Yes, I know there's already a thread on putting the clocks back tonight but....

Our automatic clock radio puts itself back and forwards as necessary.
However, it does it 24 hours early and you can imagine the confusion the first time this happened. It was well into the Saturday before we realised we were out of sync with the rest of the world.

I have changed just one clock. I looked at all the other things that need changing - and made a mental note not to get up before the clock-changing fairy tomorrow morning. If it were left up to me I would just leave them all where they are. I totally sympathise with that cartoon!

The clock in absenthusband's room automatically put itself back by one UK hour. How silly is that when we don't live in the UK? My clock, on the other hand, behaved beautifully and kept New Zealand time.

I changed all my clocks before I left on my travels so it wouldn't be such a shock when I got home, however my mobile phone which is on automatic time change has failed to deliver, so I have had to change it manually

But will it change itself again tomorrow and confuse you afresh?

Been up for ages, so nothing new there. The clock change changes nothing here in the depths of the French countryside on a Sunday morning, and all UK GN-ers are still a hour behind!

My man does the clocks.

I went to put this on the other "clocks back" thread, but they have moved on to post about completely different things, so I am putting it here.

I am starting to hear that changing the clocks for winter is about a few Scottish farmers, so I have looked up something I posted last year Here is a shorter version of it for those who like statistics-

1) The sun naturally rises almost an hour later in Kilchoan (West coast of Scotland) than it does in Lowestoft (East coast of England) due to the width of the country, and the way the it slopes to the left (Edinburgh is as far west as Cardiff, and Mull is about level with Land's End)

2) Day length gets shorter in winter as you go north. On December 20th, Penzance gets about 8 hours of daylight, Edinburgh about 7 and Shetland about 6.

3)The lower angle of the sun means that the strength of the daylight gets lower as you go north. Penzance gets 8Megajoules of light per square metre per day, Newcastle gets 5, shetland gets 2.

I thought people were more concerned about Scottish schoolchildren having to go to school in the dark if the clocks didn't go back.

While Minibags was at primary school I walked the mile to school with her. in winter when we set off at 0830 it was still dull enough that we wore hi-viz bands so as to be sure we'd be seen when we had to cross the road. So you're right, ana, there is concern about children even further north having to go to school before daylight. There isn't much, if any, daylight after they get home either.

It is well known that people in Scotland suffer from vitamin D deficiency more than people from other, more southerly parts of the UK. The long dark winter months are part of the reason why.

I can't see why we can't have a different time from Scotland. Other countries do it.

I don't see why schools and businesses over the whole UK couldn't start at a time suitable to local conditions. No need to change the clocks, just change the opening hours, though it would need to be synchronised so that everyone in the same area started and stopped together to avoid total chaos. Clock time is an artificial concept anyway - time goes by and day is day and night is night without a clock. Before clocks and watches were common, folk got up and went to work at sunrise and went to bed at sunset.

The rationale for all starting and stopping work at the same hour is always said to be so that businesses phoning from abroad can get an answer - but they manage in the States with several zones.

What annoys me is that the Greenwich Meridian is the zero line for the whole global time zone system, but when there is talk of not changing the clocks back and forth, it is British summertime all year which is proposed as the permanent clock setting. Why not have Greenwich mean time all year if the changing over is inconvenient?

Marmight has your phone got Location Services switched off? Because it won't do the automatic time change if it doesn't know where it is.
I am hopelessly time-challenged and have to have the effect of changing the clocks explained to me twice a year. All I really want to know is if I will get an extra hour in bed. Love the diagram Anya

But I can physically do it. Cooker = hold three buttons down with left hand while twirling little knob with right, 24 hour clock; microwave = press clock symbol VERY QUICKLY until it flashes, then use kg /lbs to change time (?), 12 hour clock. Boiler = crouch down over welly rack under gardening coat to read teeny tiny screen, press arrows briskly and find you have reset the heating for a week.

Do you live at my house Icy. If so, you forgot the antiquated clock radio on my side of the bed! For that I have to find something pointy, press the button labelled 'time' until I hit the connection which makes the numbers flash, then press the 'plus' button really quickly before the pointy thing slips and the connection is lost, repeat the process for the minus button, repeat for the plus button. Swear, a lot, and hope DH comes to the rescue whereupon, the blasted thing works perfectly!

The clock radio is so old that it plays tapes - or it would if we still had any! It also turns itself down periodically! I think we need a new one!!

I agree with Elegran. Living in the east means that our day gets light really early before most people are out and about and daylight fades mid afternoon. Our school kids can be walking home in the dim and dark from November (depending on cloud cover) through til the beginning of Feb. it would make more sense to start the working day earlier.

Elegran asked "when there is talk of not changing the clocks back and forth, it is British summertime all year which is proposed as the permanent clock setting. Why not have Greenwich mean time all year if the changing over is inconvenient?"

Could it be that BST suits the south of the UK best and that's why it is proposed, along with pooh-poohing and general denigration of concerns from further north in the UK?

I'm winning this time - completely neglected to put my cooker clock forward last March and now I don't have to decode the complicated sequence of buttons to reset the thing

Could be,Farnorth but if we make too much of that we become "whinging Scots".

My central heating was unchanged in March too, When until the engineer came last month to give it the annual service and kindly reset it.

It's not the "whinging Scots" who are complaining about the return to GMT, though, so it must be the whinging non-Scots, whoever they are.

When told the reason for daylight savings time the Old Indian said, "Only the government would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket."

The Scots like GMT. It's BST that's the problem up north.

Are more people "owls" than "larks", I wonder? I've never really understood why people want later light in the evenings instead of earlier light in the mornings in winter. But then, I'm a lark and ready to sleep pretty early.