For those of you who live outside the UK you may not be aware that a 3 hour debate took place in the House of Commons this evening on the subject of the release of all papers relating to the events of 15 April 1989.
The Government has agreed to release ALL papers unredacted (nothing hidden) to the Hillsborough Family Panel and they will decide what details will be redacted. In all likelihood this will only involve personal details of the victims that would cause further distress if they were made public. The Government has promised they will not redact
any papers.
This is a highly significant evening. I watched a fair amount of the debate on the BBC Parliament channel. The opening speech by Steve Rotheram drew applause from the floor which is virtually unprecendented. It was an outstanding speech that will long be remembered. He concluded by reading out the names of all 96 victims.
You can hear it in full on the Liverpool FC website. If you haven't heard it please find time to listen.
The Sun and especially Kelvin McKenzie came in for particularly strong criticism and it will be interesting to see how that newspaper responds. I wouldn't expect McKenzie to respond.
I hope this will bring the families some comfort and over the weeks and months to come they can learn the truth about what happened to their loved ones on that terrible day.