"Emergency, which service do you require?"

The headline in today's Daily Mail was

THREE MONTHS' RAINFALL IN HOURS - 999NETWORK GRINDS TO A HALT

This melt-down, wash-out, call it what you will is caused by well meaning but stupid people with mobile phones.

In the past couple of weeks I've attended incidents where people, complete with a mobile phone, phone 999 when they can see that the emergency services are already in attendance. One of my colleagues was elbowed out of the way by some silly bitch who wanted to get a closer look at the 85 year old pensioner laying on the floor and all of this while she was phoning 999! Public spirited it may be, helpful, it is not. How did the country cope before the advent of the mobile? It did.

I propose that calls to the emergency services be barred from mobile phones. And before anybody complains that BT call boxes don't work, when was the last time you used one? They do work.