Hillsborough and The Last Free Cat
The damning verdict on the police and their actions during and after the Hillsborough stadium tragedy has only confirmed what survivors and relatives of the deceased knew all along. But the nature and extent of the police cover-up has surprised millions more. Let's hope this will lead to a reexamination of decades of other cases of criminal police behaviour, from deaths in custody to attacks on legal demonstrations: police behaviour at Hillsborough was not an exception but the norm. Covering up illegal or oppressive acts (and frequently blaming the victims) is what the police do, not only in the UK but across the world. They do this secure in the knowledge that the powers-that-be will collude in the cover-ups. Why? Because when it comes down to it, the police are the private security force of the rich and powerful, fundamental to safeguarding their privileges and attacking their enemies.
The Last Free Cat has been described as a dystopia but much of what it describes is based on my own experiences of the here and now. One such experience - an anti-BNP march in Welling in 1993 - could well have turned into another Hillsborough were it not for the bravery of demonstrators facing down the Met.
The police had agreed a route with demo organisers and at first everything proceeded normally: the protest was militant but disciplined and stuck to the agreed route. However, as demonstrators came down a narrow road, walled on both sides, the police formed a barrier at the front of the march and began to attack it, using truncheons and horses. Protestors fought back: if they hadn't, and the horses had stampeded through, I believe there is a real probability people would have been crushed to death.
Next day the papers were predictably full of photos of the rioting protesters, together with the usual knocking copy. The state had chosen to do the fascists a favour, not unusually, as the far right will always return it by dividing workers and deflecting anger away from the rich and powerful and onto various minorities.
The Last Free Cat is, I hope, an entertaining and convincing story, not a political lecture, but political realities certainly inform it and, indeed, give it its conviction and purpose. A writer can't fake conviction, and without it, to me, no writer is of much interest, which is why supposed greats like Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan etc do not inhabit my bookshelves. None are worth a fraction of those fantastic people who fought so long for justice for the victims of Hillsborough.
The Last Free Cat has been described as a dystopia but much of what it describes is based on my own experiences of the here and now. One such experience - an anti-BNP march in Welling in 1993 - could well have turned into another Hillsborough were it not for the bravery of demonstrators facing down the Met.
The police had agreed a route with demo organisers and at first everything proceeded normally: the protest was militant but disciplined and stuck to the agreed route. However, as demonstrators came down a narrow road, walled on both sides, the police formed a barrier at the front of the march and began to attack it, using truncheons and horses. Protestors fought back: if they hadn't, and the horses had stampeded through, I believe there is a real probability people would have been crushed to death.
Next day the papers were predictably full of photos of the rioting protesters, together with the usual knocking copy. The state had chosen to do the fascists a favour, not unusually, as the far right will always return it by dividing workers and deflecting anger away from the rich and powerful and onto various minorities.
The Last Free Cat is, I hope, an entertaining and convincing story, not a political lecture, but political realities certainly inform it and, indeed, give it its conviction and purpose. A writer can't fake conviction, and without it, to me, no writer is of much interest, which is why supposed greats like Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan etc do not inhabit my bookshelves. None are worth a fraction of those fantastic people who fought so long for justice for the victims of Hillsborough.
No comments have been added yet.
