To think there’s something a bit sinister about the Government Emergency Alert test on 7th September?

[ThisAmberSignal]

I know it’s being pitched as just a routine safety check, “nothing to worry about” but I can’t help but feel uneasy. Why now? Why the sudden push to roll this out and get everyone’s phones buzzing at the same time?
Is it really just a public safety measure or could there be something more going on here - surveillance, control, a soft rollout of something bigger?

AIBU to feel suspicious… or do others get the same vibe?

What text will they send with it, to test if people pay
attention to it?
”Trump is dead.”
”Rayner resigns.”
“Farage is God.”
(Some people seem to think he is, and he probably does himself. Appropriate as Thatcher is his idol, she certainly had the God complex.)

It's a test nothing else..it happens in other countries it happened here a couple of years ago

I see it like a fire drill; surprised they do it yearly.

Not suspicious at all. But as this is a mostly female forum, it's worth reminding anyone who has a secret phone for their own safety, to disable the alerts to avoid it being inadvertently exposed. Refuge has some advice...

refugetechsafety.org/emergency-alerts or call the domestic abuse helpline 0808 2000 247.

The message will say something along the lines of "This is a test message from the UK Emergency Alert System. You do not need to do anything after reading this message. For more information go to blahblah.gov.uk"

MY concern is, my phone has never alarmed in any of the tests so far 😣 🤷‍♀️ why???
Don’t I matter 😂 😭

Oh absolutely OP!

I think we all remember what happened last time they did this!!!

It...oh no, wait, everyone just went about their day as normal.

I think there has only been one actual test and 3 mobile service didn't work.

It might work for you, but the number of people who are watching live TV or listening to live radio is reducing every year. 30 years ago TV and radio alerts would have covered a very high percentage of the population. That's not the case today as even if someone is watching TV they're likely to be doing it with NetFlix, AppleTV, iPlayer etc where that kind of "we interrupt this programme..." live alert doesn't work.

That's why they're testing additional routes to warn the population of particular threats. The phone alerts won't entirely replace the tv/radio alerts but they do offer an additional (and often more targeted) route to warning people of imminent threats.

Maybe they need to look in to what worked the last time and what didn't work, hopefully fix it, and then do another test to see if the fix worked...

...like they're doing on Sunday.

I want to see who's phone's goes off and in which order. Last time, mine and one colleague were the last people to have it go off. Now I'm working in a different ward, let's see how it goes.

Turn it off in settings of you don’t like it.

It's been done before.
It's sensible to test emergency protocols and drills regardless of whether they'll actually ever need to be used in a real situation.
In schools and workplaces you have fire drills, regardless of whether you're anticipating the building catching fire, so that everyone knows what to do in that situation.

Look, if there really was something to worry about then Anglea Rayner would have buggered off to the Phi Phi Islands instead of Hove. You need to chill out. They sounded the alarm before and will do it again in the future. Just chill, whatever will be will be.

I don’t think you are being ridiculous at all. - I feel the same as you and thousand of others do to x

Oh for goodness sake!!! They do this in other countries all the time without the population going into panic/conspiracy mode. Get a grip.

I don't think it's suspicious or sinister, but you can just turn the alarm off if it annoys you.

My phone usually lives turned off in a little Faraday box anyway so it makes no difference to me.
I have it for the odd time I want to phone someone or a rare verification thing, not for other people to be able to contact me.
Anyone who knows me can get hold of me without any issue and they don't need a mobile to do it.

YABU, I’m all for emergency preparedness and the UK is so behind on all this stuff.

The ww2 air raid sirens went on being regularly tested f.or about 15-20 years after the war. It could be startling but its gleeful to have a national warning system. Its not just for wars but for other national emergencies as well.

This. And that wad a massive cocktail up so probably only right they're trying it again.

It appears to be mainly Reform voting wingnuts who are having a breakdown about a beepy noise over on X, “the everything app”.

In Switzerland they test the actual sirens every February. I used to run the test in a village near Zurich.

To be fair, there are plenty of conspiracy theorists everywhere. There has been an emergency alert system in Canada for quite a while now, and there are still plenty of conversations similar to this one about it online!

I remember people posted this sort of thread on the run up to the first of these tests a few years back.

Seems sensible to do tests every now and again imo

There's only been one test (2 and a half years ago).
Older phones (ie 3G) didn't receive it and depending on your network and transmitter tower not everyone got the test message.
That's why they need to tweak the system and test again.

Well. If I lived in Canada with the unbalanced orange thing next door - War! Department of War! - I'd because pleased we had a national warning system. Who knows what he'll do?1