Should daylight savings be abolished?

Daylight saving time begins this weekend – on Sunday we will “spring forward” an hour and officially begin British Summer Time. 

The annual tradition began in 1916 as a means of extending daylight hours in the evening, and since 1995 the dates of daylight savings have been standard across Europe.

While many of us accept it as a part of life, shifting the clocks forward in March and back in October can cause disruption to automated schedules, medical devices and timetables.

Though it’s practised in the UK, Europe and North America, many other countries have abandoned the tradition, while countries close to the equator never used it at all.

In response to public opinion, the legislative bodies of the European Union voted to abolish daylight savings time in 2018; in 2021 countries in the EU were no longer going to practice it, instead keeping permanently to ‘winter’ or ‘summer’ hours. However, the likelihood of the EU abolishing DST in 2021 is very slim. Europe, like the rest of the world, has been busy handling the health and economic effects of Covid-19.

Negotiations have not yet started in the European Council, making it very unlikely for the new rules—even if agreed rapidly—to apply in 2021.

The draft law proposes that 2021 will be the last time EU Member States and affiliated countries follow the seasonal clock change.

What do you think? Should the UK also abolish daylight savings, or is this a worthwhile tradition? Share your views in the comments below.