Watching that brought back some memories. This is the take of an OOT, with no family connections to Liverpool. (I was born in Wallasey, but never lived in Liverpool).
In 1988 I was living in Wimbledon. When Wimbledon got into the FA cup final everyone there was taken up with it. I wasn't really interested in football at the time so it wasn't an issue for me to go to Wembley with Wimbledon supporters.
To get Wembley tickets you had to buy tickets to three home matches, which I did with my then girlfriend. This was Plough Lane. It was the first time I'd been to a football match. I don't like crowds very much anyway but it was horrible being hearded around like cattle, unable to move because you're squashed together. Really horrible. In fact after the first match we bought the tickets for the other two but didn't attend.
There were also some rival fans who'd got in the home end really just to cause trouble. The police stood round them to make sure they didn't.
After that, I was a bit nervous going to Wembley, but it turned out the Liverpool fans were wonderful. Full of banter, no aggression at all, just having a good day out to enjoy the football and were very friendly.
Spin on one year and I remember being on a car journey with the radio on and hearing the count go up and thinking I'd maybe stood next to some of those same fans. It seemed unbelievable that so many had died going to a football match that was in England and not some third world country.
When the papers came out the next day it was very obvious a blatant and well over the top cover up was in operation. I couldn't reconcile the reports with the fans I'd met, or actually with any human being. Who would believe these stupid lies when it was quite obvious those terraced stadia were very dangerous and the police had well and truly f*cked up? Someone at SYP had clearly read Mein Kampf and thought they'd follow the 'big lie' routine.
The Taylor report seemed to get at the truth, or at least near it. Then this perverse aberration of the inquest where Popper seems to be a puppet with the Police having an arm up him operating the controls. The inhumanity of sampling the blood of a dead 10 year old boy for alcohol! Why was this man not stopped?
That's it - modern Britain allowing a police coverup after 96 people are killed? No prosecutions? Shouldn't there have been only two outcome from this? Either the police were right and fans should be prosecuted - there was ample video footage, though none showing any of the police allegations. Alternatively, the police were wrong and they should've been prosecuted, and then again for the cover up. But instead there was this 'accidental death' verdict which was clearly rediculous.
I had thought it would be rectified by Labour. The Stuart-Smith inquiry was just another one of their broken election promises.
Andy Burnham being chanted at during the 20th anniversary was amazing to watch. I don't think he personally deserved it but 20 years of politicians certainly did.
Fantastic though that he responded the way he did.
I didn't want to watch the documentary, I thought it woul be too heart rending. And it was. But I'm glad I watched it and very glad it was made - thank you. If you haven't watched it - please do so.
Oh, and to the senior's at SYP - no one believes your lies. You f*cked up royally promoting people with your funny handshakes, and you were monsterously cruel to the families for perpetuating to the bitter end your vile slanders. You really are an horrible bunch of criminals.
