Modern society wouldnt function if it couldnt moan about something mate. If you can find someone to blame all the better. To my mind this is a good idea. My moan was it should have been in place years ago. It is decent way of locally warning people. I remember not so long ago a dam was in danger if bursting, and flooding villages. This would have been a rapid way of telling residents to evacuate. I cant get my head around why anyone would turn it off, but that is their choice, it takes a few seconds to do.
Would you honestly just leave your home if you had a text message saying 'a dam was in danger of flooding' and you had to evacuate. It's not a trick question mate, just interested if you'd head for the hills based on a text out of the blue.
I have lived in this country for 58 years, I have yet to encounter an earthquake, floods or any other form of natural disaster. As for terrorism I think that by the time you got the "alert", if you were close enough to be in any danger you would have already heard the bomb going off or the gunfire.
Panicking people into running around in circles or blocking roads that emergency services need probably isn't a great idea tbh ... .. info on potential floods, blizzards or whatever is already available on the main news channels which is where the government would get the info anyway
I don't think there's anything sinister in it tbh. Just another cheap gimmick that looks and sounds impressive to people who want to believe in it. The contract 'to operate it' will, no doubt, be given to someone who donates to the Tory party or went to the right school ... ... in reality it'll never be used. Ironically they're setting themselves up for loads of, 'Where was my national alert when my car was hit by a meterorite' type moans.
Oh I get it now. The chumocracy network lost the goldmine that was Covid, so they just create an entirely new "problem" to solve with taxpayers money
I would mate yes. It wouldnt be a text out of the blue, you would know it has come from a reputable source (jokes about the govt aside). In reality it would be the emergency services pressing send I suspect. I would follow the instructions and take elderly neighbours with me tbh. These sort of systems work elsewhere. Holland have a good one that they argue has saved lives. Same in Japan. I am sure other countries do to. The company that have built and deployed this have done so for other countries with success. I know there is a laugh to be had thinking Sunak and co have delivered this but in reality they have commissioned a tech company with a track recors to deliver something which seems reasonable and this was the latest in a series of tests. Mind you I dont know if his wife has shares in the company
To be fair, people have been crying out for this system for years ... ... now they can sleep soundly knowing they're only a text message away from safety and that the government are looking after them. Never mind putting police officers on the street or nurses in hospitals, what we really need is a warning that there's due to be a terrorist bomb somewhere soon.
Lucky you. I have experienced floods. Others have and far worse than me. You seem particularly selfish to be honest. All about you and sod the rest of us eh. Just put it on ignore, like everything else you dont agree with, and stop whinging man.
I already get "severe weather" warnings to my phone, I assume they come from the Met Office and therefore no old chums from Eton and Oxbridge made any money out of it. The more I think about it the more I think you have hit the nail on the head.
The issue I have is that people don't even leave their homes when they're told to, so I seriously doubt they would on the basis of a text tbh. Just one example after a 10 second Google. Hundreds of residents in a flooded village in South Yorkshire have refused to evacuate, saying they need to look after their properties and livestock after a lack of communication from authorities. "We're powerless to do anything... we're not getting clear information from the council and Environment Agency. There's still no one on the ground telling whether they'll pump the water out or giving us any forecasts. "It's just, 'we just have to wait and see.'" https://news.sky.com/story/we-simpl...t-calls-for-evacuation-from-flooding-11859325 Japan has tsunamis and earthquakes that can each kill thousands of people. And to be fair Holland have had false alerts that have undermined confidence in the system. "The Netherlands was briefly in a state of emergency on Monday as around 12 million people across the country received an NL-Alert message on their mobile phones. The alert system is used by the Dutch government to inform citizens about disasters and life-threatening situations in their area and provides emergency instructions. The message also appeared on digital advertising signs and public transit departure boards, accompanied by an air alarm. But while citizens may have been alarmed by the warning, Dutch authorities had already confirmed that it was just a routine test of the system."
Absolutely. It is that British stiff upper lip. Like I say though I would react at the first warning and help those I could. Surely this is just another tool to help in any scenario. The tories have been looking into this for 10 years or so. Trials have been done in regions. The fact it has taken so long to get to this point is mind boggling to me. Why would it not be worthwhile? The cynic in me thinks the last year in Ukraine has made us up our game on home based security. Might be wrong, but it might be why the hurry up is on. This is just an alert that will reach c90% of people in a region that action is needed. Nothing more or less. Bit of progress in my book, and inoffensive with it. That said I was a bit pissed when my phone went off yesterday I think. Not sure I would have been much use if it was genuine. Would have died a happy man though
Well, we all know what happened when Orson Welles broadcast his version of HG Wells War Of The Worlds on the radio in 1930's America
If the Ukraine conflict escalates world wide, I'd be grateful to know if Russian/Chinese bombers were on the way so I could help get vulnerable people to a place of safety.
I was in Borough Market a couple of hours before the terrorist attack there a couple of years ago. Had left and then thought about going back later in the evening but didn't fortunately. Plenty of people would have been heading into that area at that time of night and a system like this would have warned them not to, potentially saving lives and definitely making the job of the emergency services earlier. Of course, when I take my tinfoil hat off I realise that it's just another money-making scheme for our lizard-people Tory overlords.
It's crackers isn't it? The usual suspects here now think everything has some kind of purposefully evil intent, when the fact is they're just varying levels of incompetent. I see the ambassador to Sudan and his deputy were both out of the country when it all kicked off. Who authorised that? And why would you even think of doing it in the first place if you were in those positions?
