Turing apology campaign: "public announcement shortly"

It may be bad form to flag a news story based on a single tweet, but this one warrants it: It's from @jgrahamc — John Graham-Cumming, instigator of the petition to get an official apology for Alan Turing — ten minutes ago.

"Just received a call from the Prime Minister regarding my Alan Turing petition. Expect a public announcement shortly."

The petition, which now has over 30,000 signatures, says:

Alan Turing was the greatest computer scientist ever born in Britain. He laid the foundations of computing, helped break the Nazi Enigma code and told us how to tell whether a machine could think.

He was also gay. He was prosecuted for being gay, chemically castrated as a 'cure', and took his own life, aged 41.

The British Government should apologize to Alan Turing for his treatment and recognize that his work created much of the world we live in and saved us from Nazi Germany. And an apology would recognize the tragic consequences of prejudice that ended this man's life and career.