Government alert?!?!

[hotmumshit]

Omg? First use of the government phone alerts, i think??

Really?

I disagree as an 18yr old the adverts scared you death, only time & impact has changed along with new generations.

Not true. My phone got the alert but silently. I have my phone on mute pretty much always so maybe that's why. Or maybe there is a setting somewhere.

Anyway, given the absolute tinderbox conditions we are experiencing, I 100% support the use of the warning system today. Maybe it should be utilised for hosepipe bans and similar and not have an opt out.

Haven't read the whole thread and probably already mentioned but you can see all the past ones here https://www.gov.uk/alerts/past-alerts

I agree. Our politicians/civil servants are over-stepping again.

"Abuse of power"? They sent a message to your phone (which you can opt out of). They didnt come into your house and sniff your knickers, Princess.

Well, that's nice for you. I would very much appreciate knowing how to change the setting to mute, because I've tried quite hard, and got nowhere.

💯

I was.

I didn't get the alert. Id switched them off apparently.
I can understand things are critical when Andy called his first COBRA meeting yesterday after which he announced a ban on disposable bbqs.
To stop the prolific fires
And that he likes greggs.
Meanwhile there's a drought.
You couldn't write it.

I was in the middle of making food on my new electric bbq thought it was a warning signal on that! I'd already set the smoker function but at least not a disposable bbq on dry grass

I nearly jumped out of my skin when my dc got theirs earlier on. DH came back from supermarket a little later and said he’d had one. About 2 hours later I got mine and it scared the crap out of me. I poured a glass of wine to calm myself and about 20 minutes later I got a second alert so obviously needed a second glass of wine!

Right? The hysteria is bonkers.

The country is in a state of emergency when it comes to wildfires and the conditions are perfect for the emergency to escalate.

But god forbid people should get an alert sent to their phones setting out what they should avoid doing to avoid the situation escalating and risking even more lives.

Scared the bloody hell out of me, DH & my phone, received the alert at the same time, wondered what the hell was going on. DS1 was at the pub having dinner with his girlfriend for about 15mins, everyone’s phone was going off in the pub! DH has turned the alerts off, I will too. When did we give permission to receive these notifications?

Mine has just gone off again at 4am!!! I mean I get it’s important but scaring the 💩 out of me again at 4am is a bit much!

As I recall, it started with him saying 'Those of you who can't swim, wait over in the shallow area for me...'.

So LEARN TO SWIM kids, for pity's sake! 😱

Blasted politicians, trying to save lives.... Tssssk!!

I turned mine off yonks ago - I'm happy to take my chances old school styley...

I think its more about services being stretched. As tragic as those other events are the hospitals and emergency services arent struggling with the pressure of dealing with them. They dont tend to spread either. I mean the saying is "spread like wildfire" isnt it. Its like covid lockdowns were to try and reduce pressure on the nhs by distributing infections over a longer time period.
So this alerts is really 'this is a widespread emergency because there are more firess than the services can manage and they are exhausted now and fires spread'. If all your fire service is dealing with the fires already happening what happens if someone else starts another?

(I appreciate domestic violence is not dealt with very well).

I am relieved to find I can switch off these alerts on my phone, so thank you Mumsnet. I never want to hear a noise like that again unless a bomb is about to fall (in which case it would almost certainly be too late anyway).

check your notification settings in your phone. They may be off.

still surprised the amount of people who can’t cope with a noise on their phone.

they'll be first to moan when their house is burnt down, flooded or worse because nobody warned them!

Bit of natural selection to help the planet though I guess.

Another one at five in the sodding morning! Now THAT is unreasonable.

I wonder if you switch this on, it will help those with hearing aids from it being so loud ?

I would like to ask people moaning about this being misuse and that it will make people ignore serious ones next time, how many more than the very local alerts did you get since the alerts were set up?
Doesn't the number maybe tell you that it is actually serious....

Already had a text this morning from an agricultural tenant. Can we still bbq today.

The alert did nothing 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ also another big deliberate looking fire in a near by field at 2am.