It’s Time to Call Time on Clock Changes
With the clocks set to go forward by an hour this weekend, new research from Paddy Power Games reveals that nearly six in 10 Brits (57%) are ready to bin the whole thing – proving a higher proportion of people want to ditch daylight savings than those who voted to leave the European Union (52%).
Support for ditching the twice-yearly time warp is strongest among the over-55s, with two- thirds (63%) backing the move. And on the other side of the divide, 18–24-year-olds remain the only group still clinging to clock-changing chaos – perhaps because they’ve never owned a watch that isn’t digital.
Daylight Saving = Chaos Saving
While originally introduced to make better use of daylight hours, Brits say it’s doing more harm than good.
Over a third (36%) admit they’ve been late because of the clocks changing – with top things missed including:
Top five plans/events Brits have missed from the clocks changing
| Rank | Plan/Event | % of Brits |
| 1 | A doctor’s appointment | 18% |
| 2 | A job interview | 13% |
| 3 | A gym class | 11% |
| 4 | A sporting fixture | 9% |
| 5 | A flight | 9% |
But the excuses don’t stop there. A staggering 3.4 million people have missed a funeral. 2.7 million didn’t show up to their own birthday party. And yes – 700,000 Brits claim they missed their own wedding. Who needs cold feet when you’ve got confused clocks?
Why Do the Clocks Change in the First Place? Literally No One Knows
Turns out, most of us are just pretending to understand. Over three-quarters (77%) of Brits say they don’t actually know why the clocks change.
A suspicious 6% reckon it’s just designed to wind us up, while 5% think it’s part of a secret government conspiracy.
Watch This Space (Or Don’t)
For those who struggle with the concept of time, it gets worse. Over 3.4 million Brits take at least a week to get around to changing the time on their watch, while 4.2 million never bother at all.
And it turns out women are the worst offenders, with 5.5 million admitting they don’t adjust their watches, compared to 2.7 million men.
What Paddy Power Games Has To Say
A spokesperson for Paddy Power Games said: “Let’s be honest, if 700,000 Brits are missing their own weddings because of the clocks changing, it’s probably time we called it a day. We’ve all missed a gym class or two – usually on purpose – but missing you’re own wedding is a whole new level of commitment issues.
“The fact that 57% of the nation want to scrap daylight saving time shows we’re done pretending this makes any sense. Most of us don’t even know why we do it – and at this point, we’re just losing sleep and parts of our life. Let’s stop faffing about with clocks and start turning up to our own parties.”.
