OOH ERR ERNIE!

News today that the original ERNIE computer, which generated random numbers for UK Government Premium Bonds, is on display at London’s Science Museum. Made me think how much this was a bold PR move by the post-war UK Government. How to get citizens to give the Government money at a time of austerity? Well let’s win their trust by getting a computer not a civil servant to randomly choose the winning number. An added bonus was associating government policy with what was then considered white-hot high tech – another antidote for the post-war murk n gloom