Save Bletchley!

One for any British readers with an interest in the history of computers and Britain's part in their early development.

Bletchley Park is the site of the main British efforts in WW2 to, for instance, decrypt the Nazi's Enigma codes and it is now the home of a museum to these efforts.

However, it's lamentably underfunded and is struggling to survive.

You can perhaps help in a small way to persuade the government to save Bletchley by signing the petition to the Prime Minister.

Go on. Even Prince Charles is supporting it.

In related news, Swindon's Museum of Computing has problems too. It's lost its venue and is currently closed down with all the kit in storage. An expanded Bletchley would be the ideal home for it, but its curators live in Swindon and don't fancy Milton Keynes much. (Personally, I can't see much to recommend either. :¬) )

I must confess, I've never been to Bletchley Park myself, even though I have friends who live in the town of Bletchley who I have visited and even stayed with. I've long wanted to. Anyone fancy joining me on a day-trip up there?

"Its"

Re-reading my last post, I saw "it's lost its venue", a phrase that takes no effort or thought for me but throws many people. Is it me, or is the spread of "it's" as a possessive spreading? I'm seeing it more and more. It's in print, in newspapers, magazines, on signs, all over the Web even on sites on the Web written by pros. I had to remonstrate with DJ yesterday for using it incorrectly in a story on Heise.

"Its" as a possessive is not some bizarre aberration, some weird breaking of the rule of appending apostrophe-s on the end of a pronoun to indicate ownership. "Its" is not in the same set as John's or Fred's or the cat's.

No, actually, "its" has a different set of counterparts and the odd thing is that while they are not immune to the pernicious influence of the grocer's apostrophe, they seem to me to get so brutalised a lot less.

The kin of "its" are "his", "hers", "ours", "yours" and "theirs". They are all possessive pronouns.

Sure, yes, we do occasionally get assaulted with "her's" and "your's", but they're fairly rare. Yet "it's" is becoming ubiquitous; some days it seems that I see the incorrect form more than the correct one.

Why? Why are native English speakers unable to remember the difference? If someone can extend the principle of "his" to "hers" - and "hi's" is exceptionally rare - then why can't they extend it to poor old "its"?

Answers on a poctsacrd.