WINTER IS COMING AND THE UK IS GETTING READY TO SET ITS CLOCKS BACK AN HOUR ON THE 27TH OF OCTOBER

As the days grow shorter and the temperatures plummet, we are reminded that the onset of the colder winter months are not far ahead. 

As always at this time of year the UK prepares itself for the annual event of forgetting to set the alarm clock back an hour, then waking up in a mad rush to get to work in the morning. The good news of course is that most modern day electrical goods will carry out this function by themselves, smartphones, TV's etc... There is always that one appliance that catches you out though and for me it is the cooker which makes things worse considering I have lost the handbook.

The process is a bi-yearly one and it was first brought into practice during 1916 at the height of the first world war, the original reason was to reduce the demand for coal, reduce energy needs, save money and get people outside in the evenings, since those days the time altering measure has become a part and parcel of our daily lives and so twice a year without fail the clocks go either back or forth depending on the month. You could say it is as regular as clockwork.

There are other reasons why swapping between GMT and BST and back again is a good idea, from making it lighter when the kids are going to school, to construction work, farming and even allowing the postie to do his/her job in the daylight. Although I don't get my post until way after dinner most days.

This year they will be going back an hour at 2am on the morning of Sunday the 27th of October when British Summer Time (BST) officially ends and we head back to the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) system. It won't be until the 31st of March 2020 until the clocks go forward once again to take advantage of the longer days.

So until then we are stuck with shorter, colder days and longer, darker nights. Not all is lost though as we do get an extra hour in bed to dream about winning the lotto. The bad news is we will all get to grumble again at the end of March when we loose an hour again.

There have been proposals however to scrap it altogether and choose if we remain an hour in front or an hour behind. The EU will be debating such a proposal after scrapping the twice-yearly clock changes. The UK should be out of the EU by the 31st of October if the governments plans go forward so the changes would not affect the UK who would have the option to make the decision by itself.