Originally Posted by alancracker:
“Picking out and developing 2 parts of my earlier post (which was done in a bit of a hurry as I had to go out).
Imo what happened in the 26 years from 1989 till 2015 in relation to Duckenfield was worse than what he did on the day. On the day as part of his work he was given a job to do which was beyond his capabilities and it went disastrously wrong. As it went wrong he lied to try to make himself look less in the wrong - and that is the place where it all starts (altho the SWFC safety certificate and the FA complacency in choosing Hillsborough for the semi without properly looking into whether it was fit for purpose could also be brought up).
At that stage whilst critical of him I have some sympathy as who among us has not messed up at work - most of us tho when it happens has not resulted in the deaths of 96 people. Even lying to Kelly was a bit excusable as he was probably not thinking straight as he saw the enormity of the situation altho that lie had enormous effects as people believed that it was the 'LFC hooligans again' - and perhaps even I and other LFC fans did as at that stage on the evening of 15/4/89 we knew no better.
What is harder to forgive is the 26 years of silence which followed and the way he allowed his lie to be perpetuated - probably in the hope that he would get away with it. - and he did for many years so in a way it worked. If a day or two after the event he had come clean and said he had messed up and unreservedly apologised to the families then that would have been acceptable (to me anyway whether it would to everyone i am not so sure). That however is all hypothetical as he didn't and only did so last year when it was obvious that he was going to be 'found out' and exposed anyway. So the families could not accept the apology as being really genuine - and who can blame them for that.
Also altho I am not a Tory voter re the Thatcher government sentence (which I totally stand by) I would have to publically say that May and Cameron have been very good in their reactions over the last 5 years. Burnham and Rotheram were obviously the best 2 politicians in terms of advancing the cause but it has to be said Straw and Blair were dreadful in their 12 years in high office as they totally let the families down after making promises to them prior to their election in 1997. It does expose what many politicians are like - only interested in votes and in the Labour government years Blair saw no votes in justice for Hillsborough and so did not push it. Hypocrits!! Thank goodness for the courage of Andy Burnham in doing what he did at the 2009 service is all I can say.”
“Picking out and developing 2 parts of my earlier post (which was done in a bit of a hurry as I had to go out).
Imo what happened in the 26 years from 1989 till 2015 in relation to Duckenfield was worse than what he did on the day. On the day as part of his work he was given a job to do which was beyond his capabilities and it went disastrously wrong. As it went wrong he lied to try to make himself look less in the wrong - and that is the place where it all starts (altho the SWFC safety certificate and the FA complacency in choosing Hillsborough for the semi without properly looking into whether it was fit for purpose could also be brought up).
At that stage whilst critical of him I have some sympathy as who among us has not messed up at work - most of us tho when it happens has not resulted in the deaths of 96 people. Even lying to Kelly was a bit excusable as he was probably not thinking straight as he saw the enormity of the situation altho that lie had enormous effects as people believed that it was the 'LFC hooligans again' - and perhaps even I and other LFC fans did as at that stage on the evening of 15/4/89 we knew no better.
What is harder to forgive is the 26 years of silence which followed and the way he allowed his lie to be perpetuated - probably in the hope that he would get away with it. - and he did for many years so in a way it worked. If a day or two after the event he had come clean and said he had messed up and unreservedly apologised to the families then that would have been acceptable (to me anyway whether it would to everyone i am not so sure). That however is all hypothetical as he didn't and only did so last year when it was obvious that he was going to be 'found out' and exposed anyway. So the families could not accept the apology as being really genuine - and who can blame them for that.
Also altho I am not a Tory voter re the Thatcher government sentence (which I totally stand by) I would have to publically say that May and Cameron have been very good in their reactions over the last 5 years. Burnham and Rotheram were obviously the best 2 politicians in terms of advancing the cause but it has to be said Straw and Blair were dreadful in their 12 years in high office as they totally let the families down after making promises to them prior to their election in 1997. It does expose what many politicians are like - only interested in votes and in the Labour government years Blair saw no votes in justice for Hillsborough and so did not push it. Hypocrits!! Thank goodness for the courage of Andy Burnham in doing what he did at the 2009 service is all I can say.”
I will never ever have any sympathy for Duckenfield.
His absolute negligence was one of the major causes of this catastrophe.
His lies then compounded this.
My sympathy lies entirely with the families, friends, and with the fans that were slandered.
