There’s nothing new about the idea of a national alert system. Indeed many countries have already seen successful deployments with messages being sent out over mobile or phone networks to warn of fires, floods and other hazards.

After the year that we’ve just had someone might be forgiven for thinking that the only businesses thriving would be those who are involved in delivering Covid solutions. And it is true that a number of businesses and business sectors have been hit badly by the lockdowns. On the other hand, businesses have also shown how adaptable they can be; bringing in covid safe operations, enabling their people to work from home, and opening up business telephone and internet solutions for their customers.