David Craig, on April 8th, 2014In spite of today’s ‘everyone is a victim’ and ‘nobody is responsible for anything’ society, I’m having trouble accepting the wailing and howling of a few recent supposed ‘victims’.
Firstly Oscar Pistorius This is a man with almost superhuman willpower which has enabled him to overcome a terrible handicap. Yet day after day, we see him weeping and moaning and making out almost as if he is the victim of the ghastly situation he is now in. I’ve no idea and no opinion on whether he is guilty or not. But I am troubled by his performance and worried that it possibly reflects careful coaching in acting by his defence team rather than genuine emotion. Does Oscar deserve an Oscar? I don’t know, but I find his ‘victim’ status disturbing.
Then there’s Hillsborough As my family is from Liverpool, I am well-acquainted with Liverpudlians’ almost infinite ability to play the aggrieved victim, whatever the circumstances. I can believe the police and emergency services misjudged the situation, bungled their intervention and then did a cover-up. But if wretched, drunken, violent, feral Liverpool football fans hadn’t caused trouble in the first place, then there would have been no deaths and no cover-up. So the families’ claimed ‘victim’ status constantly repeated by the media worries me.
Moreover, I find it deeply troubling that Liverpool supporters were also involved in (responsible for?) that other appalling football disaster – at Heysel Stadium in Belgium where 39 Heysel fans were killed and about 400 injured. Coincidence? Or an indication that the Liverpool supporters are not quite the innocent victims they and their families portray them to be? (click to see more clearly)
And now, I’ll probably lose almost all my readers with this, but both I and the people I’ve talked to about this find it more than disappointing that less than one in ten readers of this site have shown support for my work by buying copies of my latest book DON’T BUY IT! Maybe that’s just how things are in today’s Britain? Or am I just playing the aggrieved victim and the real problem is that my books simply aren’t interesting enough for people to want to buy them? Who knows? But here’s an email I received a couple of days ago:
Mr Craig
Loved your new book – will write a favourable review on Amazon later today. I will also send a couple to friends. Keep up the good work – nil bastardi carborundum!!
Kind regards
So, maybe it’s not my books that are the problem?
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David. Expect your blog to be visited by an army of outraged Liverpool fans demanding an apology! (Perhaps they can order a copy of your book while they are here). You are right though, and I’ve had this discussion many times over the years with Liverpool fans. They will not take one shred of responsibility for Hillsborough where in fact, many people contributed to the event and the subsequent cover up was a real disgrace.
People were crushed in the Heysel stadium while panicking and trying to escape rampaging Liverpool fans. The Scousers seem to have done a good job in re-writing history to make it look like a problem with the stadium, but the fact is that large numbers of Liverpool fans were out of control and hell bent on trouble. Strange that the victims of Heysel do not seem to remembered a great deal at Anfield.
As a football fan, I watched both events on TV and along with the Bradford fire, have been haunted by the images of people like me, who go to a match for enjoyment, being hurt and killed. It’s always frustrated me over the years that the media have let the Liverpool fans get away with taking any responsibility for their actions which led to fatal accidents. Everybody knows that these accidents would not have happened if the fans had been civilised, but the aggressively vocal scousers will shout down anybody who suggests so.
That said, full credit to the families who have fought for the enquiry. The cover up and corruption by the establishment needs to be exposed.
I read somewhere that the Sun sells very few copies in Liverpool, due to their reporting of the incident. I wasn’t there, so I cannot be sure, but my best guess is a large mob of fans, mainly drunk, tried to storm the turnstiles just before kick off in order to get in free. I’ve seen Liverpool fans do this at other stadia. That said, the cover up was a disgrace and the police and emergency services should have realised the danger and acted accordingly. We’ll never be sure, but I suspect there are quite a few Liverpool fans who know what happened.
BTW your new book is next on my list.
I was there. People arrived late due to major road works, joining the people outside the turnstiles. Some fans who had managed to get to Sheffield early had been to the pubs in the area, which was normal then and is normal now. Having a couple of pints and heading to a stadium to see the game and gaining access safely, even on late arrival, was a common event during the terrace stadium days. But, what happened that day could have been prevented by better police practice and better stewarding. Nobody was trying to storm the turnstiles. Thousands of ticket holders became stuck outside the Leppings Lane end, due to the small number of entrances being unable to cope with the sudden and late arrivals. The police lost control of the situation. The order was given by the police to open a exit gate to let people in, to relieve the crowd pressure outside. The stadium was unable to deal with the surge through the gate, with people being forced down the tunnel behind the goal. The pen behind the goal overfilled and people where crushed to death. So in my opinion, the fans could not be blamed for what happened in anyway. Poor organisation of policing outside and inside the ground was very evident on the day. The lack of medical services at the stadium. A couple of ambulances allowed to the seat of the crush, with many, many more lined up in the road outside not given permission to go onto the pitch. All of theses factors caused this terrible event.
With regards to the Heysel tragedy. 12 months before in Rome, Liverpool fans, including many women and children had been attacked by Roma fans on exiting the stadium. Concrete and other items had been hurled down on them from a road above, injuring many fans. At Heysel a lot of Liverpool supporters had talked of not letting the Italians off if they began trouble this time. Outside Heysel a number of Italians had slashed Liverpool fans with knives across the legs and backsides. Inside the stadium, zone Z was due to be a neutral area, next to the Liverpool fans. Infact it was almost full with Italians. With a small number of English in there. They came under attack from some Juventus fans. This was seen by Liverpool fans across the chicken wire fence. The Liverpool fans then charged at the Italians. They backed away causing many, many fans to be forced against the wall, which gave way. In my opinion our fans should not have charged, they should have let the police deal with the issues in zone Z. But, my feeling is the crowd had reacted due to the previous years events and incidents on the day.
What happened at both stadiums could have been prevented. Better policing at both. The wrong stadiums had been selected. Both where antiquated. The ticket allocations by the 2 football bodies left a lot to be desired. Segregation at Heysel. The larger Liverpool following at Hillsborough should have had the larger Kop end, with many more turnstiles.
So for those who have posted above, get your facts right. Don’t comment on what you don’t fully know about. Liverpool fans attend all memorials held in Turin and at Heysel. Plus, Liverpool FC and our city council always send people to attend. The people of Liverpool never forgot those lost at Hillsborough and equally we will never forget the Juventus fans lost in Belguim.
That comment above just shut everyone down haha by the way no one buys your book because It’s s**t you can’t go off one review and take it for fact, if one person says West Brom are the best football team in the world does that make it fact? Don’t be mad cuz no ones buying your book dude, just aim to be less full of s**t and then maybe 2 out of 10 readers will buy it. Also genius linking heysel and hillsborough together i’m sure it must of taken all of your intelligence to put 2+2 together wooiiiii oiiiiii chimmy chengaaa out peace!