The Truth - At Last

The Truth - At Last

On Saturday 15th April 1989 I went to a football cup semi-final. My brother and I, indeed everyone who attended that game returned home safely. Unfortunately, for 96 people 260 miles away in Sheffield that was not possible.

The horror of Hillsborough unravelled on the TV screen when I returned home and as a Liverpool supporter, albeit at a distance, my heart broke for the victims and their families.

I attended Liverpool’s first game after the disaster and wept for those who hadn’t come home. Little did I think that it would be 23 years before the truth of that terrible day would be acknowledged.

Yesterday’s report from the independent panel highlighted the organisational failures of the FA, Sheffield City Council, Sheffield Wednesday, South Yorkshire Police, Ambulance service and the Coroner’s Office. All of these organisations should feel truly ashamed at how poorly they performed but the worst part of the story is the conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

The despicable attempt to shift the blame from those responsible to the victims and the survivors is surely a low point for policing and indeed public life in the United Kingdom.

I have some questions for the individuals who conspired in this disgrace.

How would you have felt if it had been a member of your family who had died due to someone’s negligence?

Was your career so important to you that 96 people’s lives were so insignificant?

Was there no point in the intervening years where your conscience pricked you towards breaking ranks and telling the truth?

And finally and most importantly, how the hell do you sleep at night?

This country has been subjected to a number of moral failures over the past few years. Unapologetic bankers, greedy politicians and phone-hacking journalists but this is by far the worst. This is a conspiracy that goes into every branch of the state machine, all of it designed to protect the incompetent and the corrupt.

If the UK is to move forward from this low, every single individual person in public life should put morality at the very heart of everything they do. Treat those you serve with the respect they deserve and stop putting money, career advancement or self-preservation before what is truly important.

To my fellow Liverpool supporters and people of that wonderful city on the Mersey, I send my hope that finally there will be justice for the 96 who went to a football match and didn’t come home.