Bunch of fives: we want an apology!

The treatment of code breaker Alan Turing, without whom the outcome of World War II would have been significantly different for the UK, was appalling. We know this and today's society has made it possible for Prime Minister Gordon Brown to rightfully issue a public apology to Alan Turing - a man to whom this nation owes so much.

But we feel there are other apologies to be made for downright stupid, thoughtless or more machiavellian moves. Yes, there are a few others who could bow their heads and grovel a bit as well in what we had hoped was a more enlightened world.

Peter Mandleson
And just when did we Brits have to dance to the tune of the music moguls? The Government ruled out disconnecting people who illegally share music, movies and other media online in the Digital Britain report.

Then - although strongly denied there was any link- after Lord Mandelson cosied up in Corfu with US record industry executive David Geffen in August, the Government managed a spectacular U-turn on the penalties.

Now illegal file sharers could find their internet service cut off. This is despite the European Commission introducing an amendment to the Telcoms package outlawing this as possibly being a breach of human rights. Let the Government know what you think.

Margaret Thatcher
Fibre to every home and business, giving the UK the edge over its global competitors and opening doors to a new world of entertainment, education and commerce. Yes, that's where we should have been in 1984.

But a grocer's daughter from Finchley canned that idea. Rather than instruct a state-owned monopoly to develop its network to deliver high bandwidth to the nation, Margaret Thatcher decided it would be much more fun to stage a competition to see who could dig up the most roads.

And where did the ethos of competition leave the UK's broadband industry? Ten years behind the South Koreans, not to mention leaving consumers to a choice of whose bill they want to receive for running on BT's wholesale network or forking out top rates to Beardie Branson.

Unless they live in Hull, where they get what they're given, and have to like it. That alone is worth an apology, Margaret Thatcher.

Open source community
It is not only politicians whose actions stick the craw a bit. Although we love them – mostly - we suggest adding the Linux community for failing beginners.
Linux, Open Source, Free Software.

Whatever you want to call it, software you don't need to pay should be great for credit crunch times. The trouble is it's so hard to get started.

Even the propaganda is so badly targeted as to become useless. The father of the Free Software movement, Richard Stallman, counts his four software freedoms from Freedom 0 to Freedom 3. Mr Stallman, only programmers count from 0 - not end users.

For us it's just plain confusing. Oh and 'Free' as in speech, not as in beer' still doesn't make any sense, and we've been trying to fathom it for years. We still think Linux Torvalds is a nice guy though.

Alan Sugar
The former Tottenham Hotspur owner, then Suralan and now, laughably, Baron Sugar of Clapton, was - shame on him - responsible for inflicting on the British public the irritation of the Amstrad E-mailer (or E-m@ailer as it was styled).

The machine looked like a Buck Rogers prop and, cleverly, combined phone functions with the ability to send and receive email and even browse the web on its rudimentary screen.

Sadly, as well as the user interface, customers had to put up with paying 50p to send a text message, plus extra charges for sending and receiving emails. Unsurprisingly, the E-mailer was never a success, and the last £150 models were seen being flogged off for a tenner