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Comment by bowyakka | Hacker News Reader

This document looks fantastically fake.

UK bills don't tend to use a fake cursive font, they don't tend to have common language like "Greetings!", there is no court at Sandringham that I have heard of, and the bill to pardon Mr Turing is not through its full process in the house of commons.

http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2013-14/alanturingstatut...

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Apparently there's a difference between a Royal Pardon and a Statutory Pardon. Parliament would have been debating the latter; this is the former (which the government had previously ruled out), it seems.

This isn't a UK bill. This is a pardon in the form of letters patent coming from the Queen. The form, "To all whom these Presents come, Greetings!" is pretty common in letters patent. There may not be a normal court in Sandringham, but this isn't coming from a normal court. It's coming from the Royal Court, which takes on the name of wherever the Sovereign is in residence. In this, the Queen is staying at Sandringham, so that's where the Royal Court is.

Humm I take it back, looks like he was pardoned

"Greeting!", no less.

Actually I have a British Army commission and it does indeed start 'To Our Trusty and Well Beloved Christopher Graham Seaton Greeting!'

My understanding is that this is actually standard form for certain official documents in the UK. Example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_patent#Form_of_British_...

It certainly has a more distinct ring to it than "To whom it may concern:"

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