Coming to the debate a little late I find your contributors to date divide mainly between supporters of a switch to European time and, interestingly, those who want to go back to year-round GMT. So I'm in a minority in favouring permanent GMT+1hr. I'm pursuaded by the argument that there are fewer accidents on dark mornings than dark evenings, but feel an important element of any change should be to eliminate the twice-yearly chore of adjusting the numerous clocks, watches and timers most households and businesses have nowadays. Summer evenings with BST are surely light enough for most people, while for business people who want to keep in step with Europe it should be less of a hardship to rise earlier during the summer. Scotland, as others have said, can go its own way if it likes. In short, put the clocks on next March and leave them indefinitely. Barry Goodchild, Wallington, Surrey

Keep BST all year. Personally I prefer to come to work in the dark and, hopefully, have it get lighter during the day, than come to work in the light and spend all day watching it get darker. Due to the change, it now starts getting dark at 4.00 p.m., by December that will be 3.00 p.m.. The extra hour of daylight at 8.00 a.m. is such a waste, particularly at weekends, when we could be out doing something. David Leslie, Crieff, Scotland

Had no-one else noticed that last week it was still dark at about 8am? If the clocks hadn't gone back, in a couple of weeks the entire moring rush hour and school run would have been done in the dark. Morning traffic is worse than that in the evening already (traffic is more concentrated over a shorter time), plus people are not necessarily very awake, so it would be a recipe for disaster. Ultimately there aren't sufficient daylight hours in winter to overcome this problem, and one rush hour at least will be done in the dark. Ian Blanchard, St Albans

It seems ludicrous, just as evenings are getting shorter, to slice a further hour off them by moving the clocks back. You would have thought there must be some pretty compelling reasons for everyone to accept this without question. I would love to hear them. David Trafford, London

Please let's keep the evenings as light as possible in the winter - it's less depressing and would help many thousands of school children to move away from that sofa and get some outside play. Sybilla Strempel, Ropley, Hampshire

As an expat I have always found the clocks going back crazy. People are tired in the evenings and need as much light as possible to drive home in. Also, that extra hour of light is good for morale. Aussies are cheerful because of all the sunshine they get. The Brits would appreciate the extra hour of light in winter enormously and stop us being so miserable at that time of year. Philip Shipham, Sydney, Australia

Yes we should adopt European time including returning to GMT + 1 in the winter. Many other countries have 2 or more time zones without any fuss. This would be something that could make a genuine difference to both peoples mental and physical well being. For instance, lighter evenings help promote exercise and sporting activities, helping to fight the growing problem of obesity in all ages. Paul Cooke, West Yorkshire

I think that we should retain GMT/UTC all year round. It would end this silly annual argument once and for all.. for which I would be forever grateful. The time-zone in which we all live (Scots too!) is based on the Greenwich meridian - and the perceived position of the Sun at noon.. ie directly overhead the meridian. BST is totally artificial and, in my opinion, a bad concept. David Peters, Cheltenham

Unfortunatly we seem hell bent on standardising everything British to the European way. We can all see that we have little British identity, and its because we are all becoming carbon copies of what the euro-MPs want us to be. Let's stick to what is British, and not bow to Europe. Matthew Howard, Witney

I am a Maths teacher and the health and safety rep in a large Scottish secondary school. I strongly support a move to Central European Time. If 450 people (many of them children) were killed, and many more were injured in a disaster we would vow to do everything in our power to make sure it would never happen again. And yet we cause that mayhem, misery and destruction every year by returning to GMT in October. It is a mistake to believe that keeping clocks forward will only provide benefit for more Southern regions. In fact the opposite is true. Alaska, Iceland and Central/Northern Russia all advance their clocks by an hour in winter (and they all have colder darker winters than Scotland). In Iceland,in order to keep the afternoons light till 4pm sunrise does not occur until 11.15am It pains me to say this about my own countrymen, but I believe many Scots vote 'no' on this issue simply because "If the English want it, I don't". I'm all for friendly rivalry at Murrayfield or Wembley but when it comes to saving children's lives, this sort of attitude sickens me to the core. John Macnab, Troon

The darker evenings are caused by the clocks being turned back? And all these years I thought they were the result of the earth tilting away from the sun. I have never understood BST (B***** Stupid Tinkering). GMT is correct – 12 o'clock midday should be when the sun is at its highest. When Spring approaches I welcome being able to go to work in daylight, then BST thrusts me back into winter again. Complete with jetlag. And the evenings are still dark anyway. Again, at this time of the year, I am travelling in the dark in both directions when I should be driving in daylight in the mornings. BST means an extra two months of winter. I don’t want it. If it applied genuinely in the Summer (mid-May to mid-August) I would find it acceptable – but any random twisting and bending of the clock hands is going to affect adversely somebody in some walk of life. Use GMT permanently and let individuals adjust their own schedules if they must. Or let us all do everything an hour – or two hours – earlier the whole year round, but keep time where it belongs – anchored to the meridian. Keith Stott, Gatwick

The UK should adopt European time. Although it's darker in the mornings, people are more awake than in the evenings when they are on their way home. With lighter, and longer, evenings it gives the opportunity for people to do more sport and leisure activities. Alan Bevan, Lanquais, France

I should be absolutely delighted if we adopted European time and no longer had to endure the dreary dark early evenings which make winter seem all the more depressing. Now that Scotland has its own parliament, it could surely opt to continue as before whilst the rest of the UK could enjoy all the advantages of lighter evenings and a time zone matching that of the rest of Europe. Ursula Price, London

Having just returned from living in Spain for twenty years I can vouch for the nuisance the difference in time occasions. Air travel, telephone, Channel Tunnel, ferries, television,you name it and it would all be simplified if we harmonised with the majority of Europe. Why do we pander to a few Europhobes? David Cotterell, Cheltenham

The UK is perfectly geographically positioned on the world map for GMT all year round. Time zones change by one hour for every 15 degrees east or west of the Greenwich Meridian. Let's keep what nature has given us. Geoff Skuse, Vancouver

The underlying assumptions of the RAC's analysis should be carefully reviewed/challenged. Regardless of whether the clocks are adjusted or not, the number of daylight hours diminish until the shortest day is reached. Using historical fatality data collected for the winter in comparison with the summer months would undoubtedly indicate more deaths in winter - but how does this relate to the shift to GMT rather than other factors such as precipitation/fog? Given that the UK has not experimented with other summer/winter time regimes since the 1960s there are no obvious benchmarks on which to base such an analysis. John Cheshire, Woodbridge

At the last Parliamentary vote, a majority of English MPs voted to keep BST all year round, or move to "Paris" time. But overall the motion was lost by Scottish and Irish MPs voting against. In this era of devolution we should allow the Scots and Irish to set the clocks as best suits them: and the English should set their clocks as best suits us. GMT is probably best between December 1 and January 31; BST is best in the "shoulder period" and double summer time from April 1 to September 30. GMT should certainly finish by the end of February, not the end of March. After all it starts two months before the solstice, so why does it end three months afterwards? Philippa Pirie, London

I wouldn't like to fall out with our Scottish cousins ,but the "window" of light in Winter remains the same - the question is do we push it toward the evening to make the most of what there is socially - which attracts a lot of support and which also, according to extensive surveys, would save more (young) lives by reducing the high toll of evening traffic accidents? I would say yes, but it would mean Scottish daylight starting at around 10 am in December. David Moorcraft, Penarth

The problem is that we are forever tinkering. It is surely inconvenient to change all our clocks and timetables every six months. In today's world virtually every device one turns to has a clock on it. It also seems needless to have to readjust our lives in this way, and perhaps unhealthy to do so, if the safety groups you mention are correct. Of course the evenings are no darker in themselves, it is we who have to cope with a time adjustment that may cause those fatal accidents the RAC adduces. Safety groups often say keep BST and then advance the clocks from that in summertime. Thus we would still be in this crazy business of changing the clocks every 30 weeks. I disagree that we should keep BST. I also disagree that we should adopt a European system. As the world's base reference is GMT, why not revert to GMT as usual now and stick with it henceforward? It seems right that we should use GMT all the time here at home. Clive Melton, Tring

The claim that there will be 50 extra deaths does not take into account that some people would die in the early mornings if BST was kept during the winter. As a newspaper roundsman in a rural area I would not appreciate an extra hour (two hours if some people had their way) of darkness on winter mornings,we don't all live in towns with streetlights. Too many people waste too much daylight sleeping in the mornings as it is. Tim Chambers, Ilminster

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever why a shared border has to mean shared time zones. Scotland's reasons for holding England and Wales to a system which is clearly unhelpful, unpleasant and unsafe are purely economic. If Scotland wants to put its clocks back and forth in the current fashion let its people change their working hours to suit their business while we tell the time to suit ourselves. Name and address withheld

Not only should we abandon the use of GMT in the winter but we should adopt 'double' summer time so that we can enjoy the evenings. Travelling to mainland Europe is always a pleasure as the light evenings allow you to really enjoy the pavemant cafes and wine bars. Imagine if the British were able linger on a warm, light summer evening over a glass of red - maybe we would start to move away from the culture of binge drinking in dark bars. As for those north of the border - they have their own assembly now, if they don't like the time changes they can stay as they are and we'll change our watches at Gretna Green. Martin Pearce, Bristol

I was a student in Edinburgh during the "experiment". It was pitch dark when I left my first lecture at 10am and was dark again by 3pm. Let the arrogant English do what they like. We Scots wants none of it. Oskar Johnson, London

I've tried to think of some really good reason why we should continue with the current system of changing time twice every year; I can't (except we are British and if there is a cack-handed way of doing things, we will find it!). Tom Edwards, Bromley

I thik we should keep British Summer time all year round, the ideas to move another hour ahead would surely make it even darker in the evenings in dead of winter. At least with British Summer time it would be lighter and surely we need some differential from the rest of Europe on something - were not part of the EU in terms of locality. David Lane, Stoke-on-Trent

Winter time (GMT) is of great benefit for people, like myself, who have to travel in the mornings over ungritted roads. The extra hour of daylight allows some time for ice to thaw and for fog to clear. The darker evenings are not such a problem as the fog and frost usually arrive quite a while after dark. I believe that quite a few years ago (was it in the 1970s?) the use of BST in the winter was tried and it was stopped because of the increase in early morning accidents - particularly involving children. People who trade with Europe could start an hour earlier without inflicting it on the whole population. Jana Colchester, Suffolk

I think it should be in line with European time. Banks and other institutions would then be in line with European markets. Bryan Perry, Dorchester

We should certainly not put the clocks back for winter - in fact we should put the clocks forward and leave them permanently at the GMT +2. Scotland can do what it wants. Jorg Beasley, Yeoford

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