Debate rages on over Spanish time zones as clocks go forward tonight: Would GMT really make a difference to working life?
Sunday, March 26, 2017 @ 10:50 PM
SPAIN joins the rest of Europe in turning its clocks forward tonight (Saturday) – or rather at 02.00 on Sunday morning – as the debate continues on whether the country should drop back an hour to join the UK, Portugal and Morocco in their earlier time zone.
Experts in physics have recently refuted the ongoing assumption that Spain is an hour ahead of its geographic time because dictator General Franco wanted to align the clocks with his allies in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, saying it was in fact an agreement made with French president Général Charles de Gaulle to streamline inter-European communications.
And they do not agree that Spain 'acts as though it is jet-lagged', recalling that many other parts of Europe – such as western France, Belgium and The Netherlands – are in the wrong time zone and should be on GMT in winter and BST in summer, but that their inhabitants have, like Spain, adapted accordingly.
The 'jet lag' would explain a great deal about Spain's rather unique daily routine – shops rarely open much before 10.00; lunch starts between around 13.30 and 15.00, and evening dinner is somewhere between 20.00 and 21.00 in winter and as late as 23.00 in summer – and tourists mistakenly stay off the beach at noon to avoid the 'midday sun' when, in fact, due to the clock change, this would be at 13.00, but in Spain is at 14.00.
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