If it saves the public cost of maintaining the sirens previously used for the purpose, especially for air raid warnings during the war and, in a few vulnerable areas, floods in the years since, there might be some benefit to be had. However, I foresee this technology becoming a nuisance to many and a cause of panic for others.

The problem is, governments are risk-averse, and lawyers effectively force them to be so. The risk of being sued if someone gets hurt without being warned will weigh heavy on the consciences of politicians and administrators alike. Something intended to warn of exceptional life-threatening emergencies will instead have to be used every time there are circumstances which might result in an unfortunate person in the wrong place at the wrong time being hit by a falling branch or some similar random event caused by bad weather or human risk-taking.

Until the Meteorological Office recently adopted the practice of naming storms coming from the Atlantic bad weather was just seen as a natural hazard. It rarely caused serious damage or injury but sometimes did. No one really worried about it. It was just part of the natural risk involved in life. Now the storms are named they become news items, and the Met Office issues alerts relating to how likely it is people could get hurt. These warnings also become news items. As a result, what the public once regarded as rough weather is now treated as something against which we are expected to take precautions, like closing schools or staying at home. These are not hurricanes or tropical cyclones where it would be foolish to venture out of a purpose-built shelter. These are just windy or rainy days, but now they are treated as major incidents and events are cancelled in their path. How long before these awful phone alerts are used every time it’s going to get a bit windy, or every time there’s going to be a higher than usual tide?

Will this divide society even further? Will there be those who religiously see such a system as a great boon and adhere strictly to every warning it gives, and those who disregard it because it cries “Wolf!” too often? I must admit, even I am tempted to switch the whole thing off because I suspect it will disturb me too much. Three time in less than a week — actually five times because I have a dual-SIM phone and generally the warnings come about an hour apart from each SIM, though not so far today — is too much, I think.

Maybe I’ll switch it back on if the country goes to war. Air raid alerts might be useful.