I agree with Noz that the U.K. shouldn’t posthumously pardon Alan Turing for his homosexuality without also pardoning every other Brit who was treated as a criminal under that statute. But pardoning everyone is a better solution than not pardoning anyone and just leaving the stain on Britain’s history.
Noz is wise, and his overall point is dead-on. But the state can make a positive statement by declaring elements of national history as in need of some rectification. It’s wrong to do it selectively and half-heartedly, and even things like reparations shouldn’t be viewed as wiping away history.
The whole thing is weird though. Try to imagine that Albert Einstein was a natural born American, and we chemically castrated him causing him to commit suicide.
That’s basically what the U.K. is dealing with when they try to fix what they did to Alan Turing.
