Owning Up

I was very nearly at Hillsborough stadium on the day of the disaster in April 1989. A collage friend had managed to get tickets for the stands (rather than the terrace where the disaster occurred) and we had planned to travel down on the train from Newcastle where I was living at the time. The problem was that I was meant to be working that evening and getting back to Newcastle from Sheffield was going to be far too tight. I had looked into swapping my shift but in the end decided to let another Liverpool fan go down in the knowledge that my uncle would most likely be able to get me a ticket for the final if they progressed.

I put the radio on but after hearing the match had halted, switched on the television to see what was unfolding. What I could see was beyond belief. In my state of shock I was still getting ready to go out in the evening when the pub manager phoned me and suggested that I stay at home that evening rather than go to work. I’m not sure that helped and I couldn’t bear to stay in my flat all day on Sunday so went to visit two former school friends who were studying in Sunderland at the time. I think we discussed the previous day’s events for about five minutes and then we didn’t for the rest of the day. After a while, we went to the local pub to see if there was any Sunday lunch left.

What happened at Hillsborough was the result of utter incompetence by senior police management. The grounds themselves at that point were inherently unsafe due to ill-conceived alterations over concerns about hooliganism and the fact that aging stadia were built to maximize capacity rather than safety. I had received bruised ribs from being crushed at a match a few years previously so had tended to avoid terraces – at least at capacity games. In that game, stewards had opened gates at the bottom of the terrace to relieve pressure and the police had moved fans to a less crowded area but it is easy to see how less experienced staff could miss that. What appears to have happened at Hillsborough is that those experienced staff had been replaced with essentially incompetent commanders who regarded ordinary football fans as potential trouble makers to be fought and herded. It’s no surprise that this was the same police force that had been effectively used as an irregular militia against striking miners just a few years previously.

Whatever happened on that day happened, and nothing can change that. What I did appreciate this week is that the second Hillsborough inquest did highlight the actions of individual police and ambulance officers who did help; whether through their training, their own initiative or, most probably, their own basic humanity. They tried their best on the day and have been wracked with anguish that they hadn’t been able to do more. They do deserve recognition and I think it actually matches up to my experiences of attending football matches in the 1980s in that most of the police and officials were decent: polite, helpful and professional. I suppose that it is the exception that sticks in the mind: the aggressive arsehole that was a disgrace to their uniform and profession. Unfortunately, it was often the aggressive bullies that seemed to win promotion.

It isn’t the disaster itself that I find hard to forgive but the actions of senior police, government and their media backers in the aftermath that leaves the worst taste in the mouth. Rather than acknowledging that a bad thing had happened and working to make sure that it couldn’t happen again, they decided to blame the fans, not just Liverpool fans but all football fans. They blamed an entire city and an entire class of people for their own failings. They printed lies in the press and repeated them on TV and under oath in court. This was not just isolated individuals or a close conspiracy of a few related individuals but was backed readily by senior police, government and their media puppet masters. The problem for them, though, was quite simple. They didn’t have a single shred of evidence to back their lies. In fact all the evidence pointed to the exact opposite of what they were saying – in other words, the real truth.

Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!
-    Sir Walter Scott

The fact that it has taken 27 years for the full inquest to complete is astonishing and points to a level of corruption in the upper echelons of British society that is difficult to comprehend. It has also shown that by remaining united and determined that such  corruption can be exposed. The families of those killed never gave up. The fans of Liverpool and other football clubs never gave up. The people of the city of Liverpool never gave up and those that were prepared fight for them have proven their true worth. In particular, some of the revelations that Andy Burnham has made have shown breath-taking arrogance by those who have tried to prevent justice but he stuck with the families and forced the truth out.

For those in authority that have made mistakes it can be difficult to own up. When they do of their own volition rather than having to be interrogated in court I think they should be given credit for this. For those that hide constantly behind a web of lies, using power and favour to maintain this, there should be no way back and there are some individuals I would like to see permanently disbarred from any position of influence British society. I doubt I have to name them but what still seems to remain is the unhealthy alliance between government, media and moneyed interests. They don’t serve the interests of the British people in the slightest.

For years there has been a boycott of The S*n in Liverpool. Personally, I have extended this to any enterprise owned by Rupert Murdoch and have shunned The Times and Sky TV as well. The fact that Murdoch’s papers blanked coverage of the Hillsborough verdict just goes to show that he has learned nothing and will not learn anything until his media interests are forced out of business. Even if we accept that the editor of The S*n was duped into printing police lies in 1989, are we to accept that any journalist would turn down one of the largest scoops in terms of police corruption in the 20th Century? However, I think what we have learned from compulsive liars is that they are incapable of owning up.