Some stuff less important than emails
Iraq war: Gordon Brown aims to delay inquiry report until after election
‘Gordon Brown will announce by the autumn a “long” inquiry into the Iraq war, indicating that the potentially embarrassing report will be delayed until well after the general election expected next year’
Kneejerk policies a strain on prison system, says charity
‘The government is failing to rehabilitate offenders, leaving charities to pick up the pieces and running the risk of further strain on the overstretched prison system, according to damning research published today.’
Mass arrests over power station protest raise civil liberties concerns
‘Police have carried out what is thought to be the biggest pre-emptive raid on environmental campaigners in British history, arresting 114 people believed to be planning direct action at a coal-fired power station.’
This is my Hillsborough
‘Twenty years after Britain’s worst football stadium disaster, in which 96 people died, Mike Bracken shares his painful memories for the first time – and describes the ongoing fight for recognition of what really happened’
Posted on April 14th, 2009 at 9:20am under Civil liberties, Crime and punishment, Iraq
| Related posts... • Iraq inquiry: arse-coveringly late and secret • Iraq Inquiry: history is rewritten by the victors • Levelling the field |
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• 11 Comments |
Hmm. 3 is the only one that’s news, and 2 and 3 are the only ones that matter.
1 and 4 are no *less* important than Guido’s wankerfest, admittedly.
On it’s own, 3 has more value than the Internet nonsense.
Not sure why you’re splitting hairs but still.
Glad to see a mention of Hillsborough.
Cos if yet more rehashed ‘Iraq enquiry’ stuff was dominating the front pages, it’d just be pointless bunfighting between politicos, and hence just as worthless as the wankergate trivia.
…and why is coverage of Hillsborough, as an appalling terrible thing that happened a very long time ago which there’s nothing we can do about (and from which the right lessons were learned and addressed, ensuring there’s absolutely no chance anything similar could happen again), any different from the Jade-y, Diana-y crop of meaningless emo-porn?
Kelner’s piece on this is is good.
Good piece by Kelner (as always) and I won’t be indulging in emo-porn. I just wanted to mark (in an infinitesimally small way) a significant anniversary of an event that had a big impact on me when I was a kid and therefore still does. I won’t be live-streaming the memorial ceremony or anything, I was just moved by Mike Bracken’s Guardian piece whose first sentence contained more human feeling than the entire output of Damian McBride.
These were people who went to a football match and didn’t come back because of somebody else’s horrible fuck-up. South Yorkshire police and Kelvin Mackenzie then proceeded to spit on the corpses, and I’d argue they’ve yet to see proper justice. I’d like it if that, for one thing, ‘must never be forgotten’.
PS. Merrick is excellent on Hillsborough, I think.
Sorry John but having a knock at the Hillsborough story is off the mark, you’re passing judgement where a/no one gives a fuck and b/without all the facts.
I’m a Notts lad, had mates at the game, Hillsborough is fucking important to me, that alright with you sunshine?
I can see where John is coming from, although I don’t think he’s right and I think he wasn’t judicious in his choice of words. He wasn’t knocking Hillsborough; he was knocking what he saw as a tendency towards emotionalization in the coverage. If he was complaining about other aspects of the coverage – say, the Sun’s treatment of it – then everyone would be in agreement with it.
I don’t see that excess in the Mike Bracken piece, which is frankly quite painful to read. Although my dad is also a Forest man, I’ve no particular attachment to either football or the event, but I found it chilling:
Justin reiterates this, saying:
Hillsborough was a terrible, stupid, possibly avoidable, sad, total fucking mess. Along with that still arguably undelivered justice it deserves decent coverage and freedom from any more tabloid excesses. Calling articles on Hillsborough emo-porn, when among possibly football-loving peers who lived through the event, is crass in the extreme, but there’s a point underneath that crassness.
[...] the thing that’s interesting about the story, which is actually a pretty petty, depressing and self-involved bit of Westminster toss – and anyway, was anyone actually thinking [...]
Hillsborough is relevant in this context simply because, contrary to the misguided and stated belief in one post (above), the right lessons were not learned and addressed.
The accounts of spectators at the Leppings Lane end on that day paint a vivid and revealing picture of a callous, uncaring, disdainful, bullying, and intimidatory, behavior on the part of the majority of one specific group on that day. People being prevented from helping their injured friends; ambulances being prevented from reaching the injured; deliberate mis-information being passed on to others who could have prevented deaths or assisted; and so on.
This group – with a few honourable exceptions – then proceeded to cover up both their mistakes and contributory actions by deliberately falsifying and altering their reports right down to the individual level.
And absolutely nothing has changed. Whenever this particular group comes into contact with people as a collective it behaves in exactly the same way – as can be seen at numerous events, the most recent being the G20 demonstrations particularly the climate camp in Bishopsgate where they waded into people with batons and shields, breaking limbs etc. at a group of unarmed citizens doing nothing other than holding up their hands in submission.
What was remarkable about the more recent G20 demonstrations, with people of all ages corralled into small spaces and not allowed out on the threat of a beating was that the casualty toll was so low. A preventable tragedy like Hillsborough may not happen again within a UK football stadium but the crowd management strategy and the attitudes that drive it employed on that day – which has not changed one iota since Peterloo – remain.
The risk of a similar and preventable tragedy remains high whilst ever this group continue to enjoy the privilige of escaping the same sanctions for their behavior in large crowds as the rest of the population they are, in theory, employed to protect and serve.
john b,
why is coverage of Hillsborough… any different from the Jade-y, Diana-y crop of meaningless emo-porn?
Perhaps because 20 years after the disaster no-one has been held legally accountable.
At a time when the police are (yet again) under fire for a death probably caused by atrocious policing tactics do you not think what happened at Hillsborough has any relevance at all?