Eamonn Sweeney: Hillsborough disaster was the rotten culmination of a rotten decade in England

"Margaret Thatcher was one of the main culprits for the Hillsborough disaster."

"She wasn't named as such in the report delivered last week by the final inquiry into the tragic events of April 1989. But the behaviour of the police which led to 97 deaths, the subsequent cover-up and the smearing of the dead by The Sun newspaper were rooted in the political climate she created."

Margaret Thatcher was not formally named as responsible, yet the political climate she created is identified as underpinning the actions that led to the Hillsborough tragedy in April 1989. Police behaviour at the match led to 97 deaths, and authorities engaged in a subsequent cover-up that shifted blame away from institutional failures. The Sun newspaper amplified that smear by publishing damaging falsehoods about the dead and the bereaved, intensifying public misinformation and pain. The combination of aggressive policing culture, political rhetoric, and tabloid vilification contributed to both the disaster's causes and the prolonged injustice experienced by victims' families.

Read at Independent