This is based on a lot of research Al - both of those who come and those who give the museum a wide berth. Personally I think using space at the top of the building to cover the Falklands, Balkans or Gulf War is a great idea. Naturally the WW1, WW2, and Holocaust permanent exhibitions will remain

Youg graduate curators threw Flying Legends out of Duxford. Haven't been back.

Like many major British museums, it's clearly run by people who loathe the original reason for its existance.

The problem they have is spending £1m is a lot of money for them, but nothing like enough to get a half decent agency involved. If they really want to sort out their image, probably one thing they could do is use their massive collection better and more openly

I’ve got an idea. How’s about getting dozens of war medals, like Victoria Crosses, put them all in one room and tell the astonishing stories of bravery that stand behind each medal, so that today’s kids can understand why we are who we are today? Perhaps @LordAshcroft could help out?

If we're really saying people can't relate to the two World Wars because they are not recent enough then the Bayeaux Tapestry exhibition at the British Museum must be a ghost town.

“No history or war in here, please, this is the imperial war museum”

A balance has to be struck but to "turn its back" on 1914-18 and 1939-45 would be very wrong.

It's the £1.2m deficit that worries me. IWM staff are already overwhelmed with the sheer volume of public donations of contemporaneous material, some of which, I'm told, they've yet to catalogue and is mounting up. The archives are fantastic and must be protected and open to all.

Isnt the whole point of a museum to get people interested in the past? Not to say “oh well, they dont have any connection to it so lets change things”. I dont have any connection to ancient Egypt, but I still like to look at things from that era…🙄

The war museum that doesn’t like the word war🙄

Meanwhile, the Royal Armouries and the Tank Museum are handily capitalising on the gaming inspired influx of young people. I hope the IWM finds it feet again, I much enjoyed my now distant visits. But it seems run by clueless apparatchiks.

No. The people charged with running IWM don’t seem to be able to relate. They appear to be desperate to stamp the museums with their own thoughts of what they should be like. Take Duxford. It was an active WW2 airfield during the height of the Battle of Britain but rather than play to its strengths, they are intent on turning it into a Cold War focused exhibition despite closing as an active operational RAF station in 1961.

'...in favour of transgender history after the IWM launched a self-guided LGBT tour with subjects including drag shows in prisoner of war camps and Enid Mary Barraud, a land girl who preferred to go by the name John. The IWM denied Lord Ashcroft’s accusation, saying there was no connection between the gallery closing and the LGBT tour.' People don't understand how much of a problem this is in our institutions. Setting, aside the fact that of course it's relevant what you're spending money on when losing £1.2 million a year, this is 'Queer' corrupting history in a museum. 'Queering' boils down to reaching back in history and making shit up to legitimise a modern political identity (queer theory & woke/intersectional leftism). Google 'queering UK museum' and see the extent of just the museums. Extend it to education, policing, workplace training, funding decisions... The most egregiously successful example is the rewriting and erasure of (living) gay rights history with the foundational myth of, who can best be described as trans Jesus, Marsha P. Johnson. A gay man who was not trans and arrived hours after Stonewall started. The actual history of 'trans' is not to be spoken about and is quite the horror show tracking back through a history of sexologists including the likes of Alfred Kinsey and John Money. To bring this back around to the IWM, one of the other extremely successful queering projects involves the Nazis and the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Erwin Gohrbandt had a particularly interesting career that led him to the Dachau freezing experiments): x.com/Zombie_Jesus_1/status/…

They need to be taught to relate to the Two World Wars, to prevent the third. Kids in The Netherlands and all over the continent can, so why can't the British kids? They are equally intelligent and inquisitive. Just tell them the true stories. Not just the white British ones.

The display part of that institution is a shadow of its former self

Doing away with the VC collection was a cultural crime and it seems it was only the start. Gutting.

If the @I_W_M want the young to visit, they need to beg for the return of Lord Ashcroft's medals and then start telling the stories of the days these brave people became heroes. Young people have better things to do than listen to a false version of history. @LordAshcroft

If the people in charge need a rebranding to make war relevant to youngsters, they are not fit to be in charge.

I know there are kids who find the WW1 and WW2 fascinating, but for a vast majority, it feels irrelevant. I notice that very few of the people who disagree with changes are particularly "in touch" with the modern world.

Typical telegraph article telling a half story- this will be an addition not a substitution And they roll out the tax exile with a grudge to back up their point. The world wars will remain just as relevant as before but modern veterans will see their own sacrifices appreciated

This is interesting. Understanding of conflict doesn’t remain static. The @AWMemorial in Canberra has just had a refurb to cover Iraq & Afghanistan. However to ditch WW1 & WW2 would be regrettable.

Fun fact, one of the changes they want to make is to lower the iconic guns out front. Why you may ask? They think they are intimidating……. 😂😂

I had high expectations visiting IWM. But I thought it was a bit underwhelming. I think they need to do old school museum style.

A museum that turns its back on the past? Time to shut down and have a yard sale. Those 15” gun barrels would look great in our garden.

The museum died the moment this happened, it just doesn't know it yet.

Are you surprised or disagreeing?

In my experience of teaching secondary age pupils there is a still a big interest in the wars, some are obsessed with it. Perhaps more than when I was their age.

No no can relate to dinosaurs either but the Natural History Museum does ok.

Along with several other great institutions it has lost its way in an attempt to jump on the progressive bandwagon. “Really” is an excellent repost.

Along with James, redouble your efforts by way of your podcasts to drive home the historic importance of both world wars & how it shaped Europe post 1945. Korea Falklands, Iraq, Afghanistan are important but the broader 'picture' of the two global conflicts must never be ignored.

May as well send that big tapestry thing back to Bayeux, then

WTF is going wrong with this countries establishment ? The Wokes want to change history. British tradition and historical accuracy are being kicked out the door. Wonder if the Woke's can bring my Great uncle (who died aged 21 at Passchendaele during WWI ) back to life?

The problem with these debates, are those that like traditional museums with acres and acres of very dry text and cabinets of “things” so think that everything else is “woke”, and there are those that want to throw the baby out with the bath water. Just make it interesting.

When I was 10, conflict 110 years in the past would have been the Zulu War. Scary to say out loud. WW2 was ~40 years in the past. As sad as I feel with WW1&2 generations fading away during my lifetime. I understand the IWM updating its exhibitions.

The IWM management seem hell bent on ruining their museums. They are only interested in making as much money to line their wallets as they can. Airshow at Duxfords prices has gone up and charging you to not even park on site. The line ups aren't what they used to be either.