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Post by Swampy on Dec 16, 2012 21:41:55 GMT -5
Stephen Hawking has joined the call to ask for a pardon for Alan Turing, the legendary computer pioneer who was convicted of homosexuality and forcibly treated with hormones. But a pardon is forgiveness for doing something wrong; Turing didn't do anything wrong, and the British government was wrong to make him a criminal, especially considering what he did for his country. So there should be an annulment of that conviction, which means it was never valid to begin with.
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Post by Sir John on Dec 17, 2012 14:21:57 GMT -5
Did this have anything to do with the Burgess and MacLean spy scandal of that time?
SJ
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Post by Swampy on Dec 17, 2012 15:05:57 GMT -5
No - he's an intellectual who was gay and was prosecuted for it.
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Post by bluejay77 on Dec 17, 2012 16:55:03 GMT -5
Did this have anything to do with the Burgess and MacLean spy scandal of that time? SJ IIRC they were ideological socialists and committed their deeds for ideological causes. BTW did the UK ever have the equivalent of Senator Joseph McCarthy? |
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Post by Sir John on Dec 17, 2012 19:15:36 GMT -5
"IIRC they were ideological socialists and committed their deeds for ideological causes."
I prefer to call them spies and traitors.
And I do not know of any McCarthy clone in the UK. They have so many socialist governments over there that the Conservatives hardly get a look in.
SJ
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Post by bluejay77 on Dec 17, 2012 23:34:56 GMT -5
"IIRC they were ideological socialists and committed their deeds for ideological causes." I prefer to call them spies and traitors. And I do not know of any McCarthy clone in the UK. They have so many socialist governments over there that the Conservatives hardly get a look in. SJ OK, English is not my mother tongue -- I should have said, "committed their despicable, lowly, heinous crimes for ideological reasons" or something like that. The tone of the communication was not right. Anyway, to my life's experience -- the MI6 are more robust against attacks by foreign intelligences than the US CIA (surprisingly). |
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Post by mcnoch on Dec 19, 2012 16:22:17 GMT -5
What he did was against the law back then, so an annulment of the conviction is not possible.
He was not victim of a politically guided witch-hunt or so, but his sexual relationship with another man was revealed by the police because this other man was involved in a burglary of which Turing was the victim and Turing had called the police.
His great achievements during the war couldn't be revealed in court, not even in a session closed for the public, as it was still top secret. Normally the government should have managed to get this file somehow lost as they did in other cases, but Sir Winston Churchill was busy with other things.
BTW the UK had since WWII 9 conservative and only 6 Labour PMs.
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Post by Sir John on Dec 19, 2012 16:33:38 GMT -5
"BTW the UK had since WWII 9 conservative and only 6 Labour PMs."
I am surprised, it was simply an impression I had that it was the other way round.
SJ
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Post by Sir John on Dec 19, 2012 16:48:44 GMT -5
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