
Bletchley Park: New crisis for code-breaking hub - Jaruzel
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53888151
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mothsonasloth
Note: this is the Bletchley Park Trust
([https://bletchleypark.org.uk/](https://bletchleypark.org.uk/)), which
ironically doesn't own or maintain the code breaking and configuration
machines.

The machines are maintained and operated by the National Museum of Computing -
[https://www.tnmoc.org/](https://www.tnmoc.org/)

There has been some conflicts by these two entities, with Bletchley Park
playing dirty a few times.

Here are some of my thoughts on the place:

[https://tomaytotomato.com/the-national-museum-of-
computing-2...](https://tomaytotomato.com/the-national-museum-of-computing-2/)

~~~
qubex
Upvote for the distinction, but a :-| for the implication of “playing dirty”.

~~~
mothsonasloth
Have a look at this and other articles from around this time

[https://www.theregister.com/2014/01/28/bletchley_park_sacks_...](https://www.theregister.com/2014/01/28/bletchley_park_sacks_elderly_volunteers/)

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mattlondon
If anyone decides to visit, please also remember to visit the The National
Museum of Computing. [https://www.tnmoc.org/](https://www.tnmoc.org/)

It is literally next door but not part of "Bletchley Park" \- BP gets all of
the media attention and donations from corporate sponsors etc, but TNMOC has
some equally interesting stuff (including a Collosus which is one of several
claiming to be "the first computer") but does not seem to get the attention it
deserves.

~~~
tgsovlerkhgsel
Actually, I'd recommend to reserve a lot more time for the National Museum of
Computing then Bletchley Park.

I found Bletchley Park itself rather boring. "This now-empty building used to
house X", or "this is what Alan Turing's office looked like" is a lot less
interesting than the amazing machines in the Museum of Computing.

~~~
setpatchaddress
Concur. TNMOC has a few neat interactive toys, too: BBC Micros and the Harwell
Dekatron:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvDUDGiL9EQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvDUDGiL9EQ)
.

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1f60c
I suggest changing the title to something like "Bletchley Park is preparing to
lay off 35 people"

~~~
racl101
Yep. It's a crisis facing many museums as well as other businesses depending
on tourist dollars around the world.

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musiciangames
It's been on my list to visit since forever. I made a donation so hopefully it
will still be open when we can travel freely again.

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qubex
For anybody interested in what working at Bletchley Park must’ve been like
during the wartime years, beyond the endless dramas and the dramatically
inaccurate _Imitation Game_ , I very much recommend Ian Harris’ _Enigma_
(1995) which triggered off my obsession with the place back twenty-five years
ago, more or less when they began rebuilding the Colossus Mk II (which I was
delighted to see in full operation the last time I visited Bletchley
Park/National Computing Museum in 2011).

EDIT: Fixed spelling.

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jack_riminton
Their accounts pre Covid look pretty healthy for a charity
[https://beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-
details/?subid...](https://beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-
details/?subid=0&regid=1012743) so hopefully they'll be able to remain going
by temporarily cutting down on staff.

When I went there were almost more volunteers than visitors, so there's no
shortage of willing people to help

~~~
lostlogin
When I was there (10+ years ago) the volunteers were people who had worked
there during the war. The place was run down but having a tour guided by
someone who knew the place so well was really great.

~~~
mywittyname
I hope they had the foresight to preserve the memories of these people for
future generations. I suspect many of these people were born in the 1920s or
earlier, so very few would have been left even 10 years ago; today, I'd be
surprised if even a single one remained.

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djaque
I hope they make it out all right. I got the chance to visit a few years ago
and was one of my favourite museum experiences.

Everything is set up similar to how it was during the war and you can
basically just walk up the desk Turing sat at. Like, I could probably have
touched it if I wanted to.

I also didn't realize how many famous names in graph theory came from there.

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linsomniac
For those interested in Bletchley Park, it features prominently in the book
Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War by Leo Marks. I read it maybe 10
years ago and it has a lot of good stuff about WWII codes and spying.

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squarefoot
> "Eventually a big grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and major donations
> from tech firms, funded the restoration of the site and the building of a
> museum ..."

Personally I find ironic that a monument to the use of math to help win a war
gets big funds from the lottery, which essentially is a tax on the lack of
knowledge of maths. ...Or maybe it's the most brilliant way to make good use
of that money.

However, I would also expect the military to donate the most money, due to the
huge number of soldiers lives saved through intercepting Nazi communications.
Also they would deserve some form of tax exemption. It's not just about
maintaining some buldings and people working there, but also keeping that
memory alive, which is priceless.

~~~
KineticLensman
> expect the military to donate the most money, due to the huge number of
> soldiers lives saved through intercepting Nazi communications

Defence spending is really complicated. In the UK, annual defence spending
typically pays for the cost of equipping and maintaining the armed services,
but the costs of actually going on operations are usually from a separate
budget. Ops (wars) are essentially a form of unpredictable expense, requested
by politicians, not the generals. If the UK defence budget donated to causes
like this, there would be less to spend on people, stuff, training, etc.

By way of example, the Imperial War Museum [0] is funded by government grants,
charitable donations, and revenue generation through commercial activity such
as retailing, licensing, and publishing

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_War_Museum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_War_Museum)

[Edit - clarity]

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merricksb
Different article about this topic discussed 2 days ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24243478](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24243478)

(Only a small discussion so probably doesn't quite count as a dupe).

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ed25519FUUU
> _Over the weekend, it emerged that the museum at the wartime code-breaking
> centre was facing a financial crisis because of the coronavirus - and that
> meant it was preparing to lay off 35 people, a third of its workforce._

How is this a crisis at all? The museum was closed and opened with reduced
attendance and doesn’t need this staff. I guess if you can’t separate the
museum and the staff this is a crisis, or rather a crisis for its payroll.

If we want these _sites_ to persist, we must be willing to cut payroll and
staff, even if it means drastically reducing the hours. It’s the _site_ that
we’re preserving.

~~~
lostlogin
> It’s the site that we’re preserving

It’s probably not true now as 10+ years have gone by, but when I was there the
guides were former Bletchley Park staff from during the war.

