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Severe Alert from the UK Government
- Thread starter londonteacher
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londonteacher
Member
Haha that made me giggle!
I would have thought it would have been in both English and Welsh.
Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
I got a new phone earlier this year and forgot the settings for these wouldn't carry across.
I think I've done it now...?
Screenshot below showing what I hope are all the necessary settings to disable the alerts on my new phone.
I think I've done it now...?
Screenshot below showing what I hope are all the necessary settings to disable the alerts on my new phone.
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gg1
Established Member
A misuse of the system IMO.
It should be reserved for something as serious as "there's a wildfire approaching your home, get out now"
Using it for general warnings like this will just trigger lots of people googling how to disable the alerts.
It should be reserved for something as serious as "there's a wildfire approaching your home, get out now"
Using it for general warnings like this will just trigger lots of people googling how to disable the alerts.
Mcr Warrior
Veteran Member
- Joined
- 8 Jan 2009
- Messages
- 17,151
Received in English here (Greater Manchester). For some reason, the ability to cut and paste the text seems to have been disabled.
londonteacher
Member
There are also other effective ways too, press conferences would have it plastered all over the news, tv, radio, papers, and online. And that feels much more appropriate for the level of severity.
The alerts can be disabled for that specific reason. The UK implementation of emergency alerts intentionally doesn't use the highest severity level (sometimes called "presidential alert") so that you can do this.
I do wonder why this was necessary to send out as a "severe" alert though, as the standard has a number of lower priority alert levels that would probably be better for this kind of info. "severe" should be for instances where there's a wildfire near you.
pokemonsuper9
Established Member
I've turned them off now, they don't get to disturb me because the grass is a bit dry
greatkingrat
Established Member
- Joined
- 20 Jan 2011
- Messages
- 3,289
It isn't something you have to know right this second. Sending a normal text message that you could read at your convenience would be sufficient.
londonteacher
Member
Again, agreed but it has got everyone talking about it which I suspect was the intended purpose!
StoneRoad
Member
New phone, and that racket made me jump half out of my skin.
What could be far better would be to completely ban the sale & use of disposable BBQs, smoking outdoors, and garden bonfires for the duration of the drought / heatwaves.
e2a - and fireworks !
[having had to put out fires from that source some years ago]
What could be far better would be to completely ban the sale & use of disposable BBQs, smoking outdoors, and garden bonfires for the duration of the drought / heatwaves.
e2a - and fireworks !
[having had to put out fires from that source some years ago]
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Quite. This is a misuse of the system in my view and I speak as someone who thinks its very important that we have some manner of national alert system.
Absolutely. The horrible situation in Stourbridge last night would seem to be exactly the sort of situation where it should be sent to anyone nearby. But this? This is something that you can distribute via the media.
Turns out all the people who claimed it would be abused were right and I apologise for castigating them. What a stupid thing for the Government to have done.
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.
I had it turned off on my phone, but still got one of the "presidential" alerts that can't be turned off when in Ibiza a year or so ago (heavy rain/thunderstorms). However I did get this alert and found the setting was turned back on again. I didn't do it, so is this something that gets turned back on automatically after updates or something? (My phone did update a few weeks ago), a bit like how Microsoft always turns back on stuff to do with bing/Edge/Copilot on every update.
GusB
Established Member
It doesn't seem to have gone out UK-wide because I didn't receive anything. Having said that, the temperatures here haven't been nearly as bad and we had a fair downpour early this morning. Was it England and Wales only?
a genuinely good thing about the UK system is that the alerts are made available on gov.uk, including when and where. Seems like its England and Wales only, with Wales additionally getting a Welsh language version
https://www.gov.uk/alerts/current-alerts
pokemonsuper9
Established Member
Looking up what you mean by Stourbridge (how have I not heard about that!) yes absolutely an alert should've gone out to people in the area there to warn them they may need to be evacuated and to be cautious of the fire.
The whole country did not need to be disturbed by a couple barbeques
brad465
Veteran Member
I think the alert was sent with good intentions, but was not the best way to communicate the issue.
gg1
Established Member
In pretty much every other circumstance I have no objection to Welsh being first on bilingual announcements or signage, but a (supposedly) emergency alert system should be an exception.
londonteacher
Member
And it just happened again.
gg1
Established Member
Not for me
Purple Train
Established Member
Yes, my heart rate is still returning to normal. I'd rather they erred on the side of caution and I was disturbed rather than fried but it was still pretty disturbing to hear the noise (from multiple phones too - I'm at a group, and typically we received random messages at random times). My Australian better half is completely used to wildfire alerts and is calling me soft, not sure what she'd make of all the people calling the whole thing "nanny state" 
Although I do agree it would be more suited to situations like Stourbridge - I was following that news quite closely as I was born in the area and initially thought that similar was happening in my area.
Although I do agree it would be more suited to situations like Stourbridge - I was following that news quite closely as I was born in the area and initially thought that similar was happening in my area.
