Hillsborough articles thread...

[dave u]

Loads of good stuff been written in the last couple of days, but it's difficult to keep track of them all and they can get lost in the threads. Thought it made sense to have a separate thread where people can share articles they've seen.

 

Here's some I've read today...

 

Hillsborough: Brian Reade salutes the mothers who refused to let their lost children down - Brian Reade - Mirror Online

 

Hillsborough disaster: the truth | Football | The Guardian

 

Hillsborough report: why the Mirror refused to accept police spin | Media | guardian.co.uk

 

Liverpool – The Truth at last | This Is Anfield

 

Hillsborough report: this was the most important day in Liverpool's history, says Alan Hansen - Telegraph

 

Hillsborough families at Liverpool Cathedral stunned by news that so many people could have been saved - Telegraph

 

The Liverpool column: After the "unpalatable, disgraceful and frightening" truth must come closure, justice and accountability - David Maddock - Mirror Online

 

Hillsborough report means Liverpool fans' calls of 'Justice for the 96' have finally been answered - Telegraph

 

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2012/09/13/former-liverpool-fc-manager-kenny-dalglish-hails-hillsborough-report-100252-31825392/

[Barney_Rubble]

I took the liberty of adding a few more...

 

Hillsborough Independent Panel Report - September 2012 - 389 pages, a must read!

 

 

Hillsborough report: Key findings (from the beeb)

 

Hillsborough files: PM David Cameron's Commons statement in full (from the beeb)

 

Hillsborough: South Yorkshire police chief apologies (from the beeb)

 

Hillsborough papers: Calls for 'essential prosecutions' (from the beeb)

 

The Truth: Kop idols Dalglish, Fowler and Lawrenson on the Hillsborough report (from the Daily Mirror)

[Fink]

and I just managed to get this document from one of his chums.

 

irvinepatnick@msn.com

[Skidfingers McGonical]

Hillsborough Football fans behaviour made polices job harder says Sir Norman Bettison

 

Clearly does not accept any responsibilty to what him and his fellow senior officers have done.

[The Guest]

When Saturday Comes - Post-Hillsborough disaster editorial

 

I have never seen this before. Probably one of the best things I have ever read in my life.

[goatboy59]

All ego aside (honest!), thought some might like to read this.

 

We can’t betray the 96 again | Irish Examiner

 

Funny apostrophes they have over there :whistle:

[Soleilrouge]

the best i've read

 

Hillsborough: Everyone in football has waited too long for the lies to be exposed - News & Comment - Football - The Independent

[Jarvinja Ilnow]

This was Paddy Barclay's excellent contribution to the issue, the day after the files were released:

 

Why Alan Pardew verdict shows lack of respect - Football - Sport - Evening Standard

 

Basically a rehash of an article he wrote 2 weeks ago.

[Gav]

Cuntscuntscunts

 

FA ignored warning of crushing at 1988 semi-final - News & Comment - Football - The Independent

 

 

 

FA ignored warning of crushing at 1988 semi-final

 

Fan's letter said it was 'impossible to breathe' during Liverpool game at Hillsborough the previous year... but concern fell on deaf ears

 

 

The Football Association decided that there was no risk attached to Hillsborough stadium hosting the 1989 FA Cup tie in which 96 Liverpool fans died, despite a direct letter to the organisation detailing how fans had been crushed at the same ground, which had no safety certificate, in the previous year's semi-final.

 

Documents made public by the Hillsborough Independent Panel show that Ken Evans, the safety consultant employed by the governing body to monitor the 1988 semi-final, also between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, declared that "the tie went well" and made no report of the crushing subsequently reported to the FA. The then FA chief executive, Graham Kelly, decided on the basis of the report that "the identical 1989 tie was not regarded as a problem match". But the lack of a safety certificate at a stadium which was notorious among football fans and where there had been overcrowding problems in 1981, 1987 and 1988 led the Labour MP Andy Burnham – who was instrumental in setting up the panel – to accuse the FA yesterday of "basic negligence" and a lack of concern for public safety.

 

Contacted by The Independent yesterday, Kelly said he did not wish to comment on the panel's findings, his role at the FA, or the decision to select Hillsborough as an FA Cup semi-final venue in 1989. He said: "I'm glad that it has been resolved in some way."

 

The panel has discovered evidence of what Liverpool fans who attended the 1988 semi-final have always insisted: that the 1988 match revealed the inadequacy of the stadium for such an event. Correspondence published by the panel includes a direct plea to the FA from one fan, who detailed his experiences immediately after the tie, which Liverpool won 2-1. "The whole area was packed solid to the point where it was impossible to move and where I, and others around me, felt considerable concern for personal safety," the supporter wrote. "As a result of the crush an umbrella I was holding in my hand was snapped in half against the crush barrier in front of me… My concern over safety was such – at times it was impossible to breathe – that at half-time… I managed to extricate myself from the terrace, having taken the view that my personal safety was more important than watching the second half."

 

The letter was sent to the then Minister of Sport, Colin Moynihan, and to the FA. It was incorrectly addressed to the Ministry so did not arrive. The FA did not reply and when asked about the letter after Hillsborough could not locate it.

 

Hillsborough was not used as a semi-final venue from 1982 until 1987 because of a serious crush during the 1981 semi-final there, between Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers which, as in 1989, resulted in the opening of Exit Gate C to relieve the crush. The panel documents reveal that the near disaster in 1981 prompted a major breakdown in relations between South Yorkshire Police and Sheffield Wednesday, with neither accepting responsibility. The panel found that Wednesday's "primary concern was to limit costs" amid pressure for ground improvements. One of the 400,000 documents seen by the panel shows that after the abandonment of the 1989 semi-final the club pursued Kelly, seeking compensation for lost revenues. Kelly then asked his staff "whether he should consider the [Wednesday] letter or whether we had any problems with the FA making any donations", according to one note.

 

Correspondence between the FA and its lawyers, Freshfields, after the tragedy reveals the association's unwillingness to become involved in overseeing ground improvements. A note of a conversation between the two describes the FA questioning whether it should have set up an inspectorate. The discussion also centred on how, in the lawyers' words, rules had been "tinkered with… to incorporate get-out clauses for people complying with safety requirements". The lawyers' advice was that an inspectorate would "necessitate setting up a whole new department at the FA to properly supervise the implementation of the corrective measures".

 

The panel's full report describes how Kelly, a key link between the authorities and journalists on the afternoon of the disaster, had presented on national radio the police version of events that Liverpool fans had forced Exit Gate C. BBC match commentator Alan Green provided the qualification in his own broadcast that these reports were "unconfirmed". In further documents published by the panel, Kelly states that he had made it clear there were "two versions of events" when he later spoke to the news and Match of the Day. The BBC script delivered by newsreader Moira Stuart that night stated the police version as fact. The FA chairman, David Bernstein, apologised on behalf of the association yesterday.

[SCOUSE TAPAS]

This is well worth a read as it says its not only the fans but the city itself.

Hillsborough: After 23 Years we Finally have the Truth, Now we Must have Justice

 

Hillsborough: After 23 Years we Finally have the Truth, Now we Must have Justice | The Liverpool Word

[A.V.B.]

Not so much an article but still absolute quality.

 

[Coro]

I saw what happened at Hillsborough. Now I have seen the lies detonated

 

It took 23 years, but this tragedy now stands as a warning of how systemically justice can be corrupted

 

I saw what happened at Hillsborough. Now I have seen the lies detonated | Adrian Tempany | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

 

'There were periods of profound silence between the many questions [in the chapel of Our Lady in Liverpool]. I almost broke that with my own tears when it was revealed that 41 of the dead might have been saved.'

 

First of all, apologies are due to Our Lady, for the language. When the Hillsborough Independent Panel filed in to the press conference in the chapel of Our Lady in Liverpool's majestic Anglican cathedral, just before midday on Wednesday, the mood was sombre. Within half an hour, the air was a shade of blue; 100 journalists gathered in the chapel swearing in disbelief at the revelations contained in this landmark report.

 

As a survivor of the disaster, I had a rare perspective among the media. I survived the crush in pen 3; many of the 96 died in front of me. Unable to move for over half an hour, I was condemned to watch them cry for help, throw up, plead for their lives and die. When the police finally opened the gate in the fence and the crush abated, around a dozen of them simply keeled over and hit the concrete. A heap of corpses piled up in front of me. One police officer said the scene "was like Belsen".

 

The noise will never leave me. Yesterday, there were periods of profound silence between the many questions directed first towards the panel and then the family groups. I almost broke that with my own tears when it was revealed that 41 of the dead might have been saved.

 

A shocking number – so large that, had those 41 been saved, Hillsborough would not stand today as the biggest disaster in British sport. That claim to notoriety would belong to the Ibrox disaster of 1971, which claimed 66 lives.

 

The fact that the outrageous lies of the South Yorkshire police, accepted by Kelvin MacKenzie, were chiselled away, slowly, carefully and forensically over 23 years, lent this process a weight in the public mind that a judicial review, convened perhaps over a few short months, could not have achieved.

 

This, however, should not be time for a celebration of the peculiarly evolutionary nature of British justice: this was driven by grief left to fester for 23 years. People can accept that terrible things happen if accountability and truth follow. "We will always be the losers in this," Margaret Aspinall said. But as one reporter replied: "Yes, but Margaret, this is the first time I think I've ever seen you smile."

 

Survivors and families have lived with very different nightmares since 1989: the bereaved suffered intense grief; survivors bore the trauma.

 

They are different conditions, and require different treatments. Justice and truth are perhaps the only remedy that can heal us both.

 

What did I realistically hope for this week? I hoped that the lies peddled by the police and the Sun would be exposed. They were detonated. I hoped that people would recognise the families as we know them, ordinary people who retained their dignity amid extraordinary grief. They were magnificent. I could not possibly have hoped that the panel would do such a fine job, and it must take enormous credit, propelled by the remarkable Phil Scraton. And while I expected some form of vindication, I did not expect to find myself at the heart of a historic event. When the Daily Mirror's Brian Reade asked if we had seen the biggest cover-up in British history, Michael Mansfield QC simply answered: "Yes."

 

I felt a sense for the first time that this tragedy was no longer mine, or other survivors', or the families' – it belongs now to the nation, both as a wake-up call, a warning of how systemically justice can be corrupted, and as a reminder that right can still triumph over might. Liverpool and Liverpool fans have done the nation a great service here. We never gave up: we had to take on not one police force but two (one curious omission for me was the role of the West Midlands police), the rightwing media, the legal system and successive governments. And we won.

 

There is no bitterness on my part that the public took 23 years to wake up to our nightmare. Their ignorance was their faith in the media and in the police. This has suffered a huge blow and the fact surely cannot go unnoticed by Lord Justice Leveson. I also hope, as a southerner, that the people of Liverpool will no longer be subjected to the lazy, callous stereotypes peddled off the back of the Sun's lies.

 

As the rain fell outside the chapel, the panel began proceedings with its distinctly 21st-century language (it would offer no "value judgments"). But last night, in the Ship and Mitre pub in Liverpool city centre, an 80s revival was in full swing. Fleet Street's finest sunk beers and sang songs with Labour MPs Steve Rotheram and Andy Burnham, with the families, survivors and other campaigners. And through a night when the streets of Liverpool appeared to be paved with springs, there was still magnanimity: I heard not one note of scepticism about David Cameron's speech. He was universally applauded for setting the tone of a historic day with a compassionate and unequivocal response in the Commons. Credit where it's due. Now let's have justice where it's due.

[sir roger]

Carol Ann Duffy's poem ' Liverpool ',

 

The Cathedral bell, tolled, could never tell ;

nor the Liver Birds, mute in their stone spell;

or the Mersey, though seagulls wailed, cursed, overhead,

in no language for the slandered dead...

 

not the raw, red throat of the Kop, keening,

or the cops' words, censored of meaning;

not the clock, slow handclapping the coroner's deadline,

or the memo to Thatcher, or the tabloid headline...

 

but fathers told of their daughters; the names of sons

on the lips of their mothers like prayers; lost ones

honoured for bitter years by orphan, cousin, wife-

not a matter of football, but of life.

 

Over this great city, light after long dark;

truth, the sweet silver song of the lark.

[Gav]

Anyone got a Times account?? Seems now that since we've finally seen the truth about Hillsborough,todays Times has a Justice for Heysel article...some people really have no fcuking class

[Coro]

Anyone got a Times account?? Seems now that since we've finally seen the truth about Hillsborough,todays Times has a Justice for Heysel article...some people really have no fcuking class

 

Think this is the one you're talking about

 

Now that the lies and cruel myths about the Hillsborough disaster have been exposed once and for all, those who clung to them out of warped tribalism have but one straw left to clutch. “What about justice for Heysel?”, they plead. “What about the truth of what happened there?”

 

Actually, they have a point, even if they raise it out of malice rather than consideration for the bereaved. Questions remain unanswered about the Heysel Stadium disaster, in which 39 spectators — 32 from Italy, four from Belgium, two from France, one from Northern Ireland — were killed in a stampede before the 1985 European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus. While those bereaved and outraged by Hillsborough have fought to keep their campaign for justice alive and been entirely vindicated for doing so, Heysel remains the tragedy that dares not speak its name.

 

So let us talk about it. Let us state a few of the facts about whether justice was done.

We all know that English football, collectively, was punished, with clubs excluded from Uefa competition. Liverpool immediately withdrew, in disgrace, from the next season’s Uefa Cup. Within hours the FA, under pressure from the Government, announced that no English club would play in the next season’s European competition. Two days later Uefa, European football’s governing body, announced an indefinite ban on English clubs. It ended up at five years, with Liverpool serving a sixth as punishment for their supporters’ behaviour at Heysel.

 

This was not a kneejerk reaction to a one-off night of mayhem. This — both the sanction and, it could be argued, the widespread loss of life — had been coming. Heysel was the disgraceful culmination of more than a decade of ugly incidents involving English supporters on their European travels: Tottenham Hotspur in Rotterdam in 1974 and 1983, Leeds United in Paris in 1975, Manchester United in Saint-Étienne in 1977, the national team in Basle in 1981 and so on until the spiral of depravity reached its tragic conclusion — logical in one sense, crazy in all others — in Brussels.

 

As to whether individuals were brought to account, 27 arrests were made on suspicion of manslaughter and 26 men were charged. (These, incidentally, do not tend to be described as Liverpool supporters — in part because of claims at the time from John Smith, the club’s chairman, and two Merseyside councillors that National Front members from London had been responsible. There are many sensitive issues here, but let us not pussyfoot over this one. As Tony Evans, Times football editor and author of Far Foreign Land, a brilliant book about his experiences following Liverpool at Heysel and all over Europe, put it: “It was a red herring. Hooligans from the far right would not have been welcome.”) The prosecutions stemmed from television camera footage of the charge — the third such charge in a matter of minutes — that led directly to the deaths of those 39 innocent spectators. There are dozens of points that are usually offered to explain the context, but the context does not begin to excuse anything. No amount of context could. That stampede might have been considered standard terrace fare, a token act of territorialism and intimidation, but it led innocent fans to flee in terror. Some tried to climb a wall to escape. The wall crumbled. Thirty-nine people were crushed to death. The world was appalled. Turin went into mourning. Liverpool and their supporters were left with the stigma and the stain.

 

As for “justice”, an initial inquiry by Marina Coppieters, a leading Belgian judge, found after 18 months that the police and the authorities, in addition to Liverpool supporters, should face charges. Quite apart from the hooliganism, ticketing arrangements and police strategy and responses were criticised. By this stage, English supporters were regarded across Europe as such animals that shock was expressed at how the authorities had played into the hands of the troublemakers.

There was bewilderment, too, at the choice of stadium. And where have you heard that before? Uefa chose a ground that had been built in the 1920s and condemned in the early 1980s for failing to meet modern safety standards.

 

Evans recalls that the outer wall, made of cinder block, was decaying, that he was not required to show his ticket and that, long before the stampede, he saw a crash barrier in front of him crumble.

Jacques Georges, the Uefa president at the time, and Hans Bangerter, his general secretary, were threatened with imprisonment but eventually given conditional discharges. Albert Roosens, the former secretary-general of the Belgian Football Union (BFU), was given a six-month suspended prison sentence for “regrettable negligence” with regard to ticketing arrangements. So was Johan Mahieu, who was in charge of policing the stands at Heysel. “He made fundamental errors,” Pierre Verlynde, the judge, said. “He was far too passive. I find his negligence extraordinary.”

 

In 1989, after a five-month trial in Brussels, 14 of the 26 Liverpool supporters who stood trial were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and given a three-year prison sentence, 18 months of which was suspended, and each ended up serving about a year behind bars. The remaining ten defendants were acquitted of manslaughter, but some had their £2,000 bail money confiscated, having been absent for part of the trial. And civil damages estimated at more than £5 million were provisionally awarded to families of the Heysel victims against the convicted fans and the BFU.

 

You never hear of this because the tragedy is taboo. It was only brought into the open when the clubs were drawn together in the quarter-finals of the Champions League in 2005. Liverpool, after consultation with their Italian counterparts, announced it would be a game of “friendship”. Before the first leg at Anfield, Liverpool supporters held up a mosaic to form the word “amicizia”. Some of the visiting Juventus fans applauded. Most, it seemed, turned their backs in disgust.

Heysel is an unspeakably awkward subject for Liverpool — perhaps more, perhaps less, for the anguish the club and the city endured four years later at Hillsborough. But they do at least now have a memorial plaque at Anfield, they do have extensive coverage of the tragedy on their official website and they do pay tribute on May 30 every year, even if it took far too long for the club to recognise the tragedy and the stain it had left — not unlike Sheffield Wednesday with Hillsborough. None of this diminishes Liverpool’s or their supporters’ right to grieve or complain at what happened four years later.

The real mystery is that Heysel is even more of a taboo in Turin. Go on to the Italian club’s official website in search of a tribute and you will find merely 106 words within a 645-word article called “Juventus wins everything”. “The long-awaited success in Europe’s highest accolade was tainted with sadness” . . .

“Something unexplainable happened … and 39 innocent victims lost their lives. Football, from that moment, would never be the same again.” … “It’s a joyless success, but the victory enabled the Bianconeri to fly to Tokyo in winter to play the Intercontinental Cup final. Argentinos Junior were beaten on penalties and Juve were the world champions.”

Is that it? No wonder the Association for the Victims of Heysel has felt hurt by Juventus’s reluctance to acknowledge what happened on the night they won the European Cup for the first time. Justice for Heysel? There can never be justice for 39 lives lost at a football match, but it is in Turin, not on Merseyside, that the cries of the bereaved are met with silence. The families do not want their lost ones to become a cause célèbre in England, where the purpose is purely to score points on the terraces. A little recognition closer to home is what they want.

[benite]

Audioboo / Man Utd fan Francis made some very heartfelt comments about Hillsborough chanting at Old Trafford >>

 

Don't know if this has been posted here but its a Manc on a radio phone in disgusted with Manc's today seemly singing anti Liverpool songs in the Stretford end. Seems a decent lad.

[Newport]

 

Uploaded By: BrianDurand

 

Open Letter to Bettison and Mackenzie - The Kop Blog post - Liverpool FC

 

It takes a big man to apologise.

 

It’s a simple, sometimes over-used statement, but one which rings true.

 

However an apology which is forced or is issued with motives of self-preservation does not indicate stature, instead it shows cowardice.

 

You sirs, have been prompted to apologise on countless occasions in the last 23 years. You chose to ignore. You chose to deny any wrong-doing.

 

Now, like a child who has been confronted with proof of wrong-doing, you bleat an insincere apology.

 

I could quote here your previous denials and your claims that you had nothing to be sorry about, but frankly your words offend me.

 

You cold-bloodedly smirked in the faces of a community who was hurting. Worse still, you treated ninety six bereaved families with utter contempt.

 

I hope you have enjoyed the fruits of your successful careers since 1989. When you were shopping for your latest executive luxury car or booking your five star cruises, did you spare a thought for families who were struggling for funds to carry on their fight for the truth?

 

When you were tending your roses in your lovely gardens, did you think about families wracked by grief?

 

Mr Mackenzie, in 1995 whilst you were wondering what expensive item to buy for your son on his 21st birthday, did you feel the tiniest pang of guilt that Trevor Hicks’ present for his precious Victoria was a flower at her graveside? Similarly for Anne Williams who was ‘celebrating’ young Kevin’s 21st that year with a silent vigil?

 

As I said at the top of this letter, an apology is often the measure of a man. Well, one which is issued via your PA and timed at exactly the moment that a two-minute silence to honour those who you are meant to be apologising to, definitely tells us all we need to know about your character. For somebody who never misses an invitation to appear on the BBC, you have suddenly proved to be rather elusive.

 

Mr Bettison, your apology was so sincere that you had to issue an apology for your original apology. How did it feel to follow up your role in the ‘Propoganda Unit’ of SYP by taking on a role in Merseyside amongst the very people you had misrepresented? Did you forget to mention your narration of a video to MPs which described ‘drunk, violent and ticketless fans breaking down the dilapidated turnstiles at the Leppings Lane end’? Yes, Norman they were the words you used, your voice. Nothing to hide?

 

When you revealed in the Times in 2003 that your cost to the taxpayer was £213k per year (inc salary, pension and benefits), how do you think that went down with wives who had lost their husbands and were still awaiting any recompense?

 

And when you retired* from the Police in 2004 I note that you celebrated by proposing in Liverpool to your long- time partner. I hope the wedding was a glorious affair. It’s a pity you could not invite Mr & Mrs Hicks and countless other couples whose marriages had broken down due to the strain caused by the lies of Hillsborough.

 

(* Yes, Mr Bettison retired to take up a £125k job in the private sector. When he returned to the force in 2007 he wanted a package which enable him to continue to draw his sizeable pension, as well as his new Chief Commisioner’s salary. Eventually settled out of court)

 

So there you both sit, at the pinnacle of your careers. A bit of abuse from Liverpool people was a minor irritation. However now the world knows the truth and the part you both played in the perpetration of the lies, you decide to apologise. Profusely.

 

Not good enough.

 

Disappear from public view. Resign.

 

Hollow apologies will not cover up the yellow streaks down your respective backs. The truth is that you have been exposed. Your buddies at the golf club are talking behind your back. When you walk down the aisle of the supermarket people are staring at you now for different reasons.

 

They know. We ALL know.

 

You should count yourself lucky that you ‘got away with it’ for so long. Shove your phoney apologies where the sun does not shine. We want you off the BBC, we want you out of your post. We want the wheels of justice to trample all over you both.

 

This week Margaret, Anne, Trevor and all the other heroes who have fought tirelessly for the truth may be able to sleep a little more soundly. God knows they’ve waited long enough.

 

Hopefully Messrs Bettison and Mackenzie, your days of sleeping soundly are a thing of the past.

[Newport]

Audioboo / Man Utd fan Francis made some very heartfelt comments about Hillsborough chanting at Old Trafford >>

 

Don't know if this has been posted here but its a Manc on a radio phone in disgusted with Manc's today seemly singing anti Liverpool songs in the Stretford end. Seems a decent lad.

 

Truly disgusting. Obviously a minority as it usually is (although some chants are sung by more) and it's horrible whenever it is, but this week? For fucks sake. I see the club has already condemned it and to be fair Ferguson has asked them to stop it several times.

[Arl arse]

Audioboo / Man Utd fan Francis made some very heartfelt comments about Hillsborough chanting at Old Trafford >>

 

Don't know if this has been posted here but its a Manc on a radio phone in disgusted with Manc's today seemly singing anti Liverpool songs in the Stretford end. Seems a decent lad.

 

Leave them to wallow in their bitterness, the world will know soon enough what we've known for years.

[Newport]

Leave them to wallow in their bitterness, the world will know soon enough what we've known for years.

 

True. Actually those who do sing those chant gets off on the reaction they get. Then they can moan about Munich chants and all that, which hardly ever happens these days. It's no contest, but they are far worse than anyone else. During this week it's been made out as if it happens just as much in both sets of fans, but I have never ever heard a Munich song being sung by the majority of fans at Anfield, can't say the same about Old Trafford. It even happens when we don't play them. There is a reason everyone hates them.

[Newport]

The 97th victim: Fan sold ticket to friend who died in disaster - Home News - UK - The Independent

 

Hillsborough: I walked one way. The less fortunate walked another | Comment is free | The Observer

[chris71]

Andy Burnham's diary of the past week.

 

Home | m.guardian.co.uk

 

Hillsborough: Andy Burnham reveals his highs and lows as the truth came out

Andy Burnham MP played a key part in uncovering the scandal behind the death of 96 football fans. Last week he watched David Cameron deliver his powerful apology to the people of Liverpool, then savoured the delight of the vindicated relatives

 

 

 

 

Friday 7 September

It's the start of the seven most important days I will have in politics and my main worry is that people have not yet woken up to the enormity of what's coming. All the talk in the papers is the fallout from the reshuffle.

I feel the need to get in early and set the right tone. So I call my old friend David Conn. It was his Guardian article on the amendment of police statements in the runup to the 20th anniversary that prompted me to set up the Hillsborough Independent Panel.

I tell him that, together with Steve Rotheram, Maria Eagle and Derek Twigg, I'm calling for a national apology for Hillsborough from the prime minister.

We don't know what's in the report and there is a risk that we will end up looking daft. But from what we already know to be true, we believe it is clearly justified.

In the evening, I take Jimmy, my son, to watch Wigan v St Helens. At half-time, I see that David's story has landed and is provoking a reaction. And here's a sure sign that the stress of it all is getting to me: I can feel the mother and father of all cold sores brewing on my top lip.

 

Saturday

I wake up and feel a bit lost. If there's one thing I'd like to put a bill through parliament to ban, it's got to be international weekends near the start of the football season. Nearly the middle of September and Everton still haven't had a Saturday home game.

Late afternoon, I take a call from a journalist on a Sunday newspaper which worries me. He says Number 10 is briefing that the government intends to offer an "expression of regret" over Hillsborough. Not sure how true this is, but I am 100% sure it won't be good enough.

 

Sunday

An evening phone call has been arranged with the PM. I'm anxious about it, and it overshadows my day, as I really don't know where the government's thinking is at.

Take Jimmy over to Oldham to play rugby league for Leigh Miners. It's a tough game – I wouldn't have lasted five minutes at his age – but the Miners win and he very nearly goes in under the posts for his first try. That lifts my mood.

At 7.20 on the dot, the Downing Street switchboard calls. The prime minister is on the way to the closing ceremony of the Paralympics. We have a good, long conversation. Like me, he doesn't know what's in the report but he clearly understands the significance of Wednesday. I end by saying I hope he likes Coldplay.

As I put the phone down, I feel a sense of relief.

 

Monday

Down to London and another sign that I'm not thinking straight: I leave my coat on the train. If I'm feeling this stressed, God knows what the families must be feeling like.

 

Tuesday

Spend much of the day helping Ed Miliband prepare his response to tomorrow's statement. As it turns out, he doesn't need my help. He fully understands what this means to Liverpool and has crafted some incredibly moving words.

Just before I go to bed, I get a call from Margaret Aspinall of the Hillsborough Family Support Group. She's far calmer than me. She says whatever happens tomorrow, thank you for what you've done for the families. The tears roll down my face as she speaks.

 

Wednesday

Take my seat in the Commons for prime minister's questions having spent the morning at Downing Street reading the report. Huge swirl of emotions and can barely concentrate on a single word of PMQs. But manage to catch Theresa May's eye on the opposite bench and mouth the words "thank you" to her. She's been great.

When the prime minister starts his statement, I feel overwrought. Every single word is well-judged. There are loud gasps when he reports that 164 police statements were altered. Pain on faces when he delivers the appalling news that 41 lives could have been saved. When the apology comes, it is unreserved and genuine. As we leave the Commons, I shake hands with David. He has just done a huge and brilliant thing for Liverpool.

On the train up to the vigil, I get a text from my old school friend Stephen Turner, who was at Hillsborough and has struggled with it ever since. More tears.

Arriving on the steps at St George's Hall, I give Margaret [Aspinall] a long hug. A moment to savour, making all the battles fought to get to this point worthwhile. I ask her if the panel's report is what she hoped for. "Everything and more," she says.

People have turned out in their thousands. It's a wonderful occasion. As the band plays Heart as Big as Liverpool, I look out over Lime Street. The evening sky is bright blue. For the first time in 23 years, a cloud has lifted.

Steve Rotheram suggests a quick pint in the Ship and Mitre at the top of Dale Street before heading home. Atmosphere in there is brilliant. Seems to be an impromptu gathering of many inspirational people who have helped along the way. Even Mick Jones from the Clash, who did the Justice Tonight tour, has travelled up to be there. Everyone is very generous to me but, just in case it's going to my head, I leave to a hearty rendition of "blue and white shite". I love this city. Normal service resumed.

 

 

Thursday

Up at 6am to head into Media City to do BBC Breakfast. In truth, not looking or feeling my best. Afterwards, I read a tweet which says "Justice for Andy Burnham's cold sore", which makes me laugh.

Head over to Piccadilly and just make the 8am train back to London. Buy the Mirror from the train shop; not all the media has been bad on Hillsborough. On the journey, I reread the Hillsborough Independent Panel report. The Truth, now established, is far harder to take than I thought it would be – worse, not better, for the passage of time.

Day of media interviews ahead. FA mishandles its apology, then Sir Norman Bettison [chief constable of West Yorkshire] makes crass comments about fan behaviour. Unbelievable. Some things will never change.

In the evening, I head over to the Royal College of Surgeons to speak at an event for Hand in Hand for Syria, a charity supporting doctors who face arrest if they treat people opposed to the regime.

A timely reminder that terrible injustice is not just in the past but happening everywhere, all the time.

 

 

Friday

I take Rosie and Annie to school and stay for assembly. Annie gets a "star of the week" prize and reads out her winning story. It involves a girl with no knickers on. Odd glances from other parents worried about the MP and his family.

Head into the Leigh office. It's good to be back. Every meeting starts with people speaking of their utter disbelief at what has been revealed. A constituent reminds me that one of the 96 was from Leigh: Carl Brown, 18 years old. RIP.

Hundreds of emails have come in. It's incredible to read the testimonies of people who were at Hillsborough and have waited so long for this. People who saw children die in unimaginable circumstances and who for 23 years have endured the casual comments that they were in some way to blame.

One email catches my eye. It's just five words long: "You're alright, for a bluenose." That's good enough for me.

Andy Burnham, the Labour MP for Leigh, is shadow health secretary. Born in Liverpool, he is an Everton fan

[JohnnyH]

Anyone got a Times account?? Seems now that since we've finally seen the truth about Hillsborough,todays Times has a Justice for Heysel article...some people really have no fcuking class

 

Think this is the one you're talking about

 

I actually think that article on Heysel is good. There's enough gobshites out there saying "what about justice for Heysel?" so if that shuts up 1% of them then good.

 

As an aside, some excellant writing in the Irish Independent this weekend, even by the forum dark lord, Fanning.

[Guest davelfc]

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[Trumo]

Not especially relevant to this thread, but I just read a story on the BBC interactive news page on the TV, about a rugby player killed in a farm accident. I read the story on the assumption that I might have heard of the player (which I haven't as it turns out) but the really freaky thing is that it happened at a place called Hillsborough in County Down.

 

BBC News - Nevin Spence killed in County Down slurry accident