UK Watch adds an “Abroad” lane after hoax bomb threats disrupt flights across Europe while the UK stayed calm
UK Watch , a free website from UK company NoFooly that shows UK households whether anything needs their attention today, has added a category called “Abroad”, the day after hoax bomb threats against flights across Europe led to planes being searched and diverted.
On 3 November every UK category on the board read calm: the power grid, the weather, the trains and roads were all running normally. But British travellers heading to Europe had good reason to check before setting off. The new Abroad lane closes that gap, so a household can see when something in Europe could affect their plans, even when things at home are quiet.
UK Watch brings official information into nine plain-English categories: Power grid, Cyber, Weather and flooding, Travel, Abroad, Conflict and war, UK government, Terror threat level, and Services and payments. Each one shows one of four states (calm, watch, elevated or severe) and says in everyday words what that means for a household and for someone running a small business.
The national terror threat level is shown the way a railway board shows planned works: marked “standing” while it is unchanged, and only flagged when it actually changes. As the board puts it: no change, keep calm and carry on.
The information comes from the bodies that issue it: the Met Office, the Environment Agency and the Welsh and Scottish flood services, the electricity grid operator, National Rail, National Highways, the National Cyber Security Centre, GOV.UK (including the national threat level and Emergency Alerts), the Foreign Office, and the status pages of major banks, payment and online services. Every item names its source and links to it.
The Abroad lane reads the Foreign Office’s travel advice for Europe and nearby holiday destinations every half hour, alongside six major news outlets. A news story only counts when at least two outlets are reporting it, and news alone can never raise the alarm above “watch”; only the Foreign Office can do that.
If a source has not reported on time, UK Watch says “not checked” rather than showing a reassuring “calm” it cannot back up.
“A lot of people I know were worried and couldn’t find a straight answer: is anything actually wrong today?” said Wayne Conyers, founder of NoFooly. “We called the company NoFooly for a reason: nobody should be fooled by rumour or scary headlines when the facts are already out there. UK Watch puts the official warnings on one page in plain English, so you can check in a minute and get on with your day. On 3 November we saw exactly why it needed an Abroad lane: everything here was calm, but flights across Europe were being diverted. Now that shows up too.”
The board is free to use, with no account, no adverts and no tracking. UK Watch Local, at £30 a year or £4.99 a month, adds what is happening within 20 miles of your postcode (power cuts, flooding, weather and travel), the week ahead day by day, and WhatsApp alerts when a category you follow changes. VAT is added where it applies.
UK Watch is available now on the web and on any phone at ukwatcher.com, with apps for Android and iPhone on the way. A family plan, covering everyone in the household, is coming soon.
About NoFooly and UK Watch
NoFooly Ltd is a UK company, registered in England and Wales (company number 17438330), that builds plain-English tools so people are not fooled by rumour, noise or guesswork. Its name is its promise: no fooling, just the facts and where they came from.
UK Watch is NoFooly’s free public-information board. It brings together official warnings and service status from public bodies into nine plain-English categories, and is paid for by its readers rather than by advertising.
Media contact
Founder: Wayne Conyers
NoFooly · [email protected]