This is the first of a series of blog entries named :
Hillsborough – A Wider View
In this first entry, we look at the wider scope of the fallout from the events at Hillsborough in very brief terms.
More detail and a look at individual errors will follow in future entries.
HILLSBOROUGH – what an evocative word, or is it?
If you’re a citizen of Britain or indeed a football fan, we would strongly suggest that it should be.
Why?
On Saturday 15th April 1989, the worst ever British sporting disaster occurred, & many have taken to pen and paper, recording their thoughts, but here we ask:“What should that simple phrase, Hillsborough, April 1989, mean to a British citizen?”In short, it should bear witness to a tragic injustice of our ‘green & pleasant land’, to wear the scars of British hypocrisy & never be hidden away.
Because that dark scheme leaves a stain that seeps into many prongs of our Society, from young to old, from poor to rich, & from those of privilege to those who scrap for everything they have in life.All are touched by the events of Hillsborough, but especially by their aftermath; whether in ignorance or the criminally tragic truth.
Abundant are the names of those hypocrites, many living today & those now dead, but it is in what they did & yet what they claimed to represent, that we should never forget.
Policemen, doctors, nurses, politicians, teachers, parents, football supporters, journalists, tradesmen & executives of many sorts, have all been very powerfully touched by those 96 innocent deaths.An extraordinary account of events is for an eternity inscribed, in the Hillsborough Independent Panel’s Report.The 395-page chronicle of responsibility is not easy for any honourable person to contemplate, nor should it be; if we are to honestly remember, respect and provide justice for those who died and those who survived but are forever physically and/or emotionally scarred.
The Panel’s Report was published on Wednesday, 12th September 2012 (Wednesday’s child is full of woe), & in our view permanently changed our relationship with the British “Establishment”, because institutions now undeniably have blood on their hands, as well as those forever tarnished for publishing lies.It is an horrendous fact that if we wrote this to point the finger of blame, we would only currently fail to do so, because who exactly takes responsibility for the deaths of The 96 cannot be identified right now; precisely the reason why we have a number of investigations proceeding, & of course the crucial High Court judgement exposing very serious corruption at the heart of this nation’s judicature.
Which is why this is so much more than a sporting disaster.
It should be remembered for a very long time in our history, reminding us of what takes place when a ‘modern’ democracy seeks to quell, yes, even crush its citizens’ voice.It has been established that Policemen lied & their Force(s) colluded, that the English FA denied people their human rights for monetary profit, that people in various organisations failed to ensure grounds being used were basically safe, that coroners & medics essentially lied to hide accountability, that judges conspired to subdue the truth, & politicians connived to hinder innocent victims.
Consider now more closely, which ‘professions’ made such mendacious schemes, to trample & silence the voices of dignified memorial:
First we have to understand that such lying smears only compounded Police force failure & Ambulance service incompetence, which are now established facts.It began with an MP & Policemen’s lies, probably within minutes of the tragedy’s first victim, & once the tangled web of lies and deceit began, many would implicate themselves in its deceit and by doing so also tarnish the reputations of many innocent people and indeed a whole city.To make matters worse, journalists & press agencies bought into the lies, many without question. This only served to spread the lies not just to those alive at the time but to a whole generation who followed.Indeed, one utterly discredited agency clung to its bigoted insults, which to this day is hated.
What followed these initial lies only makes for very uncomfortable cognition, that senior Police officers could lie to protect those they saw as their own, that well respected UK coroners (themselves responsible for very serious tasks) could take part in deception, which would only brutalise & smear innocent people, denying them true justice.These are the very people we as citizens put our trust in to protect us. To uphold the law, & to ensure that there is justice when there is wrongdoing.On Hillsborough, they failed.To date not a single person has been held accountable for the deaths of 96 innocent people at Hillsborough. That is not merely unjust – it is a national disgrace.What about the football authorities though ? This happened prior to the Premier League and it happened in an English FA organised competition – their prestigious cup tournament : The FA Cup.
So where have the English FA been in all of this?
This potentially corrupted Body have said absolutely nothing of note, since the HIP published that damning Report, except a half-hearted apology that doesn’t even come close to recognizing the terrible, double injustice done, nor in any way attempt to lift the very heavy burden carried by the victims’ families, & to many more who survived Hillsborough.
It is this glaring abuse by a Governing Body which proves that it isn’t fit for purpose. Indeed as in many organisations instead of the guilty being shipped out, sacked and/or prosecuted many have been promoted or are still in other positions of influence within either the English game or abroad.
Hillsborough is a massive stain on not just Football but also the English Justice System, Democracy and indeed on basic human decency.
Justice is coming. But it is over 24 years too late for some.
JFT96