Public emergency alert - being sent to your phone

[monkfish1]

Grumps. said:

monkfish1 said:

All of what turbobloke and lotobear said ^^^^^^^

Summary: They WILL abuse the system. They cant help themselves. Ive managed to survive this long without it. Unlike the many i dont take my phone to bed, so thats a third of the day already that i wont know about it. I really dont need more government protection to keep me "safe". In fact, i want protecting FROM the government. But thats for another thread.

Anyone else wants this drivel in their life, crack on.

How will they abuse the system?

And what makes you think they are even capable?

How is the system abused in other countries that have a similar system?

As per turboblokes reply, and my earlier one, look at how they now use motorway signs. Not really sure how much more evidence you need?

[Grumps.]

monkfish1 said:

Grumps. said:

monkfish1 said:

All of what turbobloke and lotobear said ^^^^^^^

Summary: They WILL abuse the system. They cant help themselves. Ive managed to survive this long without it. Unlike the many i dont take my phone to bed, so thats a third of the day already that i wont know about it. I really dont need more government protection to keep me "safe". In fact, i want protecting FROM the government. But thats for another thread.

Anyone else wants this drivel in their life, crack on.

How will they abuse the system?

And what makes you think they are even capable?

How is the system abused in other countries that have a similar system?

As per turboblokes reply, and my earlier one, look at how they now use motorway signs. Not really sure how much more evidence you need?

The motorway signs informing people of potential issues up ahead?

Why is that a bad thing?

[Biker 1]

Agree with turbobloke.
I have discussed this subject with work colleagues & family - almost all of them ask the same question: why can't they just leave us alone?

[Grumps.]

Biker 1 said:

Agree with turbobloke.
I have discussed this subject with work colleagues & family - almost all of them ask the same question: why can't they just leave us alone?

Or you could just turn it off.

[eharding]

turbobloke said:

1) drive several hundred miles on the motorway network each week (or month) for a year and check out the matrix messages

Oh, how very true - I experienced this at the weekend, heading up the M5 towards Bristol.

Shameless spamming on the overhead gantry messages that there was no HGV fuel at the Gloucester services.

What an absolute waste of Government time and money, not to mention a grievous slight against my personal character - I wasn't going anywhere near the Gloucester services, heading instead across the M48 crossing to Lydney via Chepstow, and to imply that I'm an HGV driver - and therefore a rapist - is absolutely beyond the pale. It's a bloody disgrace, and I'm going to stamp my little foot about it on PH and have a right good bellyaching whinge in the process.

[Ridgemont]

Grumps. said:

How will they abuse the system?

And what makes you think they are even capable?

How is the system abused in other countries that have a similar system?

The fun of the Hancock WhatsApp comms illustrated the problem: a jumped up no mark of a pipsqueak somehow ended up as our SoS for Health at the time of a pandemic (or say a national emergency). His behaviour (initially preening and about his public perceptions) gradually spiralled to the point where he is advocating maximum fear and disinformation to literally ‘scare the pants’ off the public.

I don’t fear a monstrous hidden cabal controlling our lives. You as you have iterated, can turn the thing off. I have. I however do not have any confidence in any of our politicians on sides to not behave as utter power crazed dickwads not for it to generate the idiotic herd reactions we saw as a result during the pandemic.

[I am alright Jack]

Grumps. said:

monkfish1 said:

Grumps. said:

monkfish1 said:

All of what turbobloke and lotobear said ^^^^^^^

Summary: They WILL abuse the system. They cant help themselves. Ive managed to survive this long without it. Unlike the many i dont take my phone to bed, so thats a third of the day already that i wont know about it. I really dont need more government protection to keep me "safe". In fact, i want protecting FROM the government. But thats for another thread.

Anyone else wants this drivel in their life, crack on.

How will they abuse the system?

And what makes you think they are even capable?

How is the system abused in other countries that have a similar system?

As per turboblokes reply, and my earlier one, look at how they now use motorway signs. Not really sure how much more evidence you need?

The motorway signs informing people of potential issues up ahead?

Why is that a bad thing?

As someone earlier on in this thread has already pointed out, it's also the traffic warning matrix signs on A and B roads as well. The ones that are intended for traffic information warning of road works, closures or delays and not, "clear the air cycle or walk if possible".

[Greendubber]

Disastrous said:

Greendubber said:

How would they know if something is happening there and then though? You could be in an office block and there's a terrorist incident around the corner, it's not yet on the news, it's still ongoing and you'd be totally unaware. It's an extreme example but how would you know?

Surely if an ongoing terrorist incident was happening round the corner the absolute LAST thing the authorities would want to do is message everyone in the area saying “There’s an ongoing terrorist incident round the corner”??

Could you imagine the scenes?

Some simple advice saying stay put would probably keep people in buildings away from whatevers happening. It's not difficult to remove tin foil hats and see the benefits of such a system.

[Timothy Bucktu]

Grumps. said:

The motorway signs informing people of potential issues up ahead?

Why is that a bad thing?

If you do any motorway driving, you'll soon learn that the matrix signs are (being conservative) 85% of the time alerting you to things that aren't there.
The issue is of course, because of this, most people just ignore the warming/hazard messages.
The government will use the phone messaging service to tell us its hot in summer, or cold in winter leading to the same problem. People will ignore the messages or disable them if they haven't already.
Same with the BBC News app. It was quite good when you got alerts for actual news stories. Now it's mainly celebrity nonsense like Lineker the other week, and them wetting themselves over Trump this week. I uninstalled it yesterday funnily enough.

[dundarach]

Greendubber said:

Disastrous said:

Greendubber said:

How would they know if something is happening there and then though? You could be in an office block and there's a terrorist incident around the corner, it's not yet on the news, it's still ongoing and you'd be totally unaware. It's an extreme example but how would you know?

Surely if an ongoing terrorist incident was happening round the corner the absolute LAST thing the authorities would want to do is message everyone in the area saying “There’s an ongoing terrorist incident round the corner”??

Could you imagine the scenes?

Some simple advice saying stay put would probably keep people in buildings away from whatevers happening. It's not difficult to remove tin foil hats and see the benefits of such a system.

You don't really believe that do you.

If they send a message saying 'do not go north, you'll die' everyone will run north :-)

If they want to calm people down, just turn off the mobile networks.

What the emergency system should do, is send you a text saying 'sorry this is a local power outage, stay put, it'll be back on soon.' Only we already have this, I had one last month.

A pointless system, designed by idiots, for the stupid, who'll use it to run towards the danger!

[KAgantua]

Grumps. said:

Biker 1 said:

Agree with turbobloke.
I have discussed this subject with work colleagues & family - almost all of them ask the same question: why can't they just leave us alone?

Or you could just turn it off.

Can we turn your posting ability off

[Greendubber]

dundarach said:

Greendubber said:

Disastrous said:

Greendubber said:

How would they know if something is happening there and then though? You could be in an office block and there's a terrorist incident around the corner, it's not yet on the news, it's still ongoing and you'd be totally unaware. It's an extreme example but how would you know?

Surely if an ongoing terrorist incident was happening round the corner the absolute LAST thing the authorities would want to do is message everyone in the area saying “There’s an ongoing terrorist incident round the corner”??

Could you imagine the scenes?

Some simple advice saying stay put would probably keep people in buildings away from whatevers happening. It's not difficult to remove tin foil hats and see the benefits of such a system.

You don't really believe that do you.

If they send a message saying 'do not go north, you'll die' everyone will run north :-)

If they want to calm people down, just turn off the mobile networks.

What the emergency system should do, is send you a text saying 'sorry this is a local power outage, stay put, it'll be back on soon.' Only we already have this, I had one last month.

A pointless system, designed by idiots, for the stupid, who'll use it to run towards the danger!

I'm more of a glass half full kind of guy, it makes for a more positive outlook on life than getting moany on the internet about what might or might not happen with a messaging service that is easy turned off.

[anonymous-user]

monkfish1 said:

Fair enough.

Im surprised though.

I imagine it may be an age thing, but the vast majority of people I know, including my 70 year old parents, use their smartphone as their only source of clock and alarm clock on their bedside table. Hence why most people have their phone charger on their bedside table.

The days of people having a dedicated bedside clock/alarm clock seem to be long gone. I don't know anyone who has one.

[turbobloke]

Greendubber said:

dundarach said:

Greendubber said:

Disastrous said:

Greendubber said:

How would they know if something is happening there and then though? You could be in an office block and there's a terrorist incident around the corner, it's not yet on the news, it's still ongoing and you'd be totally unaware. It's an extreme example but how would you know?

Surely if an ongoing terrorist incident was happening round the corner the absolute LAST thing the authorities would want to do is message everyone in the area saying “There’s an ongoing terrorist incident round the corner”??

Could you imagine the scenes?

Some simple advice saying stay put would probably keep people in buildings away from whatevers happening. It's not difficult to remove tin foil hats and see the benefits of such a system.

You don't really believe that do you.

If they send a message saying 'do not go north, you'll die' everyone will run north :-)

If they want to calm people down, just turn off the mobile networks.

What the emergency system should do, is send you a text saying 'sorry this is a local power outage, stay put, it'll be back on soon.' Only we already have this, I had one last month.

A pointless system, designed by idiots, for the stupid, who'll use it to run towards the danger!

I'm more of a glass half full kind of guy, it makes for a more positive outlook on life than getting moany on the internet about what might or might not happen with a messaging service that is easy turned off.

ISWYM but in a lot of instances it won't be turned off due to the government raising concern about the reasons for concern. Part of the reason for doing this is to achieve a means of nudging people towards the government's preferred behaviour under the ostensibly helpful guise of safety.

The Nudge Unit will have direct access to concerned people who leave the nudges alerts switched on, as they're clamorous to be led to safety after being alarmed by a number of unlikely hobgoblins. Here it is again:

H L Mencken said:

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.

Remember, good people, never run with scissors.

[GSE]

Some of our friends abroad don't seem to understand why the announcement of this system for the UK has annoyed many of us. There are two issues being discussed here:

Firstly, is this system needed in the UK and is it good value for money? If we lived in a country where regular mass shootings, kidnappings, or hurricanes occurred, then it might be a good idea. But we don't, such instances are very rare, so I consider it to be a huge waste of millions (or billions?) of pounds.

Secondly, am I happy with further state intrusion into our daily lives, and the pushing of nudge messages to our phones? Absolutely not. They won't be able to resist. It will go the same way as messaging from my surgery went after Covid, constant messages to 'get vaccinated!' 'get boosted!' or 'don't bother contacting us at all as we understaffed' as usual, or the 'cycle for clean air' messages on the local traffic information matrix signs.

I find it worrying how so many people are quite happy go along with the Government narrative and do anything they say without question. What a waste of money!

So Sunday the 23rd is the big day. I'm fully prepared, I've had a look through my phone and turned off emergency alerts, and am hoping to get through the day without being interrupted.

Here's an idea - to prevent panic for those not in the know - how about using the matrix signs to broadcast this message:

[turbobloke]

GSE said:

Some of our friends abroad don't seem to understand why the announcement of this system for the UK has annoyed many of us. There are two issues being discussed here:

Firstly, is this system needed in the UK and is it good value for money? If we lived in a country where regular mass shootings, kidnappings, or hurricanes occurred, then it might be a good idea. But we don't, such instances are very rare, so I consider it to be a huge waste of millions (or billions?) of pounds.

Secondly, am I happy with further state intrusion into our daily lives, and the pushing of nudge messages to our phones? Absolutely not. They won't be able to resist. It will go the same way as messaging from my surgery went after Covid, constant messages to 'get vaccinated!' 'get boosted!' or 'don't bother contacting us at all as we understaffed' as usual, or the 'cycle for clean air' messages on the local traffic information matrix signs.

I find it worrying how so many people are quite happy go along with the Government narrative and do anything they say without question. What a waste of money!

Spot on.

[Sway]

GSE - how many millions (or billions)?

Got any figures?

[Killboy]

[turbobloke]

There's some evidence that Nudge can save public money in some areas, reducing the number of bailiff visits is reportedly one example involving the UK Nudge Unit.

That's the innocent flower, and it really exists. Shakespeare's serpent also really exists: "Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it".

We know this because of various happenings already mentioned in the thread concerning matrix messages and GP surgery text messages,

Any government will protest innocence and provide plausible excuses. Given the wise, pure innocent flowers that politicians tend not to be, they can go spin. Perhaps that needs to be re-phrased.

[GSE]

Sway said:

GSE - how many millions (or billions)?

Got any figures?

No I haven't. To be honest, I wouldn't really know where to start, to calculate the cost. But, as with all Government initiatives,
it won't have been 'cheap' will it? Hence my suggestion that it has probably run into millions, particularly as they have been at it for over ten years.

Perhaps you have some figures? So that we can put it into perspective and see if the money could have been better spent...