Jim and Barbara Casey live in their own time zone. Jim, 74, a retired hotelier, calls it WARP – Winter Adjustment for Retired People – and says it means he and Barbara avoid queues and traffic, get the best seats at restaurants and are never late for appointments.
The couple, from Heversham, Cumbria, say they were sick of long, dark evenings and decided to take matters into their own hands after a holiday in Tenerife. Jim realised that when they returned to the Lake District it would be going dark too early for his liking, so he decided to stick with European time, an hour ahead of GMT.
“It makes the day a bit longer,” says Jim. “We are on continental time and we can never be late. There are so many benefits to it – if you’re on holiday and you go to breakfast, you’re always an hour ahead of everyone, so you never queue.
“When we go out to a restaurant here for lunch, there’s nobody there, so we get served first and get the best seats. We miss a lot of the rush-hour traffic too, and it means when we go shopping, there is always somewhere to park.”
Aside from having more daylight, Jim also made the change because he resented being told how to live his life: “I don’t like being told to do things by government – they robbed us of an hour of daylight without asking!”
Several of Jim’s friends have followed suit and joined WARP, but he is not on a mission to convert people. “I’m not starting a campaign,” says Jim. “When people are working it’s very difficult. It’s for people who are in charge of their own destiny.”
Jim and Barbara have decided that they will never switch back to government time. “I won’t put the clocks back,” says Jim. “When government time catches up with us, we might even move forward again.”
