Full text of PM's apology to Alan Turing

I've been unable to find the full text of Gordon Brown's apology to Alan Turing online; lots of quotes from it, but not the full text. I visited Bletchley park recently and they have the original letter framed in a display; so I photographed it and have now transcribed it. The transcript is below the photos of the letter.

Remarks of the Prime Minister Gordon Brown

10 September 2009

This has been a year of deep reflection – a chance for Britain, as a nation, to commemorate the profound debts we owe to those who came before. A unique combination of anniversaries and events have stirred in us that sense of pride and gratitude that characterise the British experience. Earlier this year, I stood with Presidents Sarkozy and Obama to honour the service and the sacrifice of the heroes who stormed the beaches of Normandy 65 years ago. And just last week, we marked the 70 years which have passed since the British government declared its willingness to take up arms against fascism and declared the outbreak of the Second World War.
So I am both pleased and proud that thanks to a coalition of computer scientists, historians and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) activists, we have this year a chance to mark and celebrate another contribution to Britain’s fight against the darkness of dictatorship: that of code-breaker Alan Turing.
Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most famous for his work on the German Enigma codes. It is no exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the history of the Second World War could have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war. The debt of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that he was treated so inhumanely.
In 1952, he was convicted of “gross indecency” – in effect, tried for being gay. His sentence – and he was faced with the miserable choice of this or prison – was chemical castration by a series of injections of female hormones. He took his own life just two years later.
Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time, and we can’t put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair, and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I am and we all are for what happened to him. Alan and so many thousands of other gay men who were convicted, as he was convicted, under homophobic laws, were treated terribly. Over the years, millions more lived in fear of conviction. I am proud that those days are gone and that in the past 12 years this Government has done so much to make life fairer and more equal for our LGBT community. This recognition of Alan’s status as one of Britain’s most famous victims of homophobia is another step towards equality, and long overdue.
But even more than that, Alan deserves recognition for this contribution to humankind. For those of us born after 1945, into a Europe which is united, democratic and at peace, it is hard to imagine that our continent was once the theatre of mankind’s darkest hour. It is difficult to believe that in living memory, people could become so consumed by hate – by anti-Semitism, by homophobia, by xenophobia and other murderous prejudices – that the gas chambers and crematoria became a piece of the European landscape as surely as the galleries and universities and concert halls which had marked out European civilisation for hundreds of years.
It is thanks to men and women who were totally committed to fighting fascism, people like Alan Turing, that the horrors of the Holocaust and of total war are part of Europe’s history and not Europe’s present. So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan’s work, I am very proud to say: we’re sorry. You deserved so much better.

Gordon Brown

Grant a pardon to Alan Turing

A new online petition to the British government is asking for a pardon for the conviction of Alan Turing http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/23526 It says:
    We ask the HM Government to grant a pardon to Alan Turing for the conviction of 'gross indecency'. [...] A pardon can go to some way to healing this damage. It may act as an apology to many of the other gay men, not as well known as Alan Turing, who were subjected to these laws.
    Before you rush to sign what seems like a very worthy cause you should read John Graham-Cumming's reasons for not supporting the campaign. He was the person who organised the recent apology from the British government to Turing.
You can then decide if you want to support the new petition or not.

Alan Turing on new Bank of England's £50 note

Ten years ago I started writing a book, called The Universal Machine, in which Alan Turing was the central character. The book was published in 2012 to coincide with the centenary of Turing's birth. Around the world, computer scientists and people from the LGBQT community got together to raise public awareness of this remarkable man. A decade ago few members of the public could say who Turing was. That has now changed. A public apology from the Prime Minister was followed by a pardon, which was followed by a pardon of all those convicted under the gross indecency law. An acclaimed movie, The Imitation Game, and many other initiatives have resulted in Turing now being recognised as a genius, "the Father of Computing."
The BBC recently reported that Turing will be the new face on the £50 note. He sits along with others such as Darwin and Newton on British banknotes.

The Alan Turing Marathon - London Olympics 2012

The idea of commemorating the centenary of Alan Turing's birth by naming the marathon at the London Olympics in 2012 "The Alan Turing Marathon", isn't such a daft idea after all.
John Graham-Cumming, who led the succesful campaign last year to have the British PM offer an apology for the way Alan Turing was treated by authorities, is now trying achieve this new goal.
Turns out that Turing was not just a brilliant mathematician and the father of computing but a strong marathon runner - 2 hours 46 minutes seems like an excellent time for a marathon.
John Graham-Cumming can be contacted via his blog http://blog.jgc.org/