When I worked for Telecom, I often manned the 000 position when it was still a cord and plug system; however, their were never any outages.
In fact, there were advantages in a manual system, of which I have had personal experience.
One day a young boy rang in an hysterical state. ‘Quick, police,’ he said, ‘Dad’s beating up mum and I think he’s going to kill her’.
I connected him to the nearest police station, but they didn’t answer.
I connected him to the next nearest station, and they couldn’t hear the caller, so I went across the line and gave the police the address.
You couldn’t train a computer to act in this way. In some ways, we are better off without them.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
