just yet another establishment cover up revealed. We can include The Miners strike, Ricky Tomlinson's palarver, politicians expenses, Panama & tax, car emissions...it was ever thus & the list of hypocrisy and cover ups goes on and on. Fortunately they seem to be becoming more visible and so maybe things will begin to shift in favour of the great unwashed. nah, what am I thinking!
I agree with you on this. Nobody set out on the day to get all those people killed - it was a tragedy. However, the cover-ups afterwards and attempts to alter the facts of what happened on the day are unforgivable. It is those people responsible for the cover-ups who should be prosecuted, if anybody.
The actions of the police killed 96 people on the day. Afterwards they lied and cheated to cover up what they did. For me the 96 who died will always be more important than what happened afterwards. That doesn't mean the people concerned shouldn't be prosecuted for the cover up.
It was badly planned, and the question remains whether that was criminal. The FA seem to be getting off lightly, having booked a ground that had no safety certificate for a semi final. Lots of things contributed to this tragedy that ensued but fans enjoying a pint before the game wasn't one of them. Even Lord Taylor in one of the two Taylor reports said that enjoying time at the pub before the game was preferable to getting to the ground early (at which pre match entertainment had already been cancelled). There were too few turnstiles for the number of fans at the Leppings Lane end (so the crush outside should have been planned for; it wasn't and instead another poor decision was made). The establishment view was that football fans were intolerable animals, and they therefore didn't deserve a duty of care.
For clarity, I have never liked Liverpool FC, but i did work in Liverpool soon after this and used to think the fans caused it by turning up late and forcing open a gate. I now know how wrong I was. Here's hoping that eventually something positive comes out of this. In the meantime let's be glad to be alive to enjoy football and discern for ourselves what's right or wrong with the game.
I'm not really disagreeing with you, but I think it's fairer to say that the actions of the police contributed to the tragic deaths of the 96. The choice of the Stadium, the fact that there were too few turnstiles open etc. all contributed as well.
http://www.theguardian.com/football...-deadly-mistakes-and-lies-that-lasted-decades seems to be a fairly comprehensive explanation of what went wrong with South Yorkshire Police before, during and after the match.
Don't think it was ever bought but it was just one of the sensitively thought out plans for "residual" money: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-23755568 Let's just hope those responsible get what they deserve. I'm not optimistic: some of the senior officers could well be of an age where they can magically become "unfit to face trial". I could forgive the police for the mistakes on the day but the cover up and systematic slandering of Liverpool fans is completely beyond the pale. Great credit to the ordinary folk of Liverpool for sticking with this against Establishment pressure. They should all be in the next Hounours List.
Is that not because they'd spent the last 30 years doing their own investigations, as no bugger else would?
Its nonsense to say nobody turned up that day without a ticket. I was at the cup final at Wembley between Everton / Liverpool, there were hundreds of fans without tickets. We were stood in the queue at the Liverpool end when two fans ran past us and dived over the top of the turnstile into the ground and ran off into the crowd. On the same day in the same queue there was so much pushing and aggressive people that one guy (A big one) threatened people around him that if his old Dad got hurt someone would suffer. How long after the disaster was this final? They never learn. Que the compo claims being preperred as you read this.
The jury watched the CCTV coverage and spent 2 years listening to evidence. They concluded the Liverpool fans didn't contribute to the deaths.
Proves nothing my friend,the jury didn't say no fans turned up without tickets. They just (& not all of them) gave there opinion on a number of charges. This was a decision to satisfy the ongoing campaign. As already stated by a number of people, no other verdict would have been excepted by the families. But this isn't the end of this story its set to run & run.
Maybe not, but 3 years earlier: It wont let me post a clip for some reason but google 1986 fa cup final ticketless fans and watch the first clip
The jury decided their verdict based on the evidence, not on the basis of what they thought would make the families happy.
