Continental time

CLOCK – Musée d’Orsay
Originally uploaded by danalipar

According to this article in The Telegraph, the British government are thinking about introducing ‘double summertime’.

Although they’re using this bizarre name for it, it’s really just continental time, also known as Central European Time, given that it would put the UK in exactly the same time zone as France, Germany, Denmark and many other countries.

For that reason, I’d support it – it’s always a hassle to have friends and family in another time zone.

However, what would it mean in practice here in Scotland?

Today, the 21st of February, the sun would have risen at 8.30am and set at 6.30pm. Not too horrible, given that schools start at 9.

On the 20th of December, however, daylight would be from 9.45am to 4.45pm (instead of 8.45am to 3.45am). In practice, that would mean that kids would travel to school in complete darkness for at least a month, but on the other hand they’d actually be able to play outside for an hour or two after school.

On the 20th of June, daylight would be from 5.30am to 11pm(instead of 4.30am to 10pm), which actually would suit me better.

So bring it on! If they’re really that worried about kids going to school in the dark, there’s nothing preventing northern schools from shifting their hours to compensate.