Great thread and, as Al says, long overdue.
I've never had the privilege of meeting Phil, but as many people do, I feel he has been there alongside me for years, with his knowledge and expertise and courage, providing us, the layfolk, with the answers and the tools to fight the good fight and persevere in the cause of justice.
The quality of being a Liverpool fan inevitably encompases the quality of being a campaigner, a fighter for truth and justice. This is not something you really have much choice about; the nature of our history and the events that have shaped it mean we are all drawn into the web to some degree or other, whether we set out to be so or not.
But it's because not all of us can devote ourselves to the cause so thoroughly and unstintingly that Prof Phil has been so important. Over many years he has provided us with the knowledge, the facts and the tools to play our own small part in the fight, and more than that, provided us with an the example, to follow. He has been a shining light that both illuminates and leads, and perhaps even more importantly, an exemplar of courage and determination and never-say-die fortitude, to give us heart and keep our resolve strong at the worst of times.
His book has been a constant aide when dealing with others, both a shield and a sword in the fight against ignorance and calumny; an essential reference point both to keep ourselves apprised of the facts and to teach and convince others. Like many I long ago gave up hope of changing the minds of the haters and the self-servingly deluded. There are people out there who want the lies to be true and who revel in them, and who, consequently, will never be convinced - never want to be convinced.
But there are also many people whose ignorance of the facts is inadvertent, a consequence of the lies that were confected and disseminated especially for this purpose. People like that can be convinced, can be shown how they have literally been lied to and led up the garden path by an establishment covering their own backs and manufacturing their own, preferred 'truth'. But to convince those honest and unbiased people you need to have the facts at your command, and need a strong, well-researched, unimpeachable and - most of all - convincing adumbration and elaboration of the truth...not the 'truth' but the TRUTH.
Phil's book and his many articles and talks and interviews and work with the HIP give us that. They are the Hillsborough campaigners go-to resources. Their academic excellence, strength of argument and intellectual probity are without question. In my own experience they have helped change the minds of many fair-minded people who would have remained ignorant otherwise, and who my own broken, halting attempts at setting straight may not have convinced.
It may be, to paraphrase Schopenhauer, that the truth is first ridiculed, then violently oppressed and then finally accepted as self-evident. But to get to that third stage needs truth-seekers of uncanny resolve and determination. People willing to put in the hard-yards and do the dirty work of research and scrutiny and sifting and making links and chasing-up clues until the whole bloody panorama is laid bare. Without those truth seekers the lies will always prevail because, as well as not needing boots, lies can be specifically tailored to be seductive and appealing and persuasive, whereas the truth is always the truth whether it appeals or repels, whether it is elegant or awkward. So it needs a special kind of person to seek out the possibly awkward and repellent and undignified truth and stay uncorrupted and unscarred by the experience.
To paraphrase another truthseeker, Galileo, the truth is easy to understand and accept once it's been discovered; but first you need to discover it. That's why people like Phil Scraton are so important. So for your unfailing resolve, your unflinching tenacity and your unflappable courage I salute you Phil, and all the other truthseekers out there.
Thanks for all you've done and what a blessing and relief it is to know that you'll be there with us as the struggle continues.
YNWA