CET time zone anyone?

akkadian

Personally, if anything we should be GMT -1/2 or -1.
This is just illogical. I want time to in some way resemble reality.
With CET, it would be dark at 9:00 am in Ireland in the Winter.



From Irish Times:


Ryan backs timely research

A senior Government minister tonight said the idea of Ireland and Britain joining European central time was worthy of consideration.

The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan, called for research that would shed light on the potential benefits and pitfalls of both countries turning the clocks one hour ahead.

“It’s a very interesting proposal, worthy of consideration and Irish-based research,” he said.

Officials in his departments stressed all research carried out to date was from the US or mainland Europe.

They warned global differences in sunlight would have to be taken into account before any such moves in Ireland.

They also said the idea appeared to make sense for peak time energy use, but the effect on the morning hours would have to be closely measured.

Mr Ryan was responding to calls from supermarket tycoon- turned senator Fergal Quinn, who claims his campaign for a permanent switch to European time has support among both Irish and British parliamentarians.

Senator Quinn admitted while such a move could save on energy usage in the evening it would mean an extra hour of darkness in the morning, particularly during the winter.

“But for most of the year that wouldn’t affect the population,” he insisted.

“We would save so much in energy and electricity, it would do so much for tourism with daylight until 11pm at night during the summer, and there would be business benefits with being linked into the same time as Europe.”

The independent senator claimed a trial in the 1960s was thwarted by complaints from Scots farmers that their cows weren’t used to being milked at a different time.

Since then the idea has resurfaced a few times, and in the 1990s the proposal was supported by 100 British MPs, but a shadow fell over the campaign when Portugal left central European time to join the UK and Ireland, he said.

“The big advantage of course is that we could all play golf an extra hour in the afternoon,” he added.

The timely suggestion comes ahead of Sunday morning’s traditional turning back of the clocks, which officially marks the start of Winter Time in Ireland and the end of British Summer Time.

PA

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1022/breaking80.htm

Scofflaw

Same suggestion has been made in the UK every year for ever. No idea why this was in the UKIP leaflet thread, though.

cordially,
Scofflaw

marco_polo

Is this a guess the link to the EU thread? If so I give up.

Since I am not the greatest morning person in the would be great for me. Apart from that the argument does not seem overly compelling tbh.

thebman

Bit of a non-issue. Even if it is dark at 9AM, it won't be dark at 5PM if we move forward so when we get out of work, will have daylight.

It all seems like a non-issue to me. Either way, we will still have plenty of darkness in our winter and light in our summer.

marco_polo

thebman wrote: »

Bit of a non-issue. Even if it is dark at 9AM, it won't be dark at 5PM if we move forward so when we get out of work, will have daylight.

It all seems like a non-issue to me. Either way, we will still have plenty of darkness in our winter and light in our summer.

The real thinking behind it is that is always daylight when kids are coming to or going from school, so from that point of view there is a strong argument for keeping things as is.

View

Equally well we could just re-introduce IST (Irish Standard Time) which was GMT - 1/2 hr. After all, the western part of Ireland is closer to the 15W line (i.e. GMT - 1 hr) than it is to Greenwich...

Hotblack Desiato

Scrap summer time and stay on IST (GMT+1) all year round. Lighter evenings when drivers are tired are safer. The original justification for summer/winter time was agriculture...

jhegarty

Hang on, was this hidden somewhere in Lisbon ?

View

jhegarty wrote: »

Hang on, was this hidden somewhere in Lisbon ?

Definitely! It was in the hidden part together with the European Army, Conscription, Abortion and the 1.94 minimum wage. Maybe you missed it but if you were of the true "Faith" you'd have spotted it at once...

Martin 2

Given that we're now back at the "heart of Europe" would Central European Time (CET) not be the logical choice?;)

seamus

For Ireland and the UK, remaining at CET (or GMT + 1) throughout the winter would mean that for a significant amount of November, December & January, it would remain dark in the mornings until at least 9am. This would lead to an increase in road deaths and a large jump in the numbers with SADs. The result is that we would need to move the standard working day from 9am-5pm to 10am-6pm.
Which is basically the same as putting the clocks back by an hour and staying in GMT.

fligedlyflick

thebman wrote: »

Bit of a non-issue. Even if it is dark at 9AM, it won't be dark at 5PM if we move forward so when we get out of work, will have daylight.

what's this "work" thing you've mentioned?

baalthor

Portugal did this in the nineties but didn't like it and switched back to WET (our time-zone). Apparently they didn't appreciate the bright nights.

This EU directive mandates the daylight savings time (DST) rules for member countries.

I would imagine any changes in DST or time-zone would require EU approval as it would impact on trade and business between states

Or maybe, like China, the EU could agree on a single time-zone

ei.sdraob

baalthor wrote: »

Portugal did this in the nineties but didn't like it and switched back to WET (our time-zone). Apparently they didn't appreciate the bright nights.

This EU directive mandates the daylight savings time (DST) rules for member countries.

I would imagine any changes in DST or time-zone would require EU approval as it would impact on trade and business between states

Or maybe, like China, the EU could agree on a single time-zone

in China majority of population is clustered around the coasts, it also causes problems in the far west of the country

not the case in Europe where the population is more dispersed

also that sort of Communist "one timezone to rule them all" wont go down to well here

baalthor

ei.sdraob wrote: »

in China majority of population is clustered around the coasts, it also causes problems in the far west of the country

not the case in Europe where the population is more dispersed

also that sort of Communist "one timezone to rule them all" wont go down to well here

I wasn't being serious but I forgot to insert the appropriate smiley:)