replying to myself - but from clicking through to "past alerts" you can see the last "real" one was for storms in the south west back in January (and as someone who was in Cornwall then, it was very much justified).
I’m not quite sure why it is a reputation thing.
A lot of people I know are incredibly sceptical of Andy Burnham and how he was just shuffled into Number 10. We've not seen anything of any substance from him apart from a lot of PR spin.
Why?
I don't think anyone has been suggesting that the government needs to "step back", nobody here in this thread at least. I think most of us that are critical of the alert are suggesting that a more standard press release/conference would have been more appropriate.
That's not a given, not only does the alert need to be more effective than conventional communications, there is the possibility that the alert may have caused some accidents, on the roads for example.
I can understand in the case of imminent danger, but this wasn't "Danger, wildfires near you", it was "please don't have a BBQ", which feels less urgent.
a good example of why just putting media alerts outvdoes not work. The message appears to have gone out at the request of the fire service. At the risk of stereotyping, it is possible that most disposable bbqs are used by young people who are incredibly difficult to reach by mass media but will all have phones.
Fair point, I agree.
Do they use the alerts to tell people not to do stuff which might cause a fire, or do they use the emergency alert tone for notification of actual fires which are putting people in danger right now? Australia is a country of jailers more than it is prisoners btw, as covid showed. Government overreach is standard.
Quite. Now you have a load of people disabling the alerts. Nice one Andy.
It was in both languages for me in Wales. Got it first in Welsh and a second time in English
It would have been better to be in Welsh and then English on the same message.
We have had houndreds of wildfires this summer so personally a alert asking people to avoid lighting fires is a good call. Maybe not the emergency one though...
There is a temporary ban on disposable BBQ sales in England, Scotland and Wales as of today - which is probably what has prompted the alert
Statutory Guidelines On Disposable BBQs
In response to the current droughts and heatwave, the Government has introduced statutory guidelines in relation to the supply of disposable BBQs.www.gov.uk
?The equivalent Australian alert system didn't exist until fairly recently, with its first public national test conducted only a few weeks ago, so it hasn't been used in anger yet. OP may be referring to existing systems that use app based push notifications or SMSes but those won't have the same importance/impact/disruption as these formal alerts do.
Spain just used their system to send out a warning message for the eclipse, including telling people to be mindful of the wildfire risk and other "common sense" admonishments. So no.I'm in Spain in an area where it's about 40°, not a peep with alerts. Is it somehow less of a risk here, or are we just more competent over in Spain
Most of England and all of Wales are threatened by wildfires. This is about not starting wildfires, which could be started by one careless act in most of England and all of Wales.
I was in Canberra not long after their 2003 bushfire, and was taken to see the damage, including the Mount Stromlo observatory. The Australians have learned from bitter experience.
Is that the Marvin Gaye Prom? I'm enjoying that on the radio!
