"We're terribly sorry for persecuting this great man for committing criminal acts. Of course, being gay should not have been a crime. But it was. How awful. Utterly unfair. Appalling. Terribly sorry".

How about...

Gordon Brown statement...

"We're terribly sorry for persecuting this great man for committing criminal acts. Of course, having sex with teenagers over 16 should not have been a crime. But it was. How awful. Utterly unfair. Appalling. Terribly sorry".

Is it just me or is Gordon Brown a really depressing personality?

Talk about one sided,lesbianism was never a crime because Queen Vic couldn't believe such women existed,and refused to sign it into law....

The truly depressing thing, in the light of today's announcement is that a genius of Turing's stature would be barred from working with {or even giving lifts to} children. At the time of his conviction it was a regular tabloid practice to label homosexuals as "evil men". The goalposts might move, but the depressing feature of life sentences having little to do with prison is a constant.