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Thatcher at Hillsborough the day after the disaster in 1989 Phil O'Brien/EMPICS Sport

Documents reveal Thatcher was wrongly told 'drunk fans' caused Hillsborough

Documents disclosed by the BBC detail the views of senior police officers at the time that Liverpool fans had caused the 1989 stadium disaster when an inquiry later found the failure of police crowd control had been the main cause.

LEAKED DOCUMENTS HAVE revealed that then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was told that a senior police officer believed that “drunken Liverpool fans” caused the Hillsborough stadium disaster in 1989.

The official cause of the disaster was found to have been the failure of crowd control by the South Yorkshire Police force on 15 April 1989 which led to a crush that killed 96 Liverpool FC supporters and injured hundreds more at the Sheffield stadium.

In documents obtained by the BBC, briefings by the then chief constable of Merseyside Police, Ken Oxford, to the Prime Minister stated that it was his belief that “a key factor” of the disaster “was the fact that large numbers of Liverpool fans had turned up without tickets.”

The documents also disclose that the Prime Minster was told that another senior member of Merseyside Police, who is unidentified, directly blamed supporters. He was reported to have 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.”

The BBC’s World at One programme says that the documents they have seen are mostly letters to and from 10 Downing Street and cabinet minutes that Thatcher was discussing and being told about in the immediate aftermath of the worst stadium disaster in British football history.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Sheila Coleman from the Hillsborough Justice Campaign said that the timing of the release of the documents was “interesting”.

“Who leaked the information? It’s strange that the minutes only mention Merseyside Police and not South Yorkshire Police. The negative comments of Merseyside police have now made for spectacularly defamatory headlines,” she said.

“This is clearly a diversion. Is it a useful diversion for the government and a smokescreen against the true facts coming out?”

Document review

Margaret Aspinall, who lost her son James in the disaster, told BBC Radio 4 earlier today that she found the disclosure of the police officers’ views at the time of the disaster to be “rather appalling”.

An independent panel established nearly three years ago has been reviewing hundreds of documents related to the disaster but these are not expected to be made public until later this year, later than was previously thought.

Last October, British MPs voted for the release of all documents relating to the disaster with one former senior government minister describing the withholding of the cabinet documents as “one of the biggest injustices of the 20th century.”

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, South Yorkshire Police conspired to cover up their failings and shift the blame on supporters even though an independent inquiry later found the blame rested primarily with the inadequacies of policing on the day and the dilapidated stadium.

The documents also disclose that the independent inquiry, chaired by Lord Justice Taylor, was  the subject of some dissatisfaction within the government of the day.

The documents today reveal that the Thatcher government was frustrated that Taylor would not adapt the inquiry to their timetable for pushing through legislation to introduce an identity card scheme for all football fans in Britain, an idea that was later scrapped.

Coleman added: “The papers also reveal that Margaret Thatcher and her government were more concerned with the potential damage that would be done to the proposed Football Spectators Bill than they were with establishing the true facts of the disaster.”

For more, read the BBC News website >

Read: 100,000 sign petition for Hillsborough documents to be released

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20 Comments
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    Mute Johnny
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    Oct 14th 2014, 10:58 AM

    Can never understand people who are willing to pay slightly more for peroni. It is definitely not a superior beer, is bland and hails from a region far from renowned for their brewing skills. so why fall for the marketing and the fancy tap?

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    Mute David Cullen
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    Oct 14th 2014, 11:03 AM

    It’s a good bottle of beer, better than others on offer in most pubs. On tap it’s rubbish.

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    Mute Roland 303
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    Oct 14th 2014, 11:05 AM

    Not a huge fan of Nastro Azzuro myself but Peroni red label is a class beer. Would be my number 1, followed by Starapramen and Budvar.

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    Mute jason bourne
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    Oct 14th 2014, 11:05 AM

    I love peroni. Lovely rich smooth taste and I don’t seem to have as bad a hangover the next day for some reason. There are some places where it’s on a par, price wise, with hinekan, bud etc

    32
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    Mute Johnny
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    Oct 14th 2014, 11:06 AM

    But still worth paying a bit extra for? I’m not convinced.

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    Mute David Thomas
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    Oct 14th 2014, 11:25 AM

    All these so called “premium beers” are often just the standard lagers in their own country. I have some Italian friends and they say peroni is one of the cheaper lagers in Italy.

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    Mute thetruth
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    Oct 14th 2014, 11:38 AM

    Roland. Try morretti especiale. Blows the nastro out of the water. Fantastic beer

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    Mute Johnny
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    Oct 14th 2014, 11:45 AM

    That’s completely true David. Seem to have a lot more red thumbs than expected. I can find no reason why it would be priced above Heineken or carlsberg. Or even carling/fosters for that matter. It’s pretty much the same style beer using similar techniques for mass production. It doesn’t use any special ingredients, maybe perhaps a bit more alcohol content but this shouldn’t be enough for the price hike. Perhaps I’ve turned into a beer nerd over the past years with my preference for German Weiss and local craft beers but even these compare in price more favourably than peroni and these are definitely far superior. I guess tastes vary so people will have their own opinion. I for one won’t fall for the marketing. Well at least not that marketing

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    Mute Shane Kinsella
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    Oct 14th 2014, 12:35 PM

    Peroni is a far a nicer beer than the usual shite we get over here, like the bud and Heineken crap.

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    Mute thetruth
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    Oct 14th 2014, 1:00 PM

    A few great beers ive come across in the last yr or so. St. Mels are lovely and so are mc graths. Very good craft beers

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    Mute Raymond Connolly
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    Oct 14th 2014, 11:11 AM

    Beer….. My one weakness.

    34
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    Mute Seán A Haon
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    Oct 14th 2014, 1:51 PM

    The cause of and solution to all of life’s problems.

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    Mute Very fond of
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    Oct 14th 2014, 11:27 AM

    Bottle of Grolsch = a thing of beauty.

    27
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    Mute Karl Johnston
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    Oct 14th 2014, 11:24 AM

    Italian beer……… hahaha haha. :-/

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    Mute tax slave
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    Oct 14th 2014, 12:03 PM

    Thy make great pizza them Italians but don’t know about there beer tho

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    Mute Range Rover P38
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    Oct 14th 2014, 2:03 PM

    Red Peroni = no hangover.

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