PM posthumously apologises for treatment of Alan Turing.

[Von Smallhausen]

Originally Posted by Desmo

It's just politics. He doesn't mean it and he probably doesn't care. It's just brownie points (no pun intended) for him and the world carries on.

[Treefrog]

Originally Posted by Bigstan

I think I'll start a petition demanding individual personal apologies for each victim of the many atrocities committed by Edward "Longshanks" against the Scots and others in the 13th century. I think I'll start with the sack of Berwick

The apology would have to come from his direct descendant IMHO - that should make her speech worth listening to

And aren't the English still technically at war with Berwick, since the town was missed off the peace agreement?

[Stan_Lite]

Originally Posted by Treefrog

And aren't the English still technically at war with Berwick, since the town was missed off the peace agreement?

It was Russia. This quote taken from http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.u...eed/index.html

Under the Treaty of Perpetual Peace between Henry VII of England and James IV of Scotland in 1502 (just 11 years before the Scottish army and nobility was destroyed by the English at the Battle of Flodden) Berwick was given a special status as being "of" the Kingdom of England but not "in" it. As a result the town thereafter needed special mention in royal proclamations.

This had one odd effect. When Queen Victoria signed the declaration of war on Russia in 1853, she did so in the name of "Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, Ireland, Berwick-upon-Tweed and the British Dominions beyond the sea." But Berwick was not mentioned in the Treaty of Paris that concluded the Crimean War in 1856, leaving the town technically still at war with Russia.

A peace treaty was only finally signed by a Russian diplomat and the the Mayor of Berwick in 1966. As the mayor said at the time: "You can tell the Russian people that they can now sleep peacefully in their beds".

I love the quote from the mayor