As the end of March approaches, the UK is set to move its clocks forward by one hour, marking the beginning of British Summer Time (BST). The change will take place on March 31, 2024, at 1 am, causing Brits to lose an hour in bed. The practice of changing clocks during summer months, known as British Summer Time, was introduced after a campaign at the beginning of the 20th century.
The original campaign aimed to encourage people in the northern hemisphere to make more use of the earlier daylight hours. Nowadays, the clocks go forward by one hour at 1 am on the last Sunday in March, and back by one hour at 2 am on the last Sunday in October. During the period when the clocks are one hour ahead, there is more daylight in the evenings and less in the mornings, often referred to as Daylight Saving Time.
The Great Clock of Westminster, famously known as Big Ben, will be carefully adjusted to the new time by the Palace of Westminster Clockmakers during an intricate operation that takes place every time the UK moves to British Summer Time. In addition to updating the iconic clock, the clockmakers must also adjust around 2,000 other clocks in Westminster over the weekend of the time change.
The idea of British Summer Time was first promoted by William Willett, who published a pamphlet in 1907 titled ‘The Waste of Daylight’. Willett, the great-great-grandfather of Coldplay singer Chris Martin, suggested changing the clocks in the spring and putting them back in the autumn. While his proposal was initially complicated, involving advancing the clocks by 80 minutes in four separate moves of 20 minutes each, a year after his death, Parliament passed the Summer Time Act, which established the practice of putting the clocks an hour forward during the summer.
However, opponents of British Summer Time have presented arguments against daylight saving time, from safety concerns about darker mornings to farmers worried about the effect of changing routines for livestock. Moreover, some argue that changing the clocks is now redundant given that many of us spend most of our time in well-lit homes, shops, and offices, where the amount of daylight makes little difference to our lives. The debate is ongoing and depends on people’s geographical location, occupation, and lifestyle.
Around 70 countries have some form of daylight saving time, but it varies from region to region. While much of Europe and North America, as well as parts of South America and Australasia, change their clocks, many countries in Africa and Asia situated around the equator do not change the time.
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