Jimmy Shannon

For those supporting our work for a Public Office Accountability Bill, there is STILL no update. It has been 19 weeks since the report stage of the Bill was cancelled and 4 weeks since we had any correspondence with the PM. We have repeatedly asked the PMs team for a meaningful update, with a specific ask on any progress that has been made with the Bill and sadly have been met with no response. What was a good working relationship is now depleting Campaigners who have been good enough to share their lived experience and trauma, travelling up and down to London, giving evidence at the Bill committee and working with Ministers to get this right are no longer being updated. This whole process is extremely frustrating and incredibly insulting to those who have offered up their time and expertise! Twice this Bill has been pledged in the King's speech! Our position remains the same - a Public Office Accountability Bill in its entirety! Candour should not be optional for those in positions or trust or power! We are close to Parliament breaking for summer recess - please do think of us whilst you all holiday and our lives remain on hold! How much more pressure and convincing does this government need to fulfil a promise that was in its manifesto!! #PublicOfficeAccountabilityBill #HillsboroughLaw #HillsboroughLawNow #DutyofCandour

On the 19th April 1989, just 4 days after the #Hillsboroughdisaster, this was the headline that The S*n chose to release. Some of the dead had only been formerly identified for less than 72 hours, their bodies still lying in mortuaries, the bereaved completely broken, and around 766 survivors were beyond traumatised & injured. The headline was approved by the then editor Kelvin Mackenzie, who argued that his only mistake was trusting his "source," conservative MP Irvine Patnick. Mackenzie originally wanted to use the headline "You Scum," but apparently, others convinced him to change it! The headline led to protests and a boycott in Merseyside. Sales of the rag dropped all over the UK, but they still refused to apologise and withdraw their disgusting allegations. Around 20 of the rags "journalists" were sent to Liverpool and Sheffield to find negative information about Liverpool fans and victims of the crush. ▫️Some "journalists" impersonated concerned family members, priests, and social workers to gain access to the hospital bedsides of the injured and obtain information from hospital staff ▫️Some entered the home of Anne Williams, uninvited ▫️Some blackmailed the family of a deceased teenager, telling them that if they didn't give a photograph of him, they would use an image of him in hospital on life support against their wishes ▫️some "journalists" harassed families like mine, waiting in our street for us to leave the house. Hiding behind cars, which meant I had to be taken to school late and be picked up early to avoid them getting my photograph. I was 6 years old. ▫️other "journalists" photographed funerals despite being asked not to. Whilst we know the lies started with Duckenfield as he watched the disaster unfold from the police control box, The S*n enabled South Yorkshire Police Force to continue to lie. It enabled West Midlands Police force to continue to build on those foundations for the Cover Up. Although a majority didn't believe it, some did, and others continue to do so today. This headline tarnished families, survivors, Liverpool fans, the city, and more appallingly, it tarnished the dead. It is 1 of the direct causes for tragedy chanting and death mocking. It enabled "professionals" to lie and cover up within their own organisation, and it was directly responsible for torment and mental suffering of bereaved families and survivors. It is my understanding that disgusting headline, cause some survivors to take their own lives. And yet NOBODY from Whites News Agency, Sheffield, nor Mackenzie, nor Patrick Irvine or any of the "journalists" who went to disgusting measures to intrude on other peoples suffering or grief, have ever been held to account. This is one of many reasons for @NowHillsborough We have recently seen at the Nottingham inquiry that the police force response for abhorrent failings tried to silence the media to stop the exposure of their grossly negligent failures. A Hillsborough Law would have seen the "journalists" from the S*n, held to account for their misleading information. It would have given Mackenzie & Irvine a legal duty of candour. Hopefully a Leveson 2 may come...... But until then this your reminder of the power of lies, misinformation and why we #DontBuyTheSun #JFT97 #HillsboroughLawNow