[This article originally appeared in Well Red magazine, September 2012, in the wake of the publication of the Hillsborough Independent Panel report.]
It’s always the same. You wait 23 years for an apology. Then loads of them turn up at once.
In other circumstances that might well be a cause for frustration, perhaps even fury. But this was different. This was unchartered territory. Instead, the overriding feelings were ones of incredulity, righteousness, and immense satisfaction.
The findings of the Hillsborough Independent Panel were of such clarity, such magnitude, that the urge to apologise to the families of the victims and, by extension, to the city of Liverpool as a whole, spread like wildfire. That such an urge had been absent for so long only made it more remarkable.
David Cameron set the ball rolling. A Tory Prime Minister expressing his regret at the actions of an establishment that, to all intents and purposes, he was a product of. And the possible collusion of a government he holds as a shining beacon of modern conservative ‘values.’ And doing so with what appeared to be genuine sincerity and commitment. All this from a man who, less than a year earlier had compared the campaign for justice to ‘a blind man in a dark room, looking for a black cat that isn’t there.’ From that moment, we knew that we were witnessing something truly momentous.
Ed Miliband quickly followed suit, reminding us that his party too had singularly failed to support the Hillsborough families. Jack Straw, who, when Home Secretary, judged there was insufficient evidence to sanction a fresh inquest, shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
The floodgates opened. And the authorities who had long been complicit in negligence, incompetence and blame shifting were queuing up to get in on the act, as if desperate to offload vast reservoirs of empathy and compassion, reservoirs which have lain untroubled for 23 years and now, we were expected to believe, were overflowing with earnest and heart-felt remorse.
Sheffield Wednesday FC, whose ground was woefully ill-suited to stage such an event, who failed to ensure a valid safety certificate was in place and whose primary concern, according to the Hillsborough Panel, had been “to limit costs.” Sorry.
The current Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police, David Crompton, who, in fairness, made no attempt to diminish the well-documented failings of those whose actions had now unequivocally been shown to have led to the disaster. Sorry.
Boris Johnson. Loveable, bumbling, victim-blaming gobshite Boris. Sorry.
Dominic Mohan, editor of The Sun, bravely seeking to bolt the stable door 23 years after the horse gleefully dropped its muck all over the people of Liverpool. Sorry.
Kelvin MacKenzie. Vermin. ‘Sorry.’
The FA, whose culpability for the catastrophe has long been underplayed, be it in neglecting prior concerns as to the suitability of Hillsborough, ignoring crowd safety issues at previous semi-finals, or failing to insist that the safety certificate was in place. And who pressured Liverpool into making a decision on replaying the match or face expulsion from the competition within days of the disaster. Sorry (“…that the tragedy occurred at a venue the FA selected.”).
Irvine Patnick, whose eagerness to believe the most vicious lies without a shred of evidence (and who made damn sure the media were fully aware of them) went a long way towards establishing the narrative of drunken corpse-robbing, police-beating hooligans that was to run for more than two decades. Sorry.
Norman Bettison, who appears hell-bent on instigating a cover-up to hide his involvement in the original cover-up, issued a statement reeking of arrogance and self-preservation, and which refuted his need to apologise. Then he apologised for it.
What is it they say about sorry being the hardest word? Not anymore. Not when we’ve seen those pricked by a guilty conscience or terrified that their collusion may be exposed practically falling over each other to profoundly, solemnly, sincerely, profusely declare their deepest contrition.
23 years. What kept you?
After all, it’s not as if this was all a big surprise. Most of the evidence has been in the public domain since the interim Taylor Report was issued, just four months after that dark April afternoon. There was no grey area, no obfuscation. Taylor spelled it out, without caveats or provisos: “The main reason for the Disaster was a failure of police control.”
Where were the apologies then? When they might have actually counted for something?
Hillsborough Panel member, Phil Scraton, has written a number of books outlining the causes. He highlighted the systemic police campaign to discredit the Liverpool supporters. He pointed out that all the victims, children included, had been tested for alcohol consumption. He revealed that scores of statements which threatened to portray a negative picture of police competence had been doctored. He spoke passionately of “institutional complacency and gross negligence by those in positions of power ….and deceitful allegations that attempt to shift responsibility onto the victims and their families. “
So why have the families been running into judicial brick walls for 23 long, painful years? I guess it’s just a lot easier to hide behind collective apologies after the fact. Saves all that messy ‘liability’ business. And if the reputation of an entire city is dragged through the gutter in the process, that’s a small price to pay to maintain the Establishment equilibrium.
At this point, what does an apology mean anyway? Beyond an attempt to salve individual guilt? And possibly try to head off any further repercussions down the line?
Although anything that helps to give the families comfort, and smoothes their path to a form of justice they are able to accept, is to be welcomed, ultimately it’s not apologies that we want. It’s proper accountability. It’s a fresh inquest. It’s explanations.
We know the police were negligent, that the FA and Sheffield Wednesday were complicit and that the media were happy to spread misinformation. The Independent Report spells this out – logically, clinically, devastatingly. Thanks to the Panel everyone now knows what happened.
We need to understand why. Who gave the orders? Who was at the heart of the cover-up? How high did it go?
Because this matters. Don’t let people tell you it doesn’t. Watergate brought down a President yet ultimately it stemmed from little more than a bungled break-in at a Washington hotel. At Hillsborough, 96 people lost their lives. No-one in authority lost so much as a day’s pay. Is that the kind of society you want to be a part of?
The Truth is now out there. Those who continue to ignore it or actively choose to believe their own self-concocted vitriol have been thoroughly discredited. They’ll probably always be around, twisted by hatred, compelled by tribal loyalty, nourished by ignorance. But now they are the ones who are out of step, marginalised, derided. If the apologies have done anything they have established a new consensus and, for once, it’s on our side.
The reaction within the city brought back memories of a Liverpool I used to know. Not the self-pity city of media legend. Not the benefit claiming, militant bogey-man of the right wing press. Not the Liverpool of brand optimisation, soundbites and PR-enhancing documentaries. This was a city defiant, proud and, above all, united. A city that refused to give in when told again and again that this was a fight it couldn’t possibly win.
And those who have been at the forefront of the fight will always have our heart-felt thanks. To the lengthy roll-call of glorious names in our club’s history, to Shankly, Liddell, Paisley, Dalglish, Hunt, Hughes, Rush, Barnes, Gerrard, we must now add the likes of Aspinall, Williams, Hicks, Coleman, Rotherham and Burnham. Their tenacity, commitment and unswerving determination to uncover the truth warrant the highest possible recognition.
The bereaved will never get over the pain of their loss. All we can hope is that the wheels are now firmly set in motion and that they finally receive the answers, the comfort, and the justice for which they have pleaded for so many years.
They deserve so much more than apologies.
