If there’s one thing the British establishment is very good at, it’s lying. They do it with a convincing thoroughness and consistency that makes even those who know the truth doubt themselves.
I remember the immediate aftermath of Bloody Sunday in Derry. I was living in Canada at the time and a columnist in the local paper, one Shaun Herron, a cousin of loyalist paramilitary Tommy Herron, informed his readers that every single one of those shot dead by the British army had been carrying a weapon: he knew this because he had received this information from a rock-solid source within British intelligence. Meanwhile back in Derry the Widgery Commission was being put in place to later vomit up its lies about who was to blame and who wasn’t.
And now, also decades later, we have the truth come tumbling out about the Hillsborough disaster. As you’ll see from the attached pics, both Boris Johnson and Bernard Ingham were nothing if not adept at reinforcing the lies which had been told; and again they did so in a way that made those who’d claim otherwise appear as pathetic, deluded, self-pitying fantasists. What a pity Thatcher wasn’t around longer to get to know and love Boris Johnson. Ingham and Johnson share the same bulky, shambling frame; they also share the ability to make unfounded claims, aka lies, and the ability to portray their accusers as bad or bonkers or both.
Thatcher and Ingham were well met. Let’s hope London has the sense to kick into political oblivion the mayoral candidate whom Johnson is currently recommending. If you wouldn’t buy a used door-handle, never mind a car from this man, why would you buy the likes of the billionaire Zac Goldsmith, son of the unspeakable Sir James ‘Goldenballs’ Goldsmith?
In the end the truth will out no matter how hard the establishment covers it up. Its just getting them to accept culpability that’s the issue.
Hillsborough campaigner Margaret Aspinall said that “we didn’t just have to fight the establishment, we also had to fight the media”. Hillsborough is about more than establishment cover up of tragic deaths – it is also about a state-led cultural vilification of a city and its people.
27 years of fighting the good fight in the face of lies, corruption and cover ups. The extent to which the British establishment went to smear the dead, their families and the people of Liverpool is both shocking and heartbreaking. Thoughts and best wishes are with the families who never gave up fighting for the loved ones they so tragically lost that day.
A harrowing read, but read it you should – Margaret Aspinall on grief and the fight for justice
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/26/football/margaret-aspinall-hillsborough-liverpool-football/index.html
Denying the truth does not change the facts
On 16 October 2004, Boris Johnson referred to:
“the part played by drunken fans”
in the Hillsborough Disaster. On 8 July 1966, Bernard Ingham made reference to:
“tanked up mobs”
in relation to the Hillsborough Disaster.
On 26 April 2016, a jury found that 96 victims of the Hillsborough Disaster were “unlawfully killed.”
Evidence has also emerged that Plastic Bullets were to be tested on:
“hooligans in Londonderry.”
The evidence is contained in proposals drafted by A.W. Stephens, head of British Army counter terrorism in May 1972. His proposals refer to tests of plastic bullets which were carried out on sheep.
“At ranges less than 25 metres it is likely that the PVC round hitting a person would cause serious injury and depending on the position of the strike and the age, health and clothing of the person, might be lethal…”
Stephens also confirmed in writing that plastic bullets were for:
“use only within the Londonderry City Boundaries west of the Foyle.”
Plastic bullets claimed the lives of:
Paul Whitters (15) April 1981 in Derry
Henry Duffy (45) May 1981 in Derry
Stephen McConomy (11) April 1982 in Derry
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.”
Martin Luther King