Anyone listening to Jeremy Vine over the alert?

[princesspadam]

Dear god! The amount of hand wringing it’s caused with callers reporting their children screaming, one callers wife hasn’t slept all weekend

whats wrong with everyone? talk about snow flake

this is fairly standard practice in other parts of the globe (have had it several times in the US)

my DCs didn’t even mention it when I got home on Friday night (neither did DP)

This in spades

Not an immediate threat?

omg… look outside the window

one spark and it’s all going up.

I really hope you're exaggerating or you're getting treatment for your mental health.

There are many people on MN who don’t watch the news or look at news websites. So amazingly there will be some people who won’t have seen the devastation in Stourbridge. Who probably think wildfires don’t happen here or only in the middle of nowhere. And even many who do watch the news were disregarding the messages being shown.

I think the Fire Service probably thought a shock tactic was required as so many people were being careless. Obviously you will still get the idiots who ignore the messages but hopefully it will make some people think more carefully

They can opt out though? Plus keep the phone switched off there are ways round it

@blackheartsgirlI live in England but fairly close to the Welsh border. I've spoken to a number of people over the weekend who were in our nearby English town when the alert went off who also got the message in Welsh.

You'd think that regular sensible people wouldn't need the message. Especially where we are in the south east. I mean, the dry fields, grass like straw and the local fire service working to put out fires- we have lost a local pub, and a couple of farmers have had their winter straw/hay set alight.
But you'd be wrong; one of the villagers merrily lit a bonfire for 5 days in a row last week as he had time off to clear his garden.

I am not a fan of this government and I am not sure that the emergency alert was used appropriately but we need something.

I am sick to death of the complete over reaction to it. The good old DM blaming whoever it was who sent it out

The media needs to get behind the idea, the fact that there is all this hand wringing, ‘distress’ and complete over reaction just shows how un resilient this country has become. To me it started big time with Covid and all the hand wringing about schools closing etc. yes it was hard but nows your chance to tell kids the world does kick back sometimes

as to the alarm, the country is full of fires, houses, wildfires, people being injured it’s right that an alarm was sounded to remind people. the fire crews are at stretching point. My nephew is a fire fighter called out twice once after the other for field fires. It’s tough and people need to be reminded just look at all the posts about not being able to go camping now as no bbq or pit fires, just ridiculous

Half of MN when it went off:

The alarm did cause me concern until I read the message, I was under the impression it was only being used when the public were in imminent danger and would be sent out to those in the vicinity so for a few seconds I did think that me and my family were at some kind of immediate risk.

Once I read it I realised that it was just the same warnings that have been on the news for weeks.

I also think it was a mistake to use the alarm for general public information as people are much less likely to take it seriously in future.

My son is 11, I let him watch newsround, but on the whole I try to protect him from the worst of world events, because I think at 11 he should be thinking about the park and fun and not WW3. However, MANY of his friends talk about WW3 constantly and are genuinely afraid - their youtube algorithms serve them up all kinds of WW3 and disaster related content and they know all about the different ways the world can end - I feel like in our well intended efforts to make sure our kids are well informed, we've actually terrified them. They genuinely think the end of the world is coming. I know when we were kids there was the cold war and stuff, but I honestly think our parents made an effort to protect us, news was only on a couple of times a day (and seen as boring) and most of the threats were quite specific and therefore could pass - kids now are constantly bombarded with the threat of the end of the world. It's not surprising they're worried, they're told to be worried.

I think it terrified the cat more than me. Couldn’t quite work out where it was coming from for a second. Looked at phone - and message. ok, got on w my evening.
it was a bit of a shock going off but lasted a few seconds.
Can be disabled on a hidden phone. I remember them saying this when they ran the test.
Many Members of the public are dim - they have to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

I don't want to participate in shaming anyone, but we need emergency alert systems.

This was my thought too. I think the alert without the sound would have done the job just fine.

The emergency alerts should be for an emergency.

Wild fire in your area, see more details here and potentially leave your home, yes very sensible and requires immediate attention. But that is not the same as a warning about the high risk of wildfires fires.

Agreed

I feel the alert was needed as so many people seem to be completely unaware of the dangers, there had been fireworks near me just the day before and neighbours had been burning stuff in their garden.

However I think it was the alert noise that upset people. There was no immediate threat to life, it wasn’t a notice to evacuate for example, so it could have just been a ping, rather than alarm noise.

I do think all the panicking people need to get a grip though. It was like when the announced the practice ones and so people got in a panic about that.

Neither I nor my teenage sons found it remotely frightening, but I think it is a crazy use of an emergency system.

Although fires are serious and risks are ongoing, they are not something that you can do anything about at that precise moment. They should have messages which are less urgent (and less noisy).

I think it is a bit like you going to A&E for a serious but non urgent condition, where a GP’s appointment is what you actually need.

The system isn't just for "immediate threat to life" though.
It can also be used for help in finding missing children/vulnerable adults.
We don't call them "Amber Alerts" in the UK but that's what they are.

But finding missing children/the elderly is an immediate threat to someone’s life and the alert would be more localised which is appropriate. The whole country wouldn’t get an alert to look out for aunty pat.

Yes the alert last Friday was unusual as it went to the whole of England and Wales. Usually that isn't what happens.
For some people it was the first alert since the test ones (so many people were taken by surprise).
For others it wasn't.

The amber alert system is slightly different. The guy who implemented the use of the system in the U.K. was talking about it on the radio the other morning. I think he said that we don’t have the amber alert system here, just the emergency alert that we had the other day and what the Americans call ‘presidential alert’ which cannot be turned off. That is for serious national danger.

listen to this from about 17 minutes in.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0030c0z?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

If the fire service are so concerned about the situation that they decided that this needed to happen and it’s been OK’d then I’m all for it. How can I possibly decide that the situation didn’t warrant it. I’m guessing they know what capacity they have to manage a French level wild fire and it’s obviously not good. If someone decides in their infinite wisdom that it was unnecessary and switches it off ( after one or two warnings ) then that’s on them. Something happens to them or their family down the road because they switched it off then that’s on them. Stupid is as stupid does. I have zero capacity to hear whining about it. Get a grip

We had one whilst we were in Korea. That was a fun 60 seconds trying to get it through Google Translate

Unfortunately the 8 arrests in our area associated with fires have so far been children aged between 11 and 15 and I doubt they are responsible for all of them.

But the UK system has been used sometimes for missing people (as far as I know).
Apologies if I am wrong.