Hour Change

Had to endure a 13 hour night shift (normally 12) and this is the 4th shift, so you are grand with your 04.30 start!

We’ll almost certainly opt out unless the UK do it too. Having a different time zone in the north is seen as too politically sensitive.

Is Portugal not out of sync with Spain half the time (or all of the time, even)?

True, the political side of it is a whole other day's work.

Theres loads of countries on a different time zone to their nearest neighbour. There’s also a number of countries that have internal time zones and it isn’t catastrophic. In fact, in the US, quite a few States have two time zones within them. And Arizona has some areas that observe DST and some that don’t.

Some people make a complete meal out of this every time it comes up. Fact is that the time arrangement we are in now as of this morning, so called 'winter time', is our proper time. Roughly equal amounts of daylight either side of midday and midnight, the sun is roughly due south at noon or midday. That's the most logical arrangement and people have used this idea for millennia, until some bright sparks came along in the last half hour and invented electric light bulbs.

It's so called 'summer time' that is the aberration and if anything needs to be abolished, it's summer time. Next spring, if no change is require - we stick to what we have today, bright mornings in spring & summer and evenings that stretch to 10pm.

The idea that's sometime mooted that we keep 'summertime' or even worse some European time would be a major problem for us, an island on the western edge of Europe. The EU is a political entity and you can make certain rules common. But you can't make rules that discriminate on the basis of basic geography and the changing relative positions of the earth and sun. The Germans or the French or the Spanish wouldn't put up the sort of crap that is sometimes suggested for Ireland in this regard.

Except midday isn't the middle of the working day. Most people wake up after 6 am and like to stay up later than 6pm

Its no big deal really, every year its the same whingefest about it.

Not really, few posters replying here are hardly whingefest..

Bring back Dublin time.

I think it was 29 minutes behind GMT or thereabouts.

This, we started last weekend and my toddler woke at 7am (previous 8am) exactly as planned. Unfortunately I woke at 5.10 (new time).

Should be scrapped by now.