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John Bishop on Hillsborough: "What the families want, what everyone wants, is accountability"

John Bishop joined Saturday's Off the Ball to discuss his career, politics and the recent develop...



John Bishop on Hillsborough: &...
Soccer

John Bishop on Hillsborough: "What the families want, what everyone wants, is accountability"

John Bishop joined Saturday's Off the Ball to discuss his career, politics and the recent developments in relation to the Hillsborough disaster.

Speaking to Ger Gilroy and Nathan Murphy, he said: "I can't comment for the families on what they've been through. I can only talk about it from my perspective as a fan. Obviously I know a number of them and I've been involved with the campaigns both publicly and privately. It's heartbreaking to imagine, as you said, such institutional failure. 

"We're football supporters and you've got to remember at the time that it happened - there was the Thatcher government and there was the idea that standing on the terraces, the hooliganism and the fences and all the rest of it that existed - it only existed because football supporters were regarded as less worthy than other sports. 

"If that event, if that thing had happened at an international rugby match at Twickenham - there's no way it would have taken 28 years to find someone potentially responsible. At the moment, people are getting charged. What the families want, what everyone wants, is accountability. 

Margaret Aspinall (centre) speaks to the media outside Parr Hall, Warrington. Picture by: Peter Byrne/PA Wire/PA Images

"It's took enormous tenacity and bravery for them to keep on going when everybody, and I mean successive governments, Labour and Conservative, have been saying, 'ah come on, you've made your noise, let's brush it under the carpet'. That'a an insult to basic humanity and I think it says a lot about them as people that they've done it. The families and the survivors are now getting some sense of, I'd imagine, some degree of resolution.

"You'll never be fully resolved, you'll never get closure on it and unfortunately, some people have not lived long enough to see the start of this and that's what's heart-breaking."

The full interview can be heard here:

John Bishop on Hillsborough: "What the families want, what everyone wants, is accountability"

00:00:00 / 00:00:00

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