Spain's famously late lunches and dinners are not, as often conjectured, an age-old tradition based on a leisurely Mediterranean lifestyle. Rather, it is because Spain was put onto a different timezone by General Francisco Franco in 1940 when allied with Germany, and therefore Spaniards found themselves having lunch at 2pm. After the war, the country should have moved to GMT, but remained on Central European Time. Although plans are afoot to bring Spanish time up to date, this has attracted a heated debate.