Phil Willis MP, has tabled an Early Data Motion in Parliament calling for the UK Government to support the Museum at Bletchley Park, home of WWII codebreakers and the birthplace of computing. The motion reads ;
“That this House recognises the signficance of Bletchley Park, historic site of secret British code-breaking activities during the Second World War and birthplace of the modern computer; acknowledges that the use of the intelligence gained at Bletchley Park and subsequent related actions of the Allies is said to have shortened the Second World War by two years, saving countless lives; and calls on the Government to provide operational funding whilst the museum is developed for long-term sustainability, securing the site for future generations to visit, appreciate and understand.”
If you live in the UK please use the excellent Write to Them website, to send a message to your MP and ask them to support this motion. Having visited the Museum last week, support is critically needed I hate to think what the electricity bill for Colossus is !
Written and submitted from the Google Office, London
7 replies on “Early Day Motion to support Bletchley Park Museum”
[…] to support Bletchley Park Museum July 21st, 2009 admin Leave a comment Go to comments Early Day Motion to support Bletchley Park Museum. Time to fire up WriteToThem.com and drop your MP a friendly note of […]
This is a good call – I’ve been to Bletchley Park a couple of times – both to the Computing Museum and the Bletchley House Codebreakers museum. They were a well kept secret (not surprisingly) – but are now well worth a visit – and in need of funding to continue the excellent work that’s going on there.
Rick
> I hate to think what the electricity bill for Colossus is !
Colossal?
Glad to see people are looking to save Bletchley Park. My Grandmother worked in one of the huts in the war and I’m sure she’d be behind the efforts to preserve the buildings.
Regarding Colossus’s electricity bill: Some 6kW when it’s running – which is every day of the week. Add to that an ICL 2966 mainframe, several mini-computers and dozens of smaller machines. You can see it all adds up. More information about the museum on our web site at http://www.tnmoc.org – support is needed to keep all of these machines in working order.
Great call this one and very worthwhile – any other country would support this without fail.
Phil Willis is my local MP so in this case I won’t write to him other than to say, good on you!
Thank very much for the blog post Ed 🙂
For anyone interested in the campaign to save Bletchley Park please see:
http://savingbletchleypark.org
and if you can help please get in touch…after you have emailed your MP asking them to support EDM 1935.
Thanks