What has been will be again
"To understand the Hillsborough disaster, one must first understand the context in which it happened. In 1989, four years after the seismic defeat of the miners, the unemployment rate in Liverpool was among the highest in the UK and the city's council was on the brink of bankruptcy. The Liverpool fans attending the match that day were already on the receiving end of a hostile media and government, unafraid of portraying them as the feckless, undeserving poor. As Sheila Coleman reminded me, the match saw them caged "like animals in pens", as though the players on the pitch needed to be protected from them."1
What has been done will be done again
"So here we are again. Twenty-two years later and the old maxim, "red sky at night, Toxteth's alight" is relevant again. The Murdoch press is once again in disgrace, and Liverpool is facing the worst budget cuts in the country. As history repeats itself, the families and survivors of the Hillsborough disaster are on the receiving end of familiar obfuscation, familiar "unjustified and excessive delays" in releasing the information by the self-proclaimed children of Thatcher."1
There is Nothing New Under The Sun
"As MacKenzie's layout was seen by more and more people, a collective shudder ran through the office (but) MacKenzie's dominance was so total there was nobody left in the organisation who could rein him in except Murdoch. (Everyone in the office) seemed paralysed – "looking like rabbits in the headlights" – as one hack described them. The error staring them in the face was too glaring. It obviously wasn't a silly mistake; nor was it a simple oversight. Nobody really had any comment on it—they just took one look and went away shaking their heads in wonder at the enormity of it. It was a 'classic smear'."2
- Hillsborough petition shows some wounds cannot be healed by time [Ellie Mae O'Hagan, The Guardian]
- The Smearing of Liverpool [wiki]
BILLY BRAGG - NEVER BUY THE SUN from Billy Bragg on Vimeo.
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