Time (BST) to give people longer summer evenings, especially useful for those living down south like your 
correspondent, whose address is in Swansea.

Rather than change the time during summer to the “in-
correct” BST, we could of course go to bed, get up and work 
at sensible times just as farmers do (or used to). But it’s easier to get the government to change the time to something that seems more convenient – the temporal equivalent of quantitative easing, perhaps.

Malcolm Stewart

Bath Street

Edinburgh