Liverpool fans to blame

This is going to piss a few scousers off: -

Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher was told that a senior Merseyside Police officer blamed "drunken Liverpool fans" for the 1989 Hillsborough football stadium disaster, according to leaked government papers.

The documents show that four days after the tragedy, a member of Mrs Thatcher's No 10 policy unit met senior Merseyside officers who told her large numbers of Liverpool fans turning up without tickets had been a "key factor" in what happened.

http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/hillsborough-documents-blame-fans/

No doubt the liverpool fans will deny it and blame all of this on the police and play the victim card as usual.

It has been my experience that Liverpool players/fans are usually guilty.

It looks like they are blaming the police for inadequate crowd control measures. They never mention the fact that Liverpool were in the semi at Hillsborough the year before and there were no incidents in the Leppings Lane end.

How anyone can deny that there were Liverpool fans who had turned up without tickets is stretching it a bit for me.

As to the denial that some fans were drunk ? Give it a rest!

I was at our Wembley semi final against Stoke last year and I never spoke to anyone who was sober!

"The documents show that four days after the tragedy, a member of Mrs Thatcher's No 10 policy unit met senior Merseyside officers who told her large numbers of Liverpool fans turning up without tickets had been a "key factor" in what happened."

Tell us something we don't know. We don't need documents to tell us this.

Pissed up ticketless folk outside any venue don't usually get in.

I suppose that's the whole point of issuing tickets.

the Merseyside chief constable said: "A key factor in causing the disaster was the fact that large numbers of Liverpool fans had turned up without tickets.

"This was getting lost sight of in attempts to blame the police, the football authorities, etc."

The prime minister was informed that a senior member of the Merseyside Police directly blamed supporters: "One officer, born and bred in Liverpool, said that he was deeply ashamed to say that it was drunken Liverpool fans who had caused this disaster, just as they had caused the deaths at Heysel."

This officer is not named. Merseyside Police have declined to comment.





When will they ever learn?

"When will they ever learn?"

Who?

The government/authorities have learned, that's why you watch expensive football in a relatively passionless bowl like the Reebok.

The police have learned, they virtually have it all sewn up in and around football venues.

The football clubs have learned, proper ticketing policy and proper turnstiles.



Getting a collection of football fans to learn regardless of who they support is nigh on impossible. All individuals you see that really don't answer to anyone.

Kenneth Oxford, the Chief Constable of Merseyside, at that time was definitely not a scouser. I think he was from London.

Whichever way anyone tries to dress it up it was the teeming horde of Liverpool fans who forced their way into the Leppings Lane end. Whether they were pissed or not is irrelevant.

I was really referring to the policeman’s comments that the pissed up ticketless Liverpool fans caused the tragedy at Heysel, the tragedy at Hillsborough and by accounts at the time, nearly caused a tragedy at Athens.

(Not to mention Michael Shields!).

Funny how other clubs fans (pissed up or not) seem to avoid such tragedy’s?

Do you not think 'forced' is the wrong word though Trotter?

"Funny how other clubs fans (pissed up or not) seem to avoid such tragedy’s?"



Come on Sluffy

Through more luck that judgement.

Real tragedies could quite easily have happened to other clubs fans throughout the 70's and 80's (Brum, Leeds, Millwall, Sunderland etc)

I remember 20,000 Celtic fans coming t'Turf for the Anglo Scottish Cup final and being very naughty. How there wasn't multiple deaths will always remain a mystery, especially when they broke down the railings and used them as javelins.

Don't worry, we did our bit.

I heard this and it was intended to clear Thatcher of her statement at the time on the basis that she'd been given the wrong information. The true story didn't come out until some time after the event and the dead copper later recanted what he'd said. If you remember, Thatchers mouthpiece The Sun, plastered the "drunken scousers to blame" thing all over it's pages, then as the facts started to emerge went quiet and eventually issued an apology buried in page 34.

It was pretty obvious that the copper said what he said to defend the S Yorks police actions as the survivors were accusing the police of forcing more fans into an already overcrowded area and refusing to open the gates - which ultimately turned out to be the truth of the matter.

Liverpool fans were an easy target, especially after Heysel and to many Brits they was a convenient and believable scapegoat - at least until the truth came out.

But the release of this story yesterday was more about Thatcher than Hillsborough. It's timing - to coincide with the Meryl Streep film (which also conveniently skips over Thatchers many gaffes including selling off our North Sea assets to pay for her political excesses) is all part of a PR exercise under the Tory Government to have the bitch elevated to sainthood and it would be no surprise if the Tories declare a national day of mourning and state ceremony when she finally shuffles off to the burning hell that surely awaits her when she pops her clogs - which I suspect won't be long now.

I hope she is buried in a grave rather than cremated so that there is a place for decent people to piss on for generations to come.

Sluffy wrote:I was really referring to the policeman’s comments that the pissed up ticketless Liverpool fans caused the tragedy at Heysel, the tragedy at Hillsborough and by accounts at the time, nearly caused a tragedy at Athens.

(Not to mention Michael Shields!).

Funny how other clubs fans (pissed up or not) seem to avoid such tragedy’s?

The same could have easily been said about the Burnden Park Disaster, or the Ibrox Disaster



All about over crowding, drunken fans, and police not maintaining order and discipline....

wanderlust wrote:the dead copper later recanted what he'd said.

Every credit to him.

Just to clarify - he recanted before he died. No ouija boards were required.

wanderlust wrote:
I hope she is buried in a grave rather than cremated so that there is a place for decent people to piss on for generations to come.

Going off your glowing praise for Maggie I am guessing that she snatched your daughters milk ?

She snatched everyone's daughters' milk.
I've never been against "trimming down the fat" in business but that gnarly bitch never understood where the fat ended at the meat began. She sold easily-digestible concepts so that the voting public wouldn't get confused by the facts - which were never simple to grasp.
A total baby/bathwater job that we and our children will still be paying for in another hundred years.

Well she will be in good company because blair will be there in time as well.

I hate Liverpool with a passion and i hate all their crying, whining, whinging, tosser fans, oh and their diving, cheating, overpriced, overrated, thug chav wankers who play for them.

I have come to hate them more than United since Dalgiesh took over again and brought in Luis ''im not a diver'' Suarex.

The fans and some part of the media seem to think they are world beaters again after winning the league cup.

Reebok Trotter wrote:Kenneth Oxford, the Chief Constable of Merseyside, at that time was definitely not a scouser. I think he was from London.

Whichever way anyone tries to dress it up it was the teeming horde of Liverpool fans who forced their way into the Leppings Lane end. Whether they were pissed or not is irrelevant.

As I understand it, yes they were trying to get in, but the police were at fault as they opened just one gate out of three which they all piled through, causing the crush. If the police had not opened one gate, or opened all three gates, it wouldn't have happened.