The new Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has come under fire today after casually suggesting that football hooliganism was responsible for the Hillsborough disaster.
In an interview with Sky News, he said:
[A]s a minister, I was incredibly encouraged by the example set by the England fans, I mean not a single arrest for a football-related offensive, and the terrible problems that we had in Heysel and Hillsborough in the 1980s seem now to be behind us. And I think, you know, there is small grounds for encouragement there even though obviously we are very disappointed about the result.
Hunt’s ignorant comments are at odds with the conclusions of the 1990 Taylor report, which ruled that poor crowd control, not the behaviour of Liverpool fans, was to blame for the disaster.
The Tory minister’s remarks will revive memories of the claims made by Kelvin MacKenize’s Sun newspaper, which, on the Wednesday after the disaster, alleged that Liverpool fans had picked the pockets of the dead, urinated on police officers and attacked rescue workers.
To this day, many Liverpool newsagents refuse to stock the Sun; the tabloid lost more than three-quarters of its sales in the city.
Hunt has since apologised for his comments, but it’s troubling that the minister responsible for sport was apparently unaware that claims of hooliganism were disproved long ago.
For a more enlightened take on the subject, read Andrew Hussey’s essay from our special issue on 1989 — “the year of the crowd”.
UPDATE: Andy Burnham, who memorably represented the government at Anfield on the 20th anniversary of the disaster, has tweeted: “How sad 2 hear Cab Min echo old slurs on Hboro. Need more than apology — he must give full support 2 discl panel. Full truth & nothing less.”
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