“Hillsborough has nothing to do with independence.” That’s what an apologist for Stuart Campbell said to me. Well, I disagree. It has everything to do with it.
What should have been clear to anyone following news of the inquiry is that the Hillsborough tragedy was compounded by the police not coming clean for their mistakes that day. Not only did they not come clean, they spent 27 years blaming the fans, traducing the memory of the victims, and lying about what had happened. Sections of the media joined in. And instead of protecting wronged citizens, the political establishment followed suit. The victims, their families, the Liverpool fans, the city of Liverpool were vilified, ridiculed and dismissed by the establishment. Liverpool became a running gag about a work-shy underclass in perms and shell suits. See my short piece yesterday. See Suzanne Moore’s more expansive piece in the Guardian today.
That was naked class war by the haves on the have nots, in order to protect the powers-that-be. They closed ranks. Not just on one day, but for nearly three decades. And not just for Hillsborough, but on so many occasions that we've heard about, as well, no doubt, as many we haven’t. The whole edifice is rotten.
My support for independence was exactly because of that. It was because I hoped we could start with a clean sheet and do things differently. Not because of where we happen to live, but because people, communities, the over-ruled masses, would be behind that new moment, and we could build something new exactly because we, the people not the elite, would be saying: “We don’t want to do things the same way. This is not just going to be more of the same, but based in Edinburgh”. My participation in the referendum was based on that hope. It’s a hope I still harbour.
But then I see Stuart Campbell, someone who is influential in the pro-independence movement, reacting to the news that the Hillsborough inquiry jury found that the behaviour of the fans played no part in causing or contributing to “the dangerous situation at the Leppings Lane turnstiles” by saying, for example:
“did the police CAUSE anyone's death? No. They just failed to save them from Liverpool fans.”
And “Tell me, who squeezed the air out of their lungs? The police? The Sun? Margaret Thatcher?”
And “My solution is for people not to push each other until they die.”
That’s just a selection. Check his Twitter feed.
My reaction to that is to wonder if an independent Scotland would end up being dominated by people with those sorts of views, those sort of reactions. Because if so, I want no part of it. That’s not just more of the same, because actually the establishment has finally backed down in the face of the truth and appears at long last to be offering up to some sort of justice the police who made those terrible mistakes then covered them up with such an horrific campaign of victim-blaming. No, Campbell is going further: he’s still arguing the toss. He could have said, "actually, I got things wrong", or even simply kept quiet. But no, he’s backing the 27 years of vilification. He’s excusing the Sun, saying they've apologised enough. He’s – graphically and with crass insensitivity – saying the police didn't squeeze the air out of victims’ lungs.
An independent Scotland where the establishment who perpetrated the 27 years of misery for the relatives of the Hillsborough victims, where the establishment who responded to tragedy with naked class vilification is still the dominant force is not something I'm going to campaign for.
Campbell writes a popular blog. Many people have found his analysis useful. But he has no accountability. Don’t get me wrong: he can say what he wants, and can go on saying it. But the problem is that he has done more than just undermine his own credibility here: he has sullied a positive movement. Unless that movement distances itself from his corrosive influence, then it’s in serious danger of more people asking what on earth it is it stands for.
No comments:
Post a Comment