i found the news report mentioned in the guardian article linked in this piece. tis all a shame.
While the Bletchley Park Trust is acting somewhat juvenile over this, I have to wonder if a historical site like Bletchley is really the right place for the National Museum of Computing. Except for the Colossus replica, not much of what they exhibit has to do with what went on there. It’s a bit like putting a science museum in Monticello under the argument that “well, Jefferson was interested in science, so…”
Ah! The long arm of corporatism with it’s smiling excuses and half-hearted fascism.
Perhaps now they can finally create the exhibit they have been champing at the bit to produce.
A time line detailing the direct causal link between the establishment of computing powers to defeat the Nazis and the evolution of those computers into systems of easily abused surveillance that put the Nazis wildest dreams to shame.
If not there, then where?
It’s very sad to see this kind of petty, corporate Game of Thrones going on today; a couple or three years ago when I visited, the guide moved effortlessly from the Huts to the Museum and back again, and it was all of a piece and made sense as a continuous narrative, GC&CS to Turing to Colossus to GCHQ to Lyons. Not to mention the Churchill exhibit, and the model boats collection.
I am afraid this piece is pretty inaccurate and has just been drawn from a very muddled piece in the Guardian (I say this as a regular Guardian reader of over 40 years). Its journalism without responsibility - why not check out the facts first! I am a volunteer supporter of both BP and TNMOC and the issues between the two Trusts go back many years and are nothing to do with the recent Lottery funding. The most accurate account I have read was in the Telegraph a month or so ago as the only part of it that was disputed by either side was the ownership of the Colossus rebuild at TNMOC.
I’m not involved in the politics but as a guide and volunteer I can tell you that:
- the guide crying on the BBC was not sacked and was doing tours a few days later and still is (saw him at BP today)
- the shorter tour format was put together by Guides, not the BP Trust. The old format was far too long. A number of guides do tours at TNMOC after they finish their BP tours.
- No volunteers have been ‘shit-canned’. A few BP volunteers who don’t like the changes have left of their own free will. That is what being a volunteer means, you opt in or out. The vast majority of BP volunteers are really excited about what is going on and support the BP Trust.
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