Gordon Brown apologises to Alan Turing
telegraph.co.uk
telegraph.co.uk
(It was his campaign to effectiveness of which many, including me, were sceptical.)
Further discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=816217
I have to live in this country, but I fear for its future. About the only party I can stomach voting for is the LibDems, but it's been a long time since they had a hand in government (assuming continuity with Liberal Party).
The fact that there is 'no cost' is great, that means that it got done. The church took 400 years in some cases to recognize their wrongs, the British Government (at the prodding of John Graham-Cumming) took 'only' 50 years and change.
I'm all for pressing governments to admit their wrongdoings, and I'm all for shortening the time it takes them. The great news here is IT WORKED. They took notice, and within a fairly short time.
They stopped short of what was asked, but they didn't exactly do nothing either, that's the prime minister speaking in person there, not some two bit flunky.
Gordon Brown personifies the British government, in this case that could have gone only one step higher (the Queen) but apparently she couldn't be bothered, or Brown decided that it might help his re-election chances if he did it himself.
Whatever the truth of it is a cause for rejoicing.
Now let's hope some of this rubs off on his underlings, some of who are in a perfect position to show that they too understand that discrimination is wrong.
If the latter is true, aren’t there bigger things he can apologise about? The UK government did quite a few dastardly things during its long rule (as most governments did). It would be nice if they start apologising to every country and group that they oppressed during the colonial period.
No, and if you read the statement, Gordon Brown took the opportunity to blow his own trumpet - "my how far we've come, things are so much better now" (I paraphrase). Quite a politically astute response, actually, since it makes them look good from a number of angles.
That does not mean that nothing was achieved however.
In my opinion, now it is time to press on and demand a formal pardon in light of this apology I don't see how it could be refused. He's pretty much admitted they got it wrong, a pardon is the next logical step.
The language is ambiguous: If by "he" and "they" you are referring to the same entity, then no, no such admission has been made. And it's not clear that it should be.
More like "thousands of other gay men who were convicted under homophobic laws were treated terribly ... I am proud that those days are gone ... " In other words "they got it wrong in the 1950s. We're better."
Apologies for being ambiguous. Not sure what the downvote was all about, whether that was because of Brown being a smooth operator (he is), him trying to spin this in such a way that he benefits from it (he did, especially some of the words could have been a lot better chosen for an apology), whether they disagree that nothing was achieved (it was, there is an apology where there was none before) or whether they disagree with that this in my opinion is a first step (it is, it's my opinion, I should know ;) ).
When I read it I just thought it was a nice thing to do.
Either way, due credit for making the statement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conviction_of_Michael_Shields#R...
"... I have recommended to Her Majesty the Queen that he should be granted a free pardon and she has graciously assented."
Let's keep up the good work! We have a long list of horrible deeds done in the past to dead people by other dead people, and there's no limit to the amount of patting ourselves on the back we can achieve. After all, we are so morally superior to all of those folk, and it's time we told ourselves that.
Never mind that slavery still exists in the world, or imprisonment for gays, or genocide, or female genital mutilation. No point in addressing or doing something about actual, real evils that we can make an impact on. Nope! When you can score easy symbolic points, all of that real action seems kind of silly. Let's hear it for symbolism over substance! </sarcasm>
As a person of European descent, I would like to take this opportunity to request that the Italian government apologize for the Romans keeping so many of our ancestors as slaves. This is a wrong that's gone on way too long, and something superficial and symbolic must immediately be done so that I can feel better about it.