Talk:Western European Time

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[edit] This page needs substantial editing

I have many, many problems about this page. Only a few are listed below.

1. Veracity / Citations Required

1.1. Where did the name Western European Time (WET) come from? (http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/europe/european-union/western-european-time/)Bungeecork 04:07, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

1.2. What evidence does the author have for any adopted use of the term internationally and locally to the included regions?

1.3. I would guess that the region around Danmarkshavn that participates in WET does so since its principal economic partner is Iceland. If this is the case, it should be mentioned as an example of the rationale behind this time zone.

1.4. Is the rationale of WET purely economic? Does it also entail that set of territories which share a common Daylight Saving Time (DST) rule (see also (2.1.) below)?

2. Consistency / Ambiguity

2.1 Is Iceland a full participant of the DST rule for this time zone?

2.1.1 If so, the map should be re-coloured so that Iceland is the same colour as pt, uk and ie.

2.1.2. If not, then perhaps is should be removed from the list of participant territories.

2.2. A severe ambiguity arises over Ireland, regardless of practice.

2.2.1. Irish Standard Time is as enacted in Acht an Oireachtais No. 23/1968: STANDARD TIME ACT, 1968[1], expressly defining Irish Standard Time as being one hour in advance of Greenwich Mean Time(GMT), or GMT+1.

2.2.2. Irish Summer Time is as enacted in Acht an Oireachtais No. 8/1925: SUMMER TIME ACT, 1925. [2] Particular attention should be drawn to the opening section:

1. —(1) The time for general purposes in Saorstát Eireann shall during the period of summer time be one hour in advance of West-European time.

A potentially original defintion of WET is found in the final section:

4. —In this Act the expression "West-European time" means Greenwich mean time

2.2.3. (Wait for the killer punch!) An amendment to the 1968 Act Acht an Oireachtais No. 17/1971: STANDARD TIME (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1971[3] enacts the creation of what could be described as Irish Winter Time, equivalent to GMT.

2.2.4. Reading these acts, it would appear that Ireland is always legally at GMT+1. By Act of Parliament, therefore, IST means Irish Standard Time as much as it means Irish Summer Time. Regardless of the need to remove ambiguity, this is such an unusual case that it merits inclusion: the text of the article should be amended to incorporate this.

2.3. This article seems to imply that WET is operationally equivalent to Co-ordinated Universal Time (UTC), especially in the application of DST. Please clarify which territories are UTC territories that also adhere to the rules of WET, and which territories are excluded. An alternative edit would be to remove the list of 'other' UTC territories which appears at the bottom of the article, since they are not WET territories.

3. Omissions / Errors

3.1. The map's legend should be adjusted to include properties of those territories coloured light blue and pink.

3.2. The map should be adjusted to include the participant region around Danmarkshavn.

3.3. The first reference to Danmarkshavn should mention that it is a town in Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat).

3.4. A short table should be added which lists which territories operate DST and when.

3.5. The list of 'other' UTC territories is not complete. It should either contain all non-WET territories which follow UTC or should be deleted as suggested in (2.3.) above.

3.5. A see also section should be appended, which at the very least includes links to:

UTC, GMT, and Central European Time (CET).

3.6. A reciprocal link to the WET page should be appended to the see also sections of the GMT and CET pages.

I can't believe I've just written a comments page twice as long as the referred article. Ah well; I'm now going to look at the other time zone pages. Tomorrow. --die Baumfabrik 02:08, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sources

The standard source for information about time zones present and past is the public-domain timezone database maintained by Arthur David Olson and Paul Eggert at [4]. Eggert cites:

• Thomas G. Shanks, The International Atlas 5/e, San Diego: ACS Publications, 1999.
• Edward W. Whitman, World Time Differences, London: Whitman Publishing Company, n.d.
• Derek Howse, Greenwich Time and Longitude, n.p.: Philip Wilson, 1997.

121a0012 19:19, 6 May 2006 (UTC)