Alan Turing petition to 10 Downing Street

See MORE4 news article re 10 Downing Street petition to pardon Alan Turing:

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to apologize for the prosecution of Alan Turing that led to his untimely death. Submitted by John Graham-Cumming – Deadline to sign up by: 20 January 2010 – Signatures: 4,546"

(As at 21:23 Friday 21 August 2009 from here).

From Manchester Evening News:

"John Graham-Cumming, a leading British computer expert who launched the campaign, said: I think that Alan Turing hasn't been recognised in Britain for his enormous contribution because he died in his forties and almost certainly because he was gay.

It is atrocious that we don't recognise this man and the only way to do so is to apologise to him. This man was a national treasure and we hounded him to his death.

One of the things for people in the computing world is that he was part of the war effort but we don't give him recognition in the same way as other heroes. To me, he was a hero in the second world war.

Since his death, plaques, buildings and statues have been raised in Turing's honour. The computing world's equivalent of the Nobel Prize has been called the Turing Award since 1966."