The Hillsborough disaster.

The Hillsborough verdict where the jury passed down a verdict of murder by "unlawful killing" as just been released.
Plain speaking is a trait of people in the North and the plain speaking, coming from the mothers, fathers, relatives of the people who died so horribly on that day 27 years ago has been the thread running through all these years as they sought answers for the deaths of their loved ones. The articulation of their feelings has been exemplary. No cut glass rhetoric just plain speaking, from the heart with generations of common sense to fall back upon.


There have been many stories to come out of the disaster and a great number of lies and untruths were clearly presented by, not only the police and the ambulance service but by the judiciary in support of the Police and of course by sections of the media.
The tragedy was of course of the lost lives, 98 football fans on a day out,  enjoying the sport they love but as great a tragedy was the cover up by sections of the Establishment.
Our faith in the political establishment and the structure which represents the legal system which we all rely on to provide us, the common man and woman, with justice has taken a knock.
We all know that justice is a duel path. If you have money you can buy your justice but then, as it is today,  with empty pockets comes empty rhetoric.
The tenacity of the family's of the 98 for truth has been an endearing example of solidarity amongst the ordinary men and women who reside in our town and villages. With hurdle upon hurdle placed in their way by Establishment bodies, further exacerbated but a vitriolic press, led by Rupert Murdoch's  The Sun newspaper and its scurrilous editor Kelvin Mackenzie who to this day is still employed by the paper as a feature writer and who's pumped up overblown strictures one still hears when he appears on TV.
The front page headlines depicting blame on the fans, due to their drunken condition (it was also claimed and reported by the Sun that fans had stolen valuables and from the dead and dying)  a claim which originated from Irvine Patnick, the Tory MP for Sheffield and then crucially, the supported by anonymous high ranking police officers in the Sheffield force.
It has taken 27 years of obfuscation and lies to uncover the true depth of the deceit by the civilian structure we rely upon to uphold our values of justice. They have been found woefully inadequate and with such a fundamental failing we have to question our faith in the very edifice on which we build our trust in being governed in what we hope is a civilised society.