Bletchley Park funding refused

[RichardCranium]

Sinky linky.

Bletchley Park funding call rejected: No new cash for codebreakers' home

Bletchley Park, the home of UK codebreakers during World War II, will get no financial support from the government after a petition calling for funding from Whitehall was rejected today.

Bletchley, which houses the National Museum of Computing, had been seeking government backing as it currently only has enough cash to sustain it for two to three more years.

I wont mind provided £50,000,000 of taxpayer's money is spent buying a painting of some dead flowers from some stupidly rich Earl to save it "for the nation".

[Sysman]

From this link

The petition, which gained just under 22,000 signatories before it shut on 28 May, asked the prime minister to rescue the historic site because it has funding for just two to three more years of survival. "The Bletchley Park Trust receives no external funding," the petition read. "Please do not allow this crucial piece of both British and World culture to disappear."

"If ever an example were needed of Britain leading the world, this surely would be it. To allow it to fall into the hands of developers would be simply unconscionable."

So it's nuts to history, new houses or shops being more important.

[DSW]

pretty much to be expected isn't it? It wouldn't being new labour if they didn't screw over IT....

It is a shame though, I mean I've never been there or really intend to go, but it is still a major part of the history and cultural side of computing.

[RichardCranium]

I've never been there or really intend to go, but it is still a major part of the history and cultural side of computing.

My most recent visit was a day long one organised by the Society of Indexers so we got specialist guides to talk us through it.

I found it fascinating from a WWII perspective; because I have an interest in electronics; from an espionage perspective; to discover something about GCHQ; because of my interest in mathematics; learning another aspect of what life was like in the 1940s; because college had a module on the History of Computing and I have been interested ever since; seeing how the secret forces operated before the war; discovering just how far behind we were compare to Poland; and other stuff.

But then, I'm an old farty git who likes that sort of thing.

Though the Poles apparently are of the opinion that not enough credit is given to them.

I clearly got the impression from my visit that without the Poles' work before and during the war, we'd be speaking German. Or possibly Russian.

[lilelvis2000]

Time to start a "Save Bletchly Park" Facebook group?

[realityhack]

Time to start a "Save Bletchly Park" Facebook group?

Or join one:
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=20519932867

[Mich the Tester]

As far as NuLabour are concerned, Bletchley Park, Alan Turing and so on are irrelevant to the modern economy. Why on earth do you think people should learn about our technological heritage when our economic security can be built on big shopping centres selling each other crap nobody needs and building credit card debts nobody will ever pay off?

[minestrone]

There are far more important buildings falling apart all over Britain and they are after all looking to save a bunch of huts.

[RichardCranium]

a bunch of huts.

Paintings are just scraps of old canvas with daubs on done by antisocial mentalist pervies who frequented drug houses and used prostitutes as models. Bung 'em in the Thames, I say. Use the galleries to house the homeless.

[thunderlizard]

Here's a more fun way to help fund Bletchley Park:

http://www.thebloomsbury.com/event/run/1367