A pardon for Admiral Byng ?

[Scylax]

Seemingly, a pardon is being sought for Admiral
John Byng, shot aboard his flagship 250 years ago,
in order 'to encourage the others '.

A 'pardon' assumes guilt which has been forgiven.

Surely an exoneration is required here, if a major
miscarriage of justice has occurred ?

[Gromit]

Pardons, exonerations, apologies for events that happened a long time ago and for actions of people now long dead are completely pointless.

Now if you were to get some of the present shower of leaders to apologise for the mess we are in, that would be worth hearing.

[mankymonky]

What a waste of money and time. Who gives a darn?

[jno]

that was Voltaire's take on it; he was actually shot for not trying hard enough. It is conceivable that he was guilty of this (being an incredibly nebulous sort of offence), though it was more likely Admiralty incompeteence. So there is a case for a pardon that might amount to a not guilty verdict. I doubt that the evidence exists for a proper retrial and exoneration. His descendants care about it; bit of a blot on their escutcheon. Better they ask for a pardon than 250 years' worth of damages.

[dummkopf]

Pardons and apologies for events soooo long ago ? Just how far back are we looking at ?
I agree with gromit it's pointless.

[jno]

acknowledging past bad behaviour can have an effect. For instance, if Byng were pardoned, and a government in future tried to make a military leader the scapegoat for policy failure, he might be entitled to point out that he was being treated the same way as Byng and that the government had already agreed this was wrong. So it can give some sort of official acknowledgment of what constitutes acceptable government behaviour, and that's no bad thing.

The problem of course, as Gromit suggests, is that Blair is happy to apologise for the errors of past governments but will never admit his own.