[fredley]

I don't know, BST (more sunlight in the evenings) would be better, and UTC happening to line up with GMT could result in a whole load of programmers getting quite far in their career before realising timezones are something you even need to account for...

[Asooka]

But BST would mean waking up an hour early all the time and that's its own kind of hell. Your body doesn't care for where the hand on the clock is and the standard 9am work start time is meant to allow you to get up at some normal time around 7 or 8am. I would rather have a normal sleep schedule than an hour of sunlight in the evening. Just wake up early and use the morning light if you need it.