Then we can stop there. Harmonisation is a good thing.
If you want to make appliances which will operate over the whole range from the lowest permissible tolerance of 220V systems to the highest permissible tolerance of 240V systems, fine. But there was still absolutely no practical reason for changing the British supply specification from 240V +/-6% to 230V +10/-6% when (except as noted already for that odd volt-and-a-bit at the top end) it already lied entirely within that proposed 230V +/-10% range.
How does anyone feel about a worldwide "harmonized" supply specification of 180V +/-40% at 55Hz +/-10%?
The plan was that voltage levels across Europe should be unified at 230V single phase and 400V ±10%. Those countries with a nominal voltage of 240V (like the UK) were obliged to move to 230V +10% -6%, and those on 220V moved to 230V +6% -10%.
And changing the specification on paper from 240V +/-6% to 230V +10/-6% did
what specifically, other than provide the opportunity to claim that Britain had adopted the new European 230V standard? And possibly the opportunity for the DNO to take advantage of that extended lower limit at some point, which would actually result in worse regulation of the supply than was provided for already.
I said "the technically arbitrary "time" that makes the most sense for where they are and when the Sun rises and sets".
There is no technical reason why 12:00 has to be when the sun is at its highest.
But that is what the clock was based on (hence times before noon being
ante meridian and those after it
post meridian). So if we abandon that basic premise (and perhaps move to a 24-hour system entirely without a.m. & p.m. designations, why not just abandon the whole concept of time zones and have the whole world use one time? (Wouldn't that be the ideal "harmonized" time-keeping system?)
GMT is already used in just such a way in certain fields where international aspects make it more practical than accounting for all the regional differences in time zone and daylight saving time, so surely that would be the logical choice? Of course, here in California that would mean having breakfast at about 14:00 hours and going to bed around 06:00 hours, but if we're abandoning the link between noon and the sun's high point, why not go the whole way to have a system where there's no need to constantly "convert" times between places?
Or might it, like using the metric system and driving on the wrong side of the road, be a consequence of the Napoleonic Empire?
I think you'll find that Napolean was long gone before France was forced into moving ahead an hour during the First World War.