Petition to save Imperial War Museum

A petition has been launched online to help save the Imperial War Museum (www.iwm.org.uk), which is being forced to find savings to stop an annual £4 million deficit due to funding cuts to be implemented as part of the UK Government's austerity agenda. The museum's services at London, Manchester and Duxford are all likely to be affected.

Here's the initial part of the petition:

One hundred years after the outbreak of the First World War, the Imperial War Museum is under threat.

The Museum is facing an annual deficit of £4m because of cuts in government funding.

It has drawn up proposals to:

• close its unique library and dispose of the majority of its collection

• cut important education services

• cut 60-80 jobs

• close the widely emulated ‘Explore History’ facility in London.

The Museum’s library gives ordinary people access to research materials on all aspects of British and Commonwealth involvement in conflict since 1914.

Prospect trade union believes the world's leading authority on conflict will be irreparably damaged by the £4m deficit.

It has launched this petition to help ensure that the Imperial War Museum continues to provide for, and encourage, the study and understanding of the history of modern war and ‘wartime experience'.


For more information, to sign the petition and/or make a donation to the museum, visit https://www.change.org/p/rt-hon-george-osborne-mp-urgently-reverse-current-and-future-cuts-to-the-uk-imperial-war-museum-s-annual-operating-grant-in-aid-so-that-it-can-maintain-services-and-preserve-its-standing-as-an-international-centre-for-study-research-and-education.

There's also more on the cuts in a Financial Times story at www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2c1d49f8-6bfa-11e4-b939-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3JLAmfmbV.

(With thanks to @wdytyamagazine via Twitter)

Chris

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