[LEAPSECS] LEAPSECS Digest, Vol 45, Issue 1

[Tony Finch]

On Thu, 2 Sep 2010, Ian Batten wrote:

>

> It'll be interesting in the UK


Yes.


> * There's no doubt that UK legal time is GMT, Interpretation Act 1978, S.9

>

> *  There's no doubt that whatever GMT is, it's solar, and there's no doubt

> that whatever UTC is, it isn't solar and would be even less solar without leap

> seconds,

>

> * There's no doubt that proposed legislation to change UK legal time to UTC

> failed to be passed in 1997, and an extensive history of the issue got read

> into Hansard.

>

> You'd have a hell of a job showing UK time was UTC in the face of that.


The alternative argument is that GMT (the astronomical timescale) has not
been maintained for decades, and all current solar timescales have
different more specific names. All official time sources (legal time) in
the UK have been synced to UTC for decades. For all practical purposes
what we call GMT (the only current use for the term) is now de facto the
same as UTC. The fact that it used to be a mean solar timescale is now
just etymology.


> There's clear, modern legislation to the contrary.


The legislation does not say what GMT means. All it says is:

"Subject to section 3 of the Summer Time Act 1972 (oonstruction of
references to points of time during the period summer time), whenever an
expression of time occurs in an Act, the time referred to shall, unless it
is otherwise specifically stated, be held to be Greenwich mean time."

Tony.
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