Tonight the clocks go forward. It means that sunrise is an hour later and sunset also an hour later than in the winter. This is BST or British Summer Time. We revert back to GMT or Greenwich Mean Time in autumn. The idea was adopted in the second World War to give farmers extra time to get crops in? The zero meridian runs through Greenwich, England, and is where the world’s time is set. As you go round the globe there are time zones set covering sections of the globe going forward or back in hourly segments.

At one stage in the UK they kept British Summer time in the winter. This was for two or three years in the 60’s or 70’s. It was darker in the mornings but lighter in the evenings. They found less traffic accidents involving children because although they were tired at the end of the school day they were able to see cars better. There were less deaths. But the government decided against keeping it because people in the far north weren’t having sunrise until 10 or 11am if I remember correctly.

There have been more recent suggestions of creating double summer time, where the clocks would permanently go forward an hour all year round, but then in the summer the clocks would go forward another hour. The idea is that this would save energy. However it has not been approved by Parliament.