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)

The UK is boring. No interesting weather, every thing is expensive and bland. People have to seek drama for entertainment and turning on one another like gladiators in a Roman forum seems to be just the ticket for these dreary days.

Well those 18 examples, in an area that has/still has major wildfire proves that too many people are not just stupid but fucking morons. And if that upsets you, tough. Because, yeah, most people aren't stupid but way too many people are.

Thanks for sharing your point of view.

I assume you had wildfire alerts though.
That's actually what this was about - preventing wildfires.
16 houses have been destroyed in Stourbridge which is very unusual for the UK so the government obviously felt they had to do something.

This

Wildfires are emergencies though.

A national phone alert isn’t going to stop ‘fucking morons’ or arsonists lighting fires.

But it does appear to have led people (presumably concerned citizens rather than morons) clogging up 999 lines by trying to dob in the neighbours about the hamburgers and sausages on their bbq.

When they are an imminent and immediate threat yes. Then use the emergency alert system to target those in immediate danger. Otherwise, the very many other communication channels open to you to spread general advice.

Well all the giant signs that say "No BBQs allowed here" or "No bonfires allowed" are working really well aren't they?
(sarcastic)

In the US the emergency system would be used for imminent threat to life from wildfire for specific areas eg a specific county or 2 in California. Not the entire country, and not as a general advice giving channel. Other communication methods would be used for that eg local radio, tv and social media.

And adding an emergency alert will make no difference to the morons who will continue to do their own thing anyway. What is does do however is diminish the impact of the system
for future genuine emergencies,
as was well highlighted by studies leading up to the implementation of the system. Alert fatigue is a very real documented phenomenon.

Actually....it was area specific because it was only sent to England and Wales 😁.
Ok.... maybe this wasn't the best use of the system but wildfires of this level are new to the UK and we aren't used to it.
Something needed to be done and the government tried this.
I just agree that some people over reacted and reports of people being "terrified" is over the top.

I think for this country compared to others, is that although we have had wildfires in the past, most of them are in the middle of nowhere so haven't really impacted people n the same way they have this year. Also large parts of the country have had no rain for months so things are different this year (possibly something we will have to get used to). Don't remember seeing the devastation of houses being destroyed in the way some have this year.

I have never known the main road near us being shut because of verge fires multiple times. And if these fires hadn't been contained that could spell real trouble for the countryside and dwellings nearby. We've had local warnings from the local organisation who manages the countryside near us, but tourists might not see those warnings.

So maybe a bigger warning needed to be made, and it wasn't just for disposable BBQs. It was general awareness of anything that could cause a fire, a reminder that a small flame could lead to devastation. Yes you would like to think that people would know that, but it is pretty obvious many people haven't thought about it. Yes, some people will still be idiots and some people will just not care, but hopefully the majority will act responsibly.

If they’re being ignored why would a mass phone alert do any better?

I find it increasingly difficult to believe that comms advisers (or even the fire and other emergency services) actually wanted this alert. They know enough about public communication and warnings to understand that this would do more harm than good.

Supposedly it was the fire service who asked for it.

Maybe they were hoping the shock element would help some people think.

We've been on Box Hill in Dorking, Surrey today. I've never seen so many fag butts stubbed out on the ground. Scary.

Well my own 12yo daughter who suffers from anxiety is terrified of any alarms eg smoke alarms, fire drills etc and she would absolutely be freaked out by this by which she would be crying and shaking with fear had she heard it. We’ve disabled alerts on all our devices for this reason.
Feel free to come round and tell her her reaction is “over the top”

Alerts went out a bit late i think.

The drama its caused with some people is just embarrassing tbh, some not sleeping kids screaming, i hope we dont have a real crisis with these loony ticks.

Totally !!!! For christ sake it was a few seconds of a loud noise !!! How the hell have these people had children , brought up families , gone through life's struggles if a loud beep reduces them to quivering wrecks , id be too ashamed to admit it if it had been my reaction ! Emily pankhurst and other such women who fought to tell the world that women were strong members of society must be turning in there grave . Let's just hope they all have big strong mustached husbands to pass them the smelling salts !

I very much doubt they asked the government to use the emergency alert system for this purpose. What they more likely asked for was the government to step in as do ‘something’. The emergency services would have known that the immediate impact of using the alert system would be for them to be inundated with calls from people reporting BBQs etc. They would have been very naive if they didn’t.

How does she cope at school?

How would she cope if there was an emergency?

Exactly.

Supposedly. I’m willing to believe it for now and put it down to a badly advised fire chief. But I have my doubts.

It should be used for things that need positive action eg move away from dangerous area now. Not a warning not to do something dangerous - public information campaign in mainstream and social media media would have been sufficient.

Of course it's very different for people with anxiety or PTSD etc.
I would never dream of saying her (your daughter) reaction is over the top.
For her it would be terrifying.
My daughter is autistic so her reactions to certain situations are sometimes what some people might say is extreme.
But for the majority of the population that isn't the case.