Bletchley Park faces bleak future
Summary: The secret home to Britain's World War II codebreaking efforts could face closure in two to three years unless it receives more funding
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Historians have postulated that, without Bletchley Park, the Allies may never have won the war.
But, despite an impressive contribution to the war effort, the Bletchley Park site, now a museum, faces a bleak future unless it can secure funding to keep its doors open and its numerous exhibits from rotting away.
The Bletchley Park Trust receives no external funding. It has been deemed ineligible for funding by the National Lottery, and turned down by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation because the Microsoft founder will only fund internet-based technology projects.
"We are just about surviving. Money — or lack of it — is our big problem here. I think we have two to three more years of survival, but we need this time to find a solution to this," said Simon Greenish, the Trust's director.
As a result of lack of funds, the Trust is unable to rebuild the site's rotting infrastructure and faces an uncertain future. "The Trust is the hardest-up museum I know," said Greenish. "We have this huge estate to run and it's one of the most important World War II stories there is."
Bletchley Park — code-named Station X to keep its location from the Germans — and its outstations were responsible for intercepting German radio signals intended for broadcast to the army, navy and air force, and decoding them into meaningful messages. The job was thought to be next to impossible: German encryption was so secure that the chances of decoding it with random guesses were 150 quintillion to one.
Nine thousand staff worked around the clock at the Buckinghamshire site to break the German codes, eventually gleaning enough information to head off critical enemy manoeuvres.
The operation all started in the mansion pictured above in 1939, when it became the home of the Government Code and Cipher School (GCCS), the forerunner of today's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
The government had intervened to prevent a local property tycoon from developing the site for housing, hoping to provide a safer location for the GCCS, away from the obvious dangers of its previous home in central London. At the intersection of major road, rail and telecommunications connections and en route between the top two universities, Cambridge and Oxford, Bletchley Park was ideal.
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Talkback
Guilt
Government help
A Sign of our Gratitude to Bletchley Park
Saving Bletchley Park is crucial
The place was nearly concreted over 40 years ago when the development of Milton Keynes New Town (as it then was) began. The achievements of all at Bletchley Park were kept a secret all through the cold war. It's a miracle that it survived all that, as well as the war itself.
Surely we're not going to give up on it all now. I've visited twice and have been absolutely enthralled by the true stories brought to life by the excellent guides and, in particular, Tony Sale (an engaging and enhusiastic real-life 'Q' who hs rebuilt the original Colossus.
I would urge you all to go and have a look and then join in the campaign to save what is surely a monument to what Britain was able to achieve when really up against it. We can still learn from it now - don't let it close!
Bletchley Park
Pride
Nevertheless, I do feel that the younger generations should be properly informed (educated) about the Second World War, and even the Cold War, and what people sacrificed, fought and died for; and what they owe to such sacrices.
Now we have lost that ethos and are, as Andrews says, so busy throwing away all the freedoms and values which our forefathers rightly held dear.
Of course this government, in particular, has assaulted our freedoms, values and choices like no other democratic goverment before it, but we cannot turn back the clock. We must move on to 'a brave new world', one that would not seem entirely worthy of these sacrifices.
Re: Pride
Today, war is just a word used in death match video game titles. It has no reality for the huge majority of the younger generation. Some of them sign on the line and get an object lesson, but the rest just keep on hitting the buttons on their handsets and making "war" on whoever the enemy of the day happens to be.
So I'm with the previous correspondent all the way until:
[[ Of course this government, in particular, has assaulted our freedoms, values and choices like no other democratic government before it, but we cannot turn back the clock. We must move on to 'a brave new world', one that would not seem entirely worthy of these sacrifices.]]
Absolutely and emphatically NO.
Just because this bunch of headline obsessed control freaks has decided to make freedom of assembly conditional, free speech a matter for interpretation and habeas corpus a corpse, doesn't mean we can't get the next lot to turn this round and at least take the thorns out of these laws, if not repeal and replace them with something more fitting.
Phrases like "Civil Liberties" and "Our ancestral Freedoms" are now greeted with derision by Joe public as if to believe that such things are important is missing the point and that "The Threat of Terror" (yuk) is far more important than such nonsense. I even heard one genius say, in all honesty "If I hear one more mention of Civil Liberties I'm going to flatten someone. They could blow up my kids you know!".
We now seem to have be more concerned about non-freedoms; like "How about the freedom to not be blown up"; and non-rights "Does anyone worry about the right not to have our kids preyed upon by drugs dealers and criminal gangs." ... "Never mind your *Civil* *Liberties*, how about that sort of stuff." .... Sadly, anyone who's consideration of these matters doesn't extend past the end of the headline is not going to be particularly receptive to hearing that it's a wee bit more complex than that. They're not taught how to do "complex" any more, just how to pass tests.
I'm sure many people in this country of my generation had relatives that they deeply respected that fought in World War 2. Well folks, if you indeed respected them, think about how they would feel now, that the horror they suffered has been made trivial for the sake of a headline and a vote or two.
For shame.
Support for Bletchley
Supporting Bletchely
... I tested this and it works :)
Bletchley Park
How about ZD campaign for this?
Re: Re: Pride
Notwithstanding the traditional differences, the three main parties seem, at the moment, to be struggling to occupy the same territory and generally offer nearly identical policies.
Time will tell!
WE will tell
If we assume we are going to lose, then we will be proved right.
hi
Re: hi
Do you?