Baroness Thatcher death: Why it's wrong to blame her for Hillsborough tragedy cover-up - JEFF POWELL
At least one Premier League chairman organised a minute's silence before his team's game this weekend.
It will not be held in commemoration of Britain's first and only woman Prime Minister.
Reading play host to Liverpool on Saturday and the home club's John Madejski will lead the remembrance for the 24th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.
However, had the dates not conflicted, he likely would have had football’s traditional 60 seconds of respect paid to Margaret Thatcher.
‘We had already arranged the Hillsborough silence before Baroness Thatcher passed away,’ said Madejski.
‘Otherwise my only qualm about doing this for her might have been the possible reaction of a few hundred people spoiling the occasion.’
He speaks for the rational majority at this historic but complex moment in Britain’s history.
The various attempts to blame Hillsborough on Thatcher are an unwarranted extension of the class warfare which erupted during her time in office.
Tragedy: Mrs Thatcher visited Hillsborough after 96 people were killed in 1989 and was deeply moved
When she went to Sheffield to inspect the scene of the disaster which claimed so many innocent Liverpudlian lives, she was as mortified as all those of us who witnessed that horror and have been scarred by the memory ever since.
But the genesis of that awful day had nothing to do with her. In their utterly comprehensible agony and anger over the loss of their loved ones, the people of Liverpool can be forgiven for viewing the shabby events which followed through the prism of that era’s roots of social unrest.
But Thatcher had nothing to do with the shameful cover-up which they fought so long and hard to expose.
Hillsborough happened in 1989. Thatcher left office in 1990.
The truth: After a campaign last year, more than two decades worth of evidence was revealed
All she did during the intervening months was trust the evidence as presented to her by the police effectively under her control; as any Prime Minister of any political party would have done.
There is plenty of blame to be apportioned for that heart-rending afternoon when the sunshine shone so cruelly on a dark valley of death — and for the obstruction of justice which blighted the ensuing decades.
The Liverpool families should continue to direct their anger at the South Yorkshire Police. Not at the lady who, as I explained in these pages earlier this week, saved football from its turmoil of the 1980s and paved the way towards the all-seat magnificence of the game as it is today.
This weekend, football should be able to remember the 96 poor souls who perished at Hillsborough as well as a great Prime Minister who did so much for the beautiful game.
Snub: There was no tribute for Mrs Thatcher at the Manchester derby on Monday, just hours after her death THE PICTURE THAT PROVES FOOTBALL CAN SAY FAREWELL WITH DIGNITY...On 30 January 1965, West Ham hosted Chelsea in the fourth round of the FA Cup at Upton Park. The match finished 1-0 to Chelsea after a goal from Bobby Tambling, but beforehand a minute's silence took place in memory of Sir Winston Churchill, Britain's greatest wartime leader, who was buried on the same day in a full state funeral.
Among those to play that day were Martin Peters, a World Cup winner with England, and Terry Venables, a future England manager.
West Ham line-up
Jim Standen
Joe Kirkup
John Bond
Ken Brown
Martin Peters
Ronnie Boyce
Eddie Bovington
John Sissons
Alan Sealey
Johnny Byrne
Tony Scott
Chelsea line-upPeter Bonetti
Ron Harris
Marvin Hinton
John Mortimore
Johnny Boyle
Terry Venables
John Hollins
Bert Murray
Bobby Tambling
Barry Bridges
George Graham
More... The only silence should be for Hillsborough, claims Liverpool boss Rodgers as row over Baroness Thatcher tribute rumbles on Minute's silence for Thatcher would be 'a disgrace and an insult to all fans', say Hillsborough Family Support Group
