A bunch of English computer science boffins is calling on God, Queen and government to save Bletchley Park, the historic place where Alan Turing and his colleagues worked day and night with much a headache to crack the German Enigma code during WWII. The efforts lead to the development of Colossus, an ancient computer made from parts that twisted and turned and groaned. It was, however, the first programmable machine ever built, beating the Americans by several trillion milliseconds.

A trust was formed in 1992 to save Bletchley Park from being bulldozed for a housing project. The shroud of secrecy surrounding Bletchley Park was also lifted when Robert Harris released his book 'Enigma', which was turned into a moving picture a few years ago. However, the trust has no money, which is why the buildings are accidents waiting to happen.

The 97 boffins who wrote the open letter, which was published in English newspaper The Times, demand repairs and that the sheds be turned into a national computer museum. The site is already open to the general public, however it receives no public funds whatsoever. Dr Sue Black of the University of Westminster claimed Bletchley Park “is fundamental for the history of computing because we wouldn’t have the computers we’ve got now without it, and fundamental for our history because we might not have won the war without it”.

If Gordon Brown stays as miserly and stingy as can be expected of a Scotsman, the boffins might consider appealing to Nicky Sarkozy to move the houses to La Grande Nation and turn it into a French national museum, considering France has a national policy of rewriting history. X

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Times of London