Hillsborough: Why Today Matters

'I reckon is was a 50/50 thing. Mistakes obviously happened with the Police, but fans were drunk and trying to force their way in without tickets, so it was partly their fault too.'

A former work colleague of mine once made this remark to me during a conversation about the Hillsborough disaster. Like the vast majority of the public, he had never read the findings of the Taylor report. He had never poured over the excellent book by Phil Scratton or read Anne Williams' publication about the evidence regarding her son Kevin's death that contradicts the 'official' verdict on his passing. He had never visited the eternal flame, watched documentaries on the disaster or listened to those who were there and suffered the ignominy of the ensuing, slanderous cover up. He wasn't a bad person and his comments weren't laced with venom or hatred. He was merely a supporter of another football club, young, and didn't really care enough about the disaster to have educated his obvious ignorance. Hillsborough wasn't his thing. He was just another football fan, just another person who thought he knew enough about what transpired on April 15 1989.

In reality, he knew nothing. He had formed his ideas upon the notion that 'where there is smoke there is fire'. The Sun newspaper, the lies of some Police and the government's subsequent cover up of the tragedy meant that, even after all these years, all the half-hearted retractions buried on page 7 of Murdoch's tabloid and the investigations exonerating fans of any wrong doing, my former colleague, just like a healthy portion of the public still believed that somehow, innocent people were to blame on that fateful day in 1989.

As I reeled off some facts about the disaster and tried to set him straight, I could see that my words were only partially heard and viewed with scepticism. He wasn't going to go home and research the disaster any further and even my impassioned argument and obvious disdain for his comment wasn't going to change that. I was exasperated and frustrated. I have no idea how I'd have felt if I'd been directly affected by Hillsborough. If I'd lost a loved one, knew someone that had been injured or even been present myself that day, I can't imagine the pain, disgust, anger and helplessness I'd have felt as a person I liked and worked with let out such a statement as 'it's partly their fault too'.

This is why the documents that will finally be released later today are so important and this is why it matters to me and you.

Today could be the moment that the vast majority of doubts, misinformed ignorance, prejudice and spiteful lies finally vanish into the ether. The families affected by the tragedy are hoping that the Hillsborough Independent Panel's (HIP) report today will finally shed light on the cover up regarding the disaster and that that will ultimately lead to a retraction of the 'accidental death' verdict and an official apology from the government. Some hope for prosecution for those who were responsible for the inadequate treatment that their loved ones received during their last moments. For all the good that thousands of people have done to aid the cause of the families and the survivors, those two disgusting words 'THE TRUTH' that Kelvin McKenzie allowed to be splashed across the Sun's front page and the lies that spread like wildfire from the Police all those years ago still speak loudest to the uninformed, the uninterested, the wilfully ignorant and the prejudiced people of this nation. Today represents the best chance yet to right some of these many wrongs.

The families are as close now as they have ever been to exposing the lies that have blighted their existences over the past two decades yet they are also nervous and wary that another fudge may take place and they will again be left in limbo with nowhere else to turn (23 years of fighting unsuccessfully inevitably brings with it a huge dollop of cynicism). They have been here before and been sent packing but this time it feels different. Hopefully today they will receive a huge part of the peace that they deserve. It isn't right that people have had to live with the added pain of the Hillsborough lies, cover ups and the lack of accountability for those at fault for all this time. Losing their loved ones was pain enough.

If the report from the HIP today exposes the lies and cover ups of Hillsborough to the masses, then it will be headline news and will provide vindication for the families' campaign for Justice that has lasted far too long. Only then will people like my former work colleague stop unashamedly peddling the hurtful myths created in the aftermath of the disaster.