The 15th of April 1989. Everyone who followed football in the late 1980s should remember that day at Hillsborough: it is indelibly etched in each of our memories. I was watching Manchester City get a thrashing at Ewood Park, going down 4-0 to promotion rivals Blackburn Rovers. A rumour spread early in the match amongst the supporters of trouble in Sheffield. In those days, communication was a bit more basic, and even as I left the ground down-hearted at the result, I expected nothing more than a couple of injuries – that’s what the rumour had been in the crowd near me. Then the radio was turned on in the car, and the TV turned on when I got home, and what I saw will always shock me.
It’s a day that, to state the blindingly obvious, can never be allowed to happen again.
Its ramifications for football in this country were huge. All-seater stadiums were spawned from the Taylor Report, and many teams relocated to new stadiums altogether rather than face the cost of replacing the terraces. That day changed forever how we all watched football, both in grounds and at home.
And yet, 22 years after that terrible day, we still don’t know what really happened at key moments that day. We know of the overcrowding, the crush, the terrible scenes, the deaths. But when 96 people lose their lives at a football game, we need to know more than that. When the government set up reviews at the drop of a hat, it is scandalous that the full details of what happened from the perspective of the fans, what the police actions and reactions were, and what the orders of the ambulance services were, are not fully known.
But it is a scandal all of the government’s (past and present) own making, as they put obstacle after obstacle in the way of justice.
The issue has come to a head again as last Wednesday, the Cabinet Office said it would appeal against a ruling by Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner, who had approved a freedom of information request from the BBC to see hidden papers about the tragedy, which is thought to include minutes of meetings involving Margaret Thatcher, and reports submitted to her.
The government said: “The Cabinet Office absolutely agrees with the principle of providing information to families about the Hillsborough stadium disaster, but we believe it is important any release of information should be managed through the panel’s processes and in line with their terms of reference.”
(The panel referred to is the independent body set up by the previous Labour government to examine the archive and decide on publication.)
This is a typical government press release, that tells nothing and uses foggy language to obscure the issue. There is no logic nor common decency in arguing that a selected panel should decide on what information about Hillsborough should be released and what should not. There is no argument for not releasing everything. It makes you wonder what they are hiding – what horrible presumptions were made in those cabinet meetings.
An e-petition calling for the files to be released this week raced past the 100,000 signatures needed to force the House of Commons to debate the issue (please sign it here: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/2199). This is a great start to rebutting the government, but of course does not guarantee anything.
This was more than a tragedy for Liverpool football club, more than a tragedy for hundreds of families. The thought that a football fan could go to a match and not come back seems impossible to fathom. A day full of hope, excitement and laughter turned to one of untold terror, misery and suffering. Once the grieving had subsided, Liverpool fans, and fans of all clubs, needed answers. They didn’t get them.
There are so many questions left to answer. Many revolve around the police. Since the tragedy, it has come to light that police accounts were doctored, eye-witness reports amended. Criticisms of how police acted and of poor communications and decision-making, were removed from several statements. Accounts of drunken or misbehaving fans, on the other hand, were almost all left in. The police argue they were trying only to cut emotion and opinion out of the officers’ raw statements. The 10 boxes of documents the police were forced to release to the government some years ago seem incomplete.
But possibly the most damning unresolved issue refers to a specific time: 3:15pm, and around the inquests. Whilst the Taylor Report blamed the police for the disaster, the questions remain over what happened after the crush as much as why it happened in the first place.
At the inquest that followed, prominence was given again to police accounts of supporters being drunk and without tickets. Two police CCTV videos allegedly went missing from the locked control room on the night of the disaster. The main inquest, limited the report to events up to 3.15pm on the day of the disaster, claiming that by then the victims had received injuries in the Leppings Lane crush which rapidly caused irreversible brain damage.
Not surprisingly, many cannot accept this cut off time. Add to this that the response of the emergency services has been heavily criticised, and the question remains just how many of those 96 people could have been saved if they had been attended to properly, and promptly. Only 14 of those who died were taken to hospital. It seems staggering for such an important inquest to make a conclusion that no one could have lived past a certain time.
A football disaster over two decades ago seems like a distant memory. The sport has moved on, and is unrecognisable from the game as it was in 1989. But for those affected by the disaster, moving on has not been an option. Until the full story is known, until everyone has been made accountable for their actions, the grieving will continue, and closure will not be an option. The government owes it to these people to do the right thing, instead of cowardly protecting the actions of a few. They owe it to those still in the dark to let them live their rest of their lives with some element of peace, whilst they still have the chance to do so.
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