Mary Warnock
Ronnie Biggs hasn't ever apologised, it's true. But apologising is an act that may bear no more relation to contrition than "yours sincerely" bears to meaning what you say when you regretfully decline an invitation. Ronnie Biggs has had a long time to consider whether he would have acted otherwise if he had his life again and we don't know what he has concluded. In any case, to parole him isn't necessarily to forgive him. It is an act of mercy to a sick old man who can do no more harm and has had his punishment.
Mary Warnock is a philosopher and crossbench peer
Diane Abbott
Contrition may be necessary for an individual to forgive another individual. It is certainly not a necessary precondition to release someone from prison, so long as they have served their sentence and are no longer a threat to the public. But contrition is necessary for society to forgive a politician. Only contrition proves you have learnt from your mistakes. It is for his complete absence of contrition that I will never forgive Tony Blair for taking us into the war in Iraq. It was not just an illegal war, it was on the basis of a lie. As long as he shows no contrition, he can never be forgiven.
Diane Abbott is MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington
Donald Macleod
There are two sides to this, the personal and the public. The personal ideal is that I should harbour no desire for revenge, in which case no apology is necessary. But public justice is not in the business of forgiveness. Its business is the law, which is with outward actions. It cannot look into the heart and cannot, therefore, proceed on the basis of contrition. The state can parole Ronnie Biggs, but it cannot forgive him. On parole, he will still be a guilty man, released only because he is a pathetic geriatric whose continuing imprisonment serves no useful purpose.
Donald Macleod is principal of the Free Church College, Edinburgh
Barbara Gunnell
Some people are just forgiving souls and lack of contrition is no obstacle to their generosity of spirit. But the parole board acts for all of us and it's probably right that failure to recant a crime should count against early release (though this may punish the innocent as well as the unrepentant). In this case, the authorities have a complex practical issue of who should pick up the tab for the round-the-clock medical care this very sick man needs. I don't think he should get the nation's forgiveness, but we should always try to be compassionate.