The UK government has pardoned the deceased computer pioneer and cryptographer, Alan Turing for his 1952 conviction for homosexual related offences.
I can't but feel a sense of unease at this. OK, so I know there is a large element of political posturing in this but .......
What's next? Pardoning those that betrayed their country and spied for East Germany and the USSR, on the grounds that these entities no longer exist? What about convicting people for acts that are now crimes but weren't when they were committed? Remember, hate crime is now apparently not in what you say but is in how it is perceived by the recipient. So, prosecute Enoch Powell for his 'rivers of blood' speech? Posthumously prosecute all the 1930's supporters of the Communist regime of the Soviet Union and the apologists for the show trials? A pardon for Lord HawHaw on the grounds that he was an Irish nationalist and we now accommodate and treat with such terrorists?
Or maybe just leave things as they are and not apply 2013 'standards' to historical events and somehow think we know better than the people, at those times knew.
I can't but feel a sense of unease at this. OK, so I know there is a large element of political posturing in this but .......
What's next? Pardoning those that betrayed their country and spied for East Germany and the USSR, on the grounds that these entities no longer exist? What about convicting people for acts that are now crimes but weren't when they were committed? Remember, hate crime is now apparently not in what you say but is in how it is perceived by the recipient. So, prosecute Enoch Powell for his 'rivers of blood' speech? Posthumously prosecute all the 1930's supporters of the Communist regime of the Soviet Union and the apologists for the show trials? A pardon for Lord HawHaw on the grounds that he was an Irish nationalist and we now accommodate and treat with such terrorists?
Or maybe just leave things as they are and not apply 2013 'standards' to historical events and somehow think we know better than the people, at those times knew.
