Greenwich Global Time

As many countries around the world adjust their clocks to mark the beginning or end of daylight saving, one British newspaper has suggested we should ditch the idea - and make it GMT everywhere around the world.

Greenwich Mean Time, taking its name from Greenwich in south-east London, is the local time in Britain during the winter and is used across the globe as the time of reference.

At 0100 GMT Sunday, Britain switched to summer time and advanced the clocks by one hour to 02:00am local time. In Australia, the states and territories that have been on summer time put their clocks back an hour.

But The Daily Telegraph, a staunchly patriotic broadsheet, said the clock-switching lark was plain irritating - and came up with its own cunning plan get the world's clocks ticking to a British beat.

"The imposition is intolerable, and should be met with a more radical proposal than the retention of nature's own Greenwich Mean Time. We demand Global Time," the newspaper said in its editorial.

"In other words, if it is nine o'clock here, now, it should be nine o'clock all round the world," it insisted.

"It is no absurdity, for if we are to depart from natural time in any case, why not choose the neat solution of making the time in London the same as in New York?

"New Yorkers will get as used to the alarm going off at 11 o'clock as Australians have to eating Christmas dinner in high summer. The convenience to stock exchanges and travellers is obvious.

"As a British initiative, let it be known as Greenwich Global Time."