
Bletchley Park Trust to undergo organisational restructure - leoc
https://bletchleypark.org.uk/news/bletchley-park-trust-to-undergo-organisational-restructure
======
motohagiography
That's disappointing. Given the size of the UK intelligence budget and how
much the whole military must spend on recruiting, being a part of the story
that began there is one of the things that gets smart people into public
service.

~~~
Proven
Statist mindset.

Why not simply eliminate the private sector to ensure all smart people can't
go anywhere but into public service, and get peace and prosperity for all?

Smart people shouldn't go into public service.

~~~
motohagiography
Well, then you'd have the UK in the 70's pre-Thatcher, or now, basically.

There is some wisdom to putting dull people in charge of governance tasks as
they manage to keep themselves mostly out of the way. Too sharp, and you get
sophisticated corruption as a way of life, which is the irony of countries
where their cleverest people are in government. Too dull and you get mob rule
and petty corruption, a junta with proverbial DMV clerks all the way down. The
modern UK 'elf'n'safety state seems to lurch a bit toward the latter, so
Bletchley could be a rallying point from a time when ordinary people were
indeed capable of extraordinary things.

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Animats
Worry instead about the National Museum of Computing.[1] Those are the people
who did the bombe rebuild and the Colossus rebuild. Separate admission. They
had a falling-out with the building-oriented Bletchley Park Trust.

I've been there, but before it was built up into a major tourist attraction.

[1] [https://bletchleypark.org.uk/visit-us/the-national-museum-
of...](https://bletchleypark.org.uk/visit-us/the-national-museum-of-computing)

~~~
chrisseaton
> They had a falling-out with the building-oriented Bletchley Park Trust.

Does anyone know what this was about?

~~~
m-_-
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-25916048](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-25916048)

~~~
chrisseaton
Thanks, but that explains absolutely nothing. Even the guy being fired says 'I
haven't got a clue'. The say that they want to develop a new visitor centre
because they have lottery funding, but I don't see why that means they can't
work with the National Museum of Computing.

Why doesn't the interview just ask them 'just tell me what is the problem
here?'

I don't understand how we get these news reports that explain nothing.

~~~
m-_-
I personally thought it was reasonably clear. Bletchley park estate split into
two museums, one large one small. Tour guide from large museum takes visitors
to small museum too as this is a major part of the story (i.e colossus, the
bomb, witch) allowed for a number of years, now against policy (basically to
pretend the small museum does not exist/is not worth visiting) and as such
volunteer fired for his transgression.

Not in the video, but worth noting is that the small museum are a tenant of
the large museum who get use of the estate basically free from Govt.

~~~
chrisseaton
> I personally thought it was reasonably clear.

Well I must be mad because I still can't understand it from your explanation.
I know it's against policy to take them to the smaller museum and this is why
he was fired... but... why?

Why did they make it against policy? Why do they not want to work with the
other museum? Why do they not get along?

> basically to pretend the small museum does not exist/is not worth visiting

Why do they want to pretend that the small museum does not exist and is not
worth visiting?

There's like ten fundamental and completely unexplained why's still left after
your explanation. I don't know how that can be 'reasonably clear'.

~~~
Animats
The Computer Museum in Mountain View has a similar problem. The museum
management and the people restoring old computers don't get along.

~~~
ElCapitanMarkla
This is a really common theme in the museum space. I’ve worked with a lot of
museums over the last 10+ years and just about every single one has a very us
vs them feel when it comes to upper management.

I don’t know if every government department ends up like that but these ones
here certainly do.

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vmception
Disclaimer: I’m not saying it should be different

I absolutely love how prior payments to executives/trustees escapes all
scrutiny. Its like “ah we didnt get Xmillion this year there is nothing we can
dooo”. Which is very responsible for personal finances. Never spend your own,
use other people’s money. And in a trust it is almost impossible to do it any
other way. Its still interesting to me.

~~~
traceroute66
This is exactly why I refuse to give to big brand-name charities. The amount
of troughing going on in large charities is absolutely disgraceful.

Whether its the remuneration given to those at the top table, the fancy
offices the charities occupy in prime real estate locations, the generous use
of taxis and business class flights. The list goes on.

Until such day the charity regulators put an end to it, I shall continue my
no-execptions refusal to give to large charities.

~~~
nmca
There are organisations that go to some length to assess which charities give
you the most "bang for your buck". GiveWell is the one that I am most familiar
with, which reccomends the AMF, amongst other organisations. Donations there
can save many lives for little money, so if you're worried about, eg UNICEF
spend, I suggest you check it out as an alternative!

[https://www.givewell.org/](https://www.givewell.org/)

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tpmx
I had a free Saturday after some boring Friday sales meeting/presentation in
London maybe a decade ago. Decided to take a field trip to Bletchley Park
instead of wandering aimlessly in London. I just loved the whole experience
(including the train trip and the walk from the Bletchley train station) so
much. I want to do it again, so I hope it will be able to keep going.

~~~
rwmj
Unfortunately since then the managers got rid of all the volunteers who had
intimate knowledge of the computer science:
[https://www.theregister.com/2014/01/28/bletchley_park_sacks_...](https://www.theregister.com/2014/01/28/bletchley_park_sacks_elderly_volunteers/)

I was very lucky that I got to meet Tony Sale a couple of times before he
passed away, back in probably 2008 or thereabouts and he demonstrated the
Colossus that he had rebuilt to me, which was a tremendous experience
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Sale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Sale)).

~~~
bgruber
While you do have to know what you are looking for, and walk the long way
around from the larger Bletchley Park site, the National Museum of Computing
is still (as of last year) there with volunteers showing off the workings of a
bunch of rebuilt computers including the Colossus. I can't recommend a visit,
with a guided tour, enough. And you might as well visit Bletchley itself while
you are there, which is a different experience, but still worth while.

------
wayanon
You’d think or hope GCHQ could be involved - or are they already?

------
Pick-A-Hill2019
This coming after their data breach (13 August 2020).

[https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53771942](https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53771942)

------
frereubu
Presumably cock-up rather than conspiracy, but you can search the UK Charities
Commission for information on any charity. Bletchley Park says that its
registered charity number is 1012743 - [https://bletchleypark.org.uk/about-
us/contact-us](https://bletchleypark.org.uk/about-us/contact-us) \- but I
can't find anything when searching the Charity Commission website:
[https://beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-
search/?search...](https://beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-
search/?searchText=1012743&pageNumber=1)

I'd be interested to know a bit more about the breakdown of their finances. As
another comment says, I wonder just how much Iain Standen, their CEO, gets
paid, and whether he offered to take any kind of pay cut. Not saying it would
eliminate all layoffs and / or furloughs, but it would be a meaningful gesture
of solidarity.

~~~
chrisseaton
Looks like at most £110k when you read the accounts. Not sure why you're not
finding them and mentioning words like 'conspiracy' and 'cock-up' \- they're
right here if you bother to look for them:

[http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfC...](http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/FinancialHistory.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1012743&SubsidiaryNumber=0)

~~~
frereubu
Didn't mean anything arch by that. I tried looking for them by name and
charity number but nothing turned up. I consider it a cock-up that I couldn't
find them by searching by charity number on the Charity Commission website,
which has worked for every charity I've done that for. The only other
explanation was that they were going to change their charity status, but I
considered that unlikely, hence "cock-up rather than conspiracy".

