Wings Over Liverpoool

[D'Artagnan 173]

For many of us the refusal of Wings Over Scotland, aka Rev. Stuart Campbell, to accept the truth or facts is nothing new. However his continued apportioning of blame for the Hillsborough disaster on Liverpool fans themselves – despite the ruling of the Hillsborough inquest jury only last week – marks a new low, even by his normally low standards.

 

It has taken 27 years of courageous fighting by the families of those who lost loved ones to establish those truths and facts. And it was a brutal fight where for most of it they were very much the underdog. They had to scale a mountain where every step of their climb was hindered by a Police Force lying as a collective, a press fabricating stories and politicians briefing against their loved ones.

 

But they never lost sight of their objective, never gave up in their quest for the truth, though tragically, some who started the journey never saw its completion.

 

It is almost impossible to imagine what those families and countless other families in Liverpool went through that fateful day of 15th April, 1989. But let me try as best as I can.

 

The 2nd January 1971 started off like any normal Saturday in our household. My parents, despite their judgement being hindered following the traditional Hogmanay celebrations, were sober enough of mind to steadfastly refuse my requests to accompany my elder brother and his best mate Chubb, to the Old Firm game. “Too Young” was the often repeated mantra. I suspect I was not the only 9 year old in Glasgow that day who concluded that “life was just not fair”.

 

Instead I was to be placated with a trip to the Hillhead Cinema (The Salon) to watch the blockbuster disaster movie Airport. In these days of live satellite broadcasts, mobile phones and social media it must be hard to imagine how slow and archaic communication was back in 1971. As the audience sat glued to the disaster plot unfolding on the screens they were totally oblivious to the disaster unfolding right on our doorstep. But a quiet whisper in the cinema quickly became a nervous chatter as rumours spread something had gone wrong at Ibrox and total strangers enquired of one another in the quest for more information. I will never forget the look of abject horror and desperation on my mother’s face.

 

We, like many others, left the cinema before the end of the film and I watched my father search frantically for a phone box. We stood huddled as a family unit in a small phone box, as my father, his hands visibly shaking, tried to get the coins into the phone. We were lucky, our loved ones returned home that day. For 66 families there was to be no such relief. One of them was the McGhee family who lived in the next street to us – their son David, aged 14 years, perished along with 65 others.

 

It left our whole community in mourning, God only knows how the people of Markinch in Fife, got through it.

 

For 25 minutes or so my parent’s lives were tuned inside out with uncertainty, panic and worry. And what they experienced that day was nothing to what those Liverpool families have had to undergo. Imagine having to endure 27 years to get that most precious of all things – the truth – and to have to battle every step of the way to get it.

 

The whole football community owes these Liverpool families a huge debt of thanks. The truth which they have uncovered speaks volumes about how football fans are viewed and treated by many. It was eloquently espoused by Rangers blogger JohnMc in his must read article for Gersnet:

 

http://www.gersnet.co.uk/index.php/news-category/current-affairs/622-will-scottish-society-learn-from-the-hillsborough-disaster

 

Thankfully MSM, courtesy of Gordon Waddell at the Daily Record, have also picked up the mantle:

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/gordon-waddell-legacy-hillsborough-should-7868069#4tCVtxORTmMdrQ6M.97

 

Generations of football fans can testify to the almost sub-human levels of treatment. Rangers fans alighting from a train at Dundee in the 80’s will recall being “ordered” onto a bus by Police and being ferried directly to Tannadice. Refusal was not an option. And for those of us who made that journey, the enclosure at Tannadice provided ample of evidence of ticket sales revenue taking greater priority than crowd safety.

 

As John Mc so succinctly put it:

 

“After all, we were only football fans.”

 

Hillsborough and the courageous fight of the families for truth and justice has left a legacy which the normally tribal football community must unite as one to ensure is carried on. Football fans, whatever colours they wear, should not only expect but demand the same level of treatment as spectators at other sporting events.

 

If God is apportioning wings, then Liverpool seems an appropriate place to start.

Edited May 3, 2016 by D'Artagnan

[Frankie 8,145]

Excellent stuff mate.

 

Unfortunately, I don't doubt that hate-filled blogger will blame Rangers fans for what happened in 1971 as well.

[BEARGER 1,829]

Very good post, but why the need for the first paragraph mentioning that eejit ?

[26th of foot 5,827]

Each Thursday afternoon, around 12.30hrs to 13.30hrs, BBC Radio Scotland presenter, John Beattie hosts the Media Review. It's an old format, two commentators, usually from opposite ends of the political spectrum give their take on a number of chosen news stories from the previous week. However, BBC Radio Scotland's tweak is to have two commentators separated by the width of a fag paper, Stuart Cosgrove and Eamon O'Neill. Both are nationalists and both are favourites to take control of the proposed Scottish Six. They have produced pilots of how the Scottish Six would look like under their management.

 

Big Stu' and Eamon continually hammer home that things have changed in Scotland, the Beeb is biased(they are not referring to Chris McLaughlin), and the vast majority of us access our news from alternative social media sites. Both Wings over Scotland and Bella Caledonia are mentioned weekly; in fact both Cosgrove and O'Neill revealed their pilot episodes on these means. Last Thursday, the Hillsborough decision was discussed for twenty minutes and there was NO mention of Wings over Scotland and Stuart Campbell. Plenty of fingers were pointed by Cosgrove, both John Motson and Alan Green were accused of being Police lackeys. There was a cover-up, involving both media and Police. Margaret Thatcher and particularly her Secretary, Bernard Ingham were highlighted. Deceased Liverpool supporters were the victims of, "a tanked up mob" said Ingham and he has refused to both apologise and withdraw that remark.

 

The rank hypocrisy of Cosgrove, he fails to mention nay sayer, Stuart Campbell because it's awkward and inconvenient. The Scottish Six under his guidance will not be biased? Further, this is the guy some two years past that was a senior Channel Four executive(Commissioning Editor) and invited a huge Channel Four asset, Alex Thomson on to the biased Beeb show he co-hosted, 'On the Ball' and proceeded to conduct a PR/recovery exercise. You see, Thomson had tweeted a piss-take on McCoist's, 'we don't do walking away', involving John Greig's image stepping away from the plinth. Big Stu' utilised twenty minutes of the national broadcaster's time to lead Thomson in a walk through/talk through of, honest it was an attempted joke, no offence to the families of the sixty-six deceased. Of course, the next day, Thomson referred to Rangers fans twice as, "Daleks", and we know they are not very good on the stairs either.

 

Compare and contrast Cosgrove's behaviour and consequences there of? Recently, the BBC Controller, Alan Yentob resigned after sitting at the back of a studio(intimidation) of a Radio Four interview of Kids Company founder, Camila Batmanghelidjh on allegations of abuse and irregularities. Clearly, he had abused his authority, given he sat on the Kids Company Board as Chairman. Similarly, Cosgrove abused his position at Beeb Scotland to protect another companies asset, a company where he held a most senior position.

 

Disasters, whether it's Ibrox or Hillsborough, Cosgrove is allowed to continue to skate on the thinnest of ice.

[Tannochsidebear 2,306]

What is the "Scottish Six" you mention?

[cooponthewing 1,139]

Scottish 6 o'clock News programme that's been proposed to take place of the BBC national news. Commonly perceived to be a nationalist propaganda machine.

Edited May 3, 2016 by cooponthewing

[Darthter 542]

Scottish 6 o'clock News programme that's been proposed to take place of the BBC national news. Commonly perceived to be a nationalist propaganda machine.

 

as opposed to the unionist propaganda one that we have now....(but that's a debate for somewhere else.. )

[andy steel 0]

He made a fool of himself, not for the first time. But whatever the merits or otherwise of independence or unionism I refuse point blank to use Hillsborough to make a point one way or the other and I really hope Gersnet is the same.

Edited May 3, 2016 by andy steel

[Bluedell 5,329]

He made a fool of himself, not for the first time. But whatever the merits or otherwise of independence or unionism I refuse point blank to use Hillsborough to make a point one way or the other and I really hope

hope Gersnet is

the same.

 

Yeah, heaven forbid that anyone would make a political point out of Hillsborough.......

[Scott7 5,132]

Yeah, heaven forbid that anyone would make a political point out of Hillsborough.......

 

 

I see what you did there, BD.