Daylight saving time — is it really useful?

I always hated it when the United Kingdom put the clocks forward an hour in the Spring and back an hour in the Autumn. Now it’s happened for nearly 30 years and another thirty years later I still don’t understand how it helped anyone.

- Birjees Hussain

I always hated it when the United Kingdom put the clocks forward an hour in the Spring and back an hour in the Autumn. I saw it happen for nearly 30 years and another thirty years later I still don't understand how it helped anyone.

In the short term, in the winter months, it would become dark around 4 or 5 in the evening because, in reality, it was really 5 or 6. You also woke up to very dark mornings; in fact, it was not only very dark but also very cold and you immediately wanted to stay away from work, school or university for the day.

And it didn't help when, sometimes, it would also rain. I remember in the winter months, the first thing I would do in the mornings was to look out of my bedroom window to see what the weather was like and often change my mind about what I'd be wearing that day if it looked particularly cold.

In the summer, however, we'd all be talking about how light outside it still was at 6 in the evening, forgetting that, in reality, it was really 5 o'clock. We'd also be amazed at how bright the mornings were forgetting that the 7 o'clock on our clocks was really 8! Oh how fickle-minded we were.