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European Parliament Set To End EU-Wide Daylight Saving (dw.com)
The European Commission and European Parliament are set to end daylight saving time in 2021, at least in some states. "Now that the lead committee on transport and tourism has given its blessing, by a large majority, EU lawmakers could vote on the change by the end of March," reports Deutsche Welle. "After that, all 28 member states will need to rubberstamp the ruling." From the report: European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's brash statement back in September, asserting that the amendment would go ahead quickly, has proven to be premature. At the time, Juncker was referring to an overwhelming response to an EU online survey, where an unexpected 80 percent of respondents said the practice of changing the clock twice a year was outdated. But the survey was not representative, with 3 million of the 4.6 million votes coming from Germany. This led to diplomats from smaller EU countries complaining behind closed doors that the European Commission wanted to impose German will on the other states through sheer populism.
Juncker was keen to abolish the twice-yearly time shift by spring, probably so he could claim, before European Parliament elections in May, that the will of the people had been reflected. But some member states demanded a transitional period up to 2021. Good things come to those who wait, it seems, especially in the EU. As a compromise for the repeal of the "Directive on summer time," spring or autumn in 2020 has now been suggested. This means that by June EU states will have to draw the lines for each time zone and decide what time those places will set their clocks to, and when. Some EU members -- including the United Kingdom, Greece and Portugal -- want to stick to the old rules and continue to switch between summer and winter time through the year. Cyprus, the Netherlands, Denmark, France and Ireland have not decided. The other states want to get rid of the twice-yearly change, but still have to decide which time will apply.
Juncker was keen to abolish the twice-yearly time shift by spring, probably so he could claim, before European Parliament elections in May, that the will of the people had been reflected. But some member states demanded a transitional period up to 2021. Good things come to those who wait, it seems, especially in the EU. As a compromise for the repeal of the "Directive on summer time," spring or autumn in 2020 has now been suggested. This means that by June EU states will have to draw the lines for each time zone and decide what time those places will set their clocks to, and when. Some EU members -- including the United Kingdom, Greece and Portugal -- want to stick to the old rules and continue to switch between summer and winter time through the year. Cyprus, the Netherlands, Denmark, France and Ireland have not decided. The other states want to get rid of the twice-yearly change, but still have to decide which time will apply.
Now we have a situation where the Brexiteer propaganda machine has won a huge victory because "The EU" is imposing on us what we actually want, so of course we don't want it. (We are totally committed to cutting of our noses to spite our faces as well as shooting our selves in the foot).
It is the British way!
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Problem with DST is that people don't understand the consequences of their choices. An oft heard argument is that one wants to keep DST year round, because they're a night dweller and they like the extra hour of light at the end of the day in winter too.
What they don't understand is there is also an extra hour of dark at the start of the day. They'll have to get up an hour earlier in winter because of permanent DST. Consequently they'll have to go to bed an hour earlier. Exactly the opposite a night dweller would want.
Personally I don't care if we abandon DST. I live in the Netherlands, which is quite northerly. We get about 8 hours of sunlight in winter, and 16 hours in summer. But please for the love of god don't establish DST year round. I'd like to have the sun up before 9:30 please.
This is your sig. There are thousands more, but this one is yours.
But the survey was not representative, with 3 million of the 4.6 million votes coming from Germany. This led to diplomats from smaller EU countries complaining behind closed doors that the European Commission wanted to impose German will on the other states through sheer populism.
I'm pretty sure we at Slashdot called it. When you make a decision based on a marketing campaign of a small vocal minority don't expect a smooth change.
Shift your working hours to whatever you want? Close the curtains? Get used to it?
I don't like the sky still being bright at night when I need to get to sleep for work in the morning.
I like the sky being light at night when I'm awake. I don't like it being light at 5am when I'm trying to sleep to a reasonable time before getting up for work.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Fuck off?
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
The "proper" time standard is thus the one which puts noon as close as possible to when the sun is directly overhead. You can't argue that you'd like to have the sun up before 9:30 because that phenomenon is specific to your latitude (and to a lesser extent, how far east/west you are in your time zone). It's silly to require the rest of the world to adopt a time standard which works best for your latitude.
The "correct" solution is not to change the clocks, but for different locations to change their business hours throughout the year.
That keeps sunrise a couple hours before the start of business hours year-round, regardless of your latitude or time of year. Each latitude can tweak this forward or back depending on their preference (higher latitudes will probably prefer start of business to be right around sunrise in winter instead of 2 hours after, to maximize use of the short day). And each business can tweak this forward or back depending on their needs (e.g. businesses delivering food to restaurants will probably want to start a couple hours before sunrise instead of a couple hours after).
Trying to do this by adjusting everyone's clock by the same amount regardless of their latitude is insane.
Day length changes from ~8h to ~16h in the UK between winter and summer. No single fixed shift (especially of an hour) is or ever will suit all use cases. We should be adapting our work and travel (etc) patterns with the seasons to reflect that. The council cemetery opposite me manages a simple schedule of opening to only let people in when it's light, for example.
Rgds
Damon
http://m.earth.org.uk/
Please, let us follow suit in the US. So tired of it.
I can't even list all the annoyances. Here's one I haven't thrown out there before, I get to have the sun in my eyes for a week or two while driving to work, not once, but twice! Once because the days got longer, and again because we fiddled with the clock.
Yay, the kids aren't in the dark at the bus stop anymo ...oh, wait, yeah, they are. Again.
Fuck off?
Well yeah that is an option too.
Every time this topic comes up, there's belly-aching about which time should be the permanent time. Late summer brightness or early summer brightness. Here's the thing-- people will complain at decreasing levels as time goes on. You'll get used to whatever change happens.