I agree. Re-interpreting historical actions on the basis of the laws now is an interesting slippery slope that would result in a lot of people being retrospectively done for child abuse of various kinds, from workhouses and illegal marriages, people being done for domestic abuse, fox hunting, badger baiting, cock fighting, quite apart from a good part of the aristocracy being dug up and done for war crimes...
There have been, in the past, a lot of unjust laws (there still are a fair few). Hopefully (Ha!) later generations will correct the mistakes of their predecessors. However laws are a writing of the societal norms of the time, and should be regrded as such...
I think an award to Mr Turing for services to his country would send the right message however.
on the other hand, if one was an immortal institution (say, the church) which had done some seriously questionable acts (e.g. spanish inquisition) then it appears reasonable for the church to say "yup, that was really wrong". On this basis it appears reasonable for another immortal institution (HMG) to state the same.
Unfortunately, unlike victims of the spanish inquisition, same of the victims of HMG might still be alive, in which case if they apologised it would be compensation lawsuit after lawsuit for years to come...
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-09-04 09:46 am (UTC)There have been, in the past, a lot of unjust laws (there still are a fair few). Hopefully (Ha!) later generations will correct the mistakes of their predecessors. However laws are a writing of the societal norms of the time, and should be regrded as such...
I think an award to Mr Turing for services to his country would send the right message however.
on the other hand, if one was an immortal institution (say, the church) which had done some seriously questionable acts (e.g. spanish inquisition) then it appears reasonable for the church to say "yup, that was really wrong". On this basis it appears reasonable for another immortal institution (HMG) to state the same.
Unfortunately, unlike victims of the spanish inquisition, same of the victims of HMG might still be alive, in which case if they apologised it would be compensation lawsuit after lawsuit for years to come...