Emergency Alert

I'd left my phone behind, and didn't see the alert until about 1am, don't think the phone screen was on when I picked it up.

I rgought I'd turned alerts off ... I have now.

I sincerely hope people who have a seceret phone were not exposed.

Strangely, I was reading the Wikipedia entry on that not 5 minutes ago (the sketch, that is).

Didn't realised it used the music 'Devil's Galop'.

I can't think of anything which for which I'd want to hear an alert which I could do something about.

If they had a slow sound build-up it would be more acceptable, but a loud sound going off suddenly is poor design. If you're up a ladder and it suddenly goes off you might drop something - or, worse - yourself. That could be true for doing anything hazardous at the time.

That's the problem - /might/ be. Do you think the latest one about being careful to not start fires makes any sense? Those stupid enough to use disposable BBQs in the current situation (ok, they're now temporarily banned) aren't going to pay any attention to an alert anyway. Note that "Emergency Alerts is a UK government system that provides warning and advice in a life threatening emergency." It's not meant to be a warning system about morons.

Why would you be going anywhere near the sea if there was a chance the sea wall would collapse, and if you were near enough to get the alert do you think you'd be able to do anything about it? Those alerts were meant for severe natural disasters which we don't get here - tornado warnings to get to a shelter, tsunami warnings to get to high ground, earthquake warnings to get out of buildings, etc

Which is exactly why the system should not be used for non-emergency purposes other than pre-announced tests. We all know the story of the boy who cried 'wolf' when there wasn't one.

Which would be an appropriate use of it.

A general recommendation, of the same kind that has been carried in newspapers and on the broadcast media repeatedly over the last few weeks, is not an emergency.

Somebody used to listen to Dick Barton Special Agent…

People are still using portable BBQs in the New Forest and when locals point out the hazards they just get grief.

wasn't that the Dick Barton theme tune (searching memory from the pre-Archers days).

Indeed. It has been mentioned more than once on Radio Solent. Perhaps disposable BBQs could be quietly sneaked in to the Offensive Weapons Act

They last tested the system in 2025

Well, I didn't. But I knew about it.

Yes. The BBC never liked it (too sensational) so they binned it and replaced it with the 'comfortable' Archers.

If it's important, maybe it should be tested more frequently than that?

That's one idea. I remember that one of the actors was going abroad and wouldn't be able to take part, so the show was abandoned

Isn't climate change an emergency? Various politicians have been spouting off in the past few days about the climate "emergency"

I wonder if an OS upgrade turns the alerts back on?

A variant form of Mission creep. "We have this facility, it'd be a shame not to use it."

They may even be counterproductive. When wildfires break out, it always seem to nudge into action that small cadre of nutters who will go out and deliberately start (more) fires. They don't seem to have sufficient imagination to do this until something sparks the idea in their tiny brains. Emergency Alerts seem like an ideal trigger for them.

No. No less a scientist than Bill Gates has said there is no longer a climate emergency, now that all these power-hungry heat-emitting data centres need to be built, oh what a giveaway*.

But preferably not at 20 minute intervals.