Fucking hell that man is as much a hero/legend as anyone ever associated with our Club. yes, he is right up there with Shankly, Paisley and Kenny in my eyes. The WORK he has done for so many years, Prof Scraton, a hero and should be beatified in my opinion.
So glad he works at my old Uni. But can't wait to see the whole 5live broadcast.. that snippet was wonderful. He speaks so well and intelligently, I could listen to him for hours. I can't imagine how much time he put in at home in the evenings/nights for more than 25 years to dissect and unravel the truth.
In reality, while we rightfully bow to the tenacity of the families, were it not for the efforts, meticulous attention to every detail, profound intellectual ability, and a gutfelt desire to see the truth emerge of Professor Scraton, then there is very little chance the justice would have been obtained.
Frankly the scholar deserves to be honoured beyond riches.
Spot on. He's a hero for me. I had the privilege to help on some of the 20th anniversary work we did on RAWK (Jim, Nikki and many others also should take a massive bow) and it's the fundamental principle that the facts are everything which gives such power to all of the work he is involved in.
No spin, no assertions, no sly digs, just forensic scrutiny and accurate reporting of the facts. That's why when the Independent Panel report came out there was nowhere left to go for anyone who read it.
It couldn't be passed off, it couldn't be dismissed for shoddy reporting and unfounded theories. 450,000 documents were reviewed, collated, cross-referenced and every conclusion the report was backed up by evidence.
And that focus on the facts has finally trumped the scandalous lies that were believed by far too many. Far too many who should have known better. Who should have looked beyond lazy stereotype and prejudice and seen not 'Liverpool fans' but 96 brothers & sisters and thousands of normal people who just happened to enjoy football but were cast as a 'tanked up mob'.
What is such a shame is the waste of that intellect on a project that should have ended in August 1989 when the interim Taylor Report was published. The greatest scandal of Hillsborough isn't that the facts were hidden for twenty seven years - the fundamental facts have been there all along. Taylor called it but the SYP heaped an enormous pile of shit on the facts and Kelvin McKenzie and the S*n colluded in making the shit stick. Thatcher and her nasty little lapdog Ingham wouldn't let Douglas Hurd criticise her favourite police force and the SYP clearly felt they could get away with murder - literally.
Phil has done an amazing job, but it's a job he should never have had to do. So many people have done so many amazing things over the last 27 years - but they should never have had to. 96 sons and daughters of Liverpool should not have died, and hundreds, thousands, an entire city, should not have had to fight for so long in the face of such indifference and such scorn.
