At Hillsborough the liquid mass flowed downhill, crushing those at the front.īees are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to policy failings for pesticides. Those in the middle must move with the flow or fall. A densely packed crowd behaves like a viscous liquid. Many people assume that the Hillsborough disaster must have been caused by fans pushing at the back. Cameron and Blair made these empty conciliatory gestures while continuing blithely to push ahead with hugely damaging policies that really would have merited an apology. Like Tony Blair's apology for slavery a few years back this is a meaningless gesture on the part of a prime minister who in no way shares the blame for what he is apologising for. I am baffled, however, by David Cameron's apology to the Hillsborough survivors and their families. I wholeheartedly welcome the Hillsborough panel's findings, which have finally confirmed the truth of the despicable behaviour on the part of officialdom in trying to cover up the true circumstances of the tragedy.
The establishment and the football authorities, in neglecting to deal with the problem of football violence over the years, allowed tragic, innocent deaths to occur in stadiums where merely to be present placed oneself, or one's family, in harm's way. If these were the precautionary measures necessary to ensure public safety at football matches, then football should not have been allowed to be played in public until the problem of football violence had been fully addressed. They were placed in fenced-off areas, surrounded by police and stewards, usually with a large empty terraced area between rival fans. They were then kettled and walked en masse to the home ground, surrounded by police with both horses and dogs. However, throughout the 1970s and 1980s, away fans were met at railway stations by police with dogs. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, no blame should be placed on the football supporters for the innocent lives lost that day.
I listened with sadness at the news coverage of the Hillsborough inquiry and feel a wider truth has not been acknowledged. What alternatives to prison are being explored for single mothers who offend, in order to mitigate the traumatic effects on their children, with all the costs to society that such maternal absence is likely to involve?Īnd is it really more shameful to imprison single mothers than single fathers who commit identical crimes, since the children left bereft of parental care will suffer in much the same ways? For example, what can explain the fact that more British than European women offend so seriously that prison is the only legal outcome? Your report highlighting the excessive number of women imprisoned in this country, raises a number of questions. Chief Executive, Howard League for Penal Reform, London N1
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