If only Orson Wells would lift his head!

In 1938, Orson Wells made a radio serial of the science fiction novel The War of the Worlds, in which the Martians invaded the Earth, in such a realistic way that panic spread through the streets of New York. In 1949 Radio Quito in Ecuador broadcast something similar, even with actors pretending to be firefighters and policemen, and when people found out it wasn’t true they got so angry that it started a fire in the station’s headquarters building, and five people died. On Sunday, the British Government experimented with a national emergency service to warn of weather disasters or terrorist attacks… and the only thing it achieved was to be the riot of the nation!

Agreeing on what time and day mobile phones, tablets and electronic devices across the country should ring and vibrate in unison was an odyssey. The theaters objected to it being in the middle of a function, for obvious reasons. The football league warned of the danger of a stampede if the masses thought something was going on in the middle of the Cup semi-final. It also could not coincide with the London marathon, lest it throw off the rhythm of the athletes. The auto club asked that it was better not during rush hour, because drivers could be alarmed (otherwise, the target by definition of an alarm system), distracted and put into look at the message, which could lead to accidents. Kennel managers warned that the animals would start barking like crazy. Those in homes for the elderly, that the users would be scared and could have heart attacks. Women victims of domestic abuse, who would reveal the existence of the phone they hide from their partners in case they suffer an attack…

In the end, with so many inconveniences, the Government opted for Sunday at three in the afternoon, before those who had gone out to spend the weekend filled the roads, and when there were only a couple of football and rugby matches ( where, with the ambient noise, absolutely nothing was heard). But the whole experiment largely missed the point, because in the days leading up to it the BBC and the newspapers took it upon themselves to explain in detail to people how to stop their mobile from ringing: turning it off, putting it on in airplane mode, or by going to settings and turning off emergencies there. In short, the complete opposite of what it was about, which was to prepare the British in case there is an attack by Putin with chemical or nuclear weapons (not cyber, because then the mobiles wouldn’t ring), a tsunami, an earthquake, a big fire , an environmental disaster, events that could endanger their lives…

However, the test was taken at the scheduled time… more or less. This was the first stumbling block, because it was supposed to be at three o’clock and on some mobiles (depending on the operator) it rang earlier, at 2.59 pm, and on others with a delay, at 3.10 pm. The noise and vibration was supposed to last for ten seconds, but it was only five. And the Welsh version was mistranslated. Instead of saying “this isn’t really an emergency, but if it was, you should follow the instructions and get yourself out of harm’s way, you and yours”, it said “get your navel out of harm’s way”.

The Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, had urged the British to ignore the press and not turn off their mobile phones, partly because of the need to justify the thirty million euros that the experiment has cost, the aim of which was to test if, in the middle of a terrorist attack or an environmental disaster, a message could be sent to the public in less than fifteen minutes. It has not been clear, because millions of phones were disconnected, and those that were connected got them early or late… The metaphor of a country that does not work, in which nurses, civil servants, doctors and train drivers months that go on strike, and it can still go on for a long time.

The only consolation for London is that it is not the first time that a test of this type has gone wrong. In 2018 the US government stepped in and warned Hawaiians that a missile was heading their way. And Florida retirees recently woke up at 4:45 a.m. with their cell phones ringing at full volume… But there was also some upside: no burglars thought to steal at 3 a.m. evening, lest he forget to turn off the phone and the sound betrays his presence.