BST - Environmental Benefits

[SheffieldLass]

I'm all for BST in the winter in England, and double summer time in the summer sounds ok to me too. Both would certainly reduce my energy use. By the way, the Scots make up approx 8.5% of the UK population, England approx 84%.

This link is a good summary of the whole debate:
http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib...snsc-03796.pdf

It was interesting how a great deal was made of darker mornings and an increased risk to children's safety in the mornings at the time of the 1968-71 experiment, which seemed to have an undue influence on the poll about keeping GMT. That accidents were significantly reduced overall seemed to be ignored or not understood by the public/press.

In the discussion about the Energy Saving (Daylight) Bill 2006 the following was noted:

"4.4 Agriculture
There is concern that adoption of SDST may impact on farmers who have to get up early in the morning to perform routine tasks, such as the milking of cows in time to catch the milk lorry. Under SDST these may have to be performed in darkness.
However a spokesperson for the NFU announced, following the First Reading of the Energy Saving (Daylight) Bill 2006, that:
"The benefit of an extra hour of morning daylight for farmers is no longer really an issue - before modern-day machinery and lighting, daylight was crucial, but now farmers have the technology to deal with it.""

[SheffieldLass]

just been looking at the latest sunrise and earliest sunset for a few locations in the UK

London sunrise 0804, sunset 1551
Sheffield sunrise 0828 sunset 1547
Edinburgh sunrise 0844 Sunset 1538
Aberdeen sunrise 0848 sunset 1525

Not a massive difference between Sheffield and Edinburgh. 16 minutes in the morning, 9 minutes in the evening. Or between Sheffield and Aberdeen, 20 minutes in the morning, 22 in the evening. And there aren't that many people who live further north than Aberdeen. The sunrise at 0900 (1000 on BST in the winter) is at Wick ... that is falling off the top end of Scotland, so not many people there to be upset by it .... That figure is not exactly representative of Scotland as a whole.