There as a comment piece in the Independent (a UK newspaper) today that said that Lord Tanlaw has proposed changing the UK's timezone. The Independent only makes such stuff available on-line for a fee, but you can see the start of the piece at <http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/ article353873.ece>. The Cambridge mathematician mentioned is presumably Joseph Myers. I've looked on the UK Parliament website and it seems Lord Tanlaw introduced his Lighter Evenings (Experiment) Bill on 30 November last year. The Bill itself and the noble Lord's explanatory notes can be found linked from <http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldbills/ 048/2006048.htm>. The initial debate, such as it was, occupies four lines of Hansard at <http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/ldhansrd/pdvn/ lds05/text/51130-04.htm#topichd_4>. (To be fair, the first reading of a Bill is usually like this, just a formality.) It came up for second reading on 24 March, and the much more substantial debate can be found at <http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/ldhansrd/pdvn/ lds06/text/60324-01.htm#60324-01_head0>. It was approved and will now go to a committee of the whole house for its committee stage. If it gets past that it will go to the Commons. The Bill proposes to move England's time one hour ahead in winter and summer for an experimental period starting in October this year and ending in October 2009. Scotland would be allowed to opt in to this experiment by an amendment to the Scotland Act (timezone matters are currently reserved to Westminster so Scotland can't do it's own thing without such an amendment). Wales and Northern Ireland would similarly be allowed to opt in. Lord Tanlaw has in the past tried and failed to change the legal definition of the UK's standard time from GMT to UTC. Personally I don't think he will be any more successful this time. At the Bill's current rate of progress it's very hard to see any experiment starting this year even if the principle is accepted. Peter Ilieve peter@aldie.co.uk