I may actually subscribe to the “what’s new” service; the paranoia levels change fo infrequently as to be meaningless – we’re still at the “second-highest” level and have been so for months, at worst they’ll crank it up when some public event is about to happen, or retrospectively after a bomb goes off, so where’s the information in either of those scenarios?
However a view into MI5’s spin machine might be interesting.
Update / Thought: just think of it: a database of e-mail addresses and phone numbers for the most paranoid people in Britain; the traffic will not contain breaking news, that’s for sure, so what’s the point other than for “things being seen to be done”?
BBC NewsMI5 to send e-mail terror alerts
A system sending e-mail terror alerts to the public is being launched by security chiefs at MI5. People will be able to register on the MI5 website to receive updates when the threat level changes.
The initiative follows considerable interest in similar information for the public introduced in August on the MI5 and Home Office websites.
[…]
There will be two types of service on offer initially.
The first, called Threat Level Only, will inform the recipient if the nationwide terror threat level changes. The condition is currently listed as severe.
The second more inclusive service is called What’s New, and will be a digest of the latest information from MI5, including speeches made by the director general and links to relevant websites.
The level of the terror threat to the UK is assessed by the government’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre.
The current threat is set at the second highest level, “severe”, which means an attack is considered “highly likely”.
In November, Dame Eliza, MI5’s director general, warned the terror threat was “serious” and “growing”, and that 1,600 individuals were being kept under surveillance.
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