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Posts Tagged ‘hillsborough’

• Sir Oliver Popplewell says families should move on
• Says Bradford disaster families showed ‘quiet dignity’

A retired judge has sparked fury by calling on the Hillsborough families to drop their “conspiracy theories” and behave more like the relatives of victims of the Bradford City stadium disaster.

Sir Oliver Popplewell, who chaired the public inquiry into the 1985 fire at the Valley Parade stadium that killed 56 people, called on the Liverpool families to look at the “quiet dignity and great courage” that relatives of the Bradford victims have shown in the years following the tragedy.

He made the comments in a letter to The Times following the Commons debate calling for all the cabinet papers on Hillsborough to be released.

He wrote: “The citizens of Bradford behaved with quiet dignity and great courage. They did not harbour conspiracy theories. They did not seek endless further inquiries. They buried their dead, comforted the bereaved and succoured the injured. They organised a sensible compensation scheme and moved on.

“Is there, perhaps, a lesson there for the Hillsborough campaigners?”

The home secretary Theresa May has pledged to release all possible documents on the 1989 FA Cup semi-final tragedy that left 96 Liverpool fans dead.

The Labour MP Steve Rotheram attacked the letter as “unbelievable”, saying: “How insensitive does somebody have to be to write that load of drivel? To mention other tragedies simply because they are football-related, as if there is some common denominator because they happened in football stadiums, beggars belief.

“Was there a conspiracy after the Bradford fire? Did the government try to blame the Bradford City fans for setting fire to the stadium on purpose? It shows how people right at the top of the establishment still harbour prejudice and ignorance.”

Margaret Aspinall, whose son James died in the disaster, said: “He ought to be ashamed of himself.”

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E-petition with more than 125,000 signatures forces government to clarify position over whether documents will be made public

The government has promised to release all cabinet papers relating to the 1989 Hillsborough disaster to the public once they have been shared with families of the deceased, after being forced to clarify its position by an e-petition that has reached more than 125,000 signatures.

The clarification of the government’s position, after it opted to appeal against a ruling by the information commissioner that the papers should be released to the BBC under Freedom of Information legislation, was welcomed by the Hillsborough Independent Panel (HIP), set up to examine the full circumstances surrounding the disaster in which 96 Liverpool supporters died at an FA Cup semi final. It is due to report next spring.

The cabinet papers are seen as potentially significant in revealing the approach taken by the Thatcher administration to the disaster. A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “The government has confirmed its commitment to full transparency about the Hillsborough disaster through full public disclosure. All papers had previously been shared with the Hillsborough Independent Panel.

“The government is happy for all the papers to be released as soon as the panel so decides, in consultation with the families. We expect them to be shared with the Hillsborough families first and then to the wider public.”

A spokesman for the panel, chaired by the bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, and set up by the Labour government in response to longstanding calls to uncover the full causes and consequences of the disaster, said: “The HIP welcomes the government’s commitment to publish all relevant documents to the panel.

“The response to the petition shows the strength of public feeling about the Hillsborough disaster. The panel is accessing and researching hundreds of thousands of documents and other materials relating to the context, circumstances and aftermath of the disaster. It is the intention of the panel to publish all documents simultaneously.”

Margaret Aspinall, chair of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, said: “We want full disclosure of all documents, with no redactions, for the families, for survivors, who we must not forget suffered greatly at Hillsborough, and for supporters. We are humbled that so many people are supporting us, and have signed the e-petition.

“But although we are cautious given our experience over 22 years, we do trust the panel and maintain that the papers be released to the panel first, so they can be put into context, and then shown to the families, before then being released to the wider public.”

Once the e-petition reached more than 100,000 signatures, encouraged by a Twitter campaign by footballers and celebrities, the government was obliged to respond and forward it to the backbench business committee for consideration for parliamentary debate.

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• Midfielder backs calls for release of documents into tragedy
• Urges Lady Gaga and Lord Sugar to also join online campaign

After using Twitter to quote Nietzsche and George Washington, and then to insult Alan Shearer’s dress sense, Joey Barton was back on the social networking site yesterday, but this time his comments were widely met by praise and respect as opposed to ridicule and rage.

The Newcastle midfielder sent over 40 tweets calling on his 420,464 followers, as well as celebrities ranging from Alan Sugar to Lady Gaga, to back an online petition demanding the government withdraw its opposition to the full disclosure of documents relating to the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.

The Cabinet Office said on Wednesday that it was appealing against the information commissioner Christopher Graham’s ruling calling for the documents to be made public on the grounds that such details should first be seen by the Hillsborough Independent Panel as part of its ongoing inquiry into the events that led to the death of 96 Liverpool supporters during an FA Cup semi-final tie against Nottingham Forest in Sheffield 22 years ago.

The Cabinet Office’s stance, which would protect withdrawn files including reports presented to then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, and correspondents between her office and that of the home secretary at the time, Douglas Hurd, was met by the creation of an e-petition on the government’s website by the Liverpool supporter Brian Irvine calling for the “full disclosure of all government documents relating to 1989 Hillsborough disaster”. Should it receive 100,000 signatures, the motion would automatically have to be heard by parliament.

As of last night, it had 44,171 signatures and many could well have been instigated by Barton’s intervention, which began on Wednesday night before gathering pace yesterday.

“Everybody sign this petition, the truth about hillsborough must come out, all football fans should join together,” tweeted Barton before he began to send a host of similar appeals to high-profile figures, asking them to retweet the message.

Lady Gaga was the most high profile of those targeted by Barton but as yet, the outlandish pop star has not joined the cause. Among those who have, however, are Piers Morgan and the Manchester United and former Liverpool striker, Michael Owen.

Barton’s efforts were well received, particularly from Liverpool supporters. In response to the 28-year-old, who grew up on Merseyside, Graeme Hammond tweeted: “I lost my brother at hillsborough thankyou for all your doing getting the petition noticed.”

The praise represent something of a turnaround for Barton, who was vilified in many quarters for his perceived dive during Newcastle’s goalless draw with Arsenal at St James’ Park last Saturday. Before that, he had become something of a figure of fun for using pseudo-intellectual tweets to describe his frustration at having been made available for transfer by the north-east club.

Interesting, Barton also tweeted yesterday he would “make no comments about anything” until the e-petition had received 100,000 signatures.

It has already been publicly backed by the Liverpool manager, Kenny Dalglish, as well as a number of high-profile politicians, including the former culture secretary, Andy Burnham.

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