Flannelled Fool Hillsborough Smear Fail

Right now, the favourite for that coveted Christmas number one slot is a remake of the late 60s Hollies hit He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother, recorded under the auspices of The Justice Collective. Artists have come together to play their part in a recording whose proceeds will go towards the legal costs of those families of Liverpool FC supporters who lost their lives at Hillsborough.

Hillsborough memorial at Anfield

Also taking part is local MP Steve Rotheram, whose Walton constituency includes both Anfield and Everton, and who swapped his ticket for the Leppings Lane end of Hillsborough stadium for a stand seat shortly before kick-off that fateful Saturday afternoon in 1989. There but for the grace of God and all that. He has been a tireless advocate to get Justice For The 96 – those who died.

I can call MPs what I like, cos I'm on telly!

But not everyone out there is supportive of Rotheram, particularly the rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog, and especially the odious flannelled fool Henry Cole, who has already fallen into the gutter in his attempts to discredit the MP. Now he has, of his own volition, tumbled from gutter to sewer as he continues his abuse of Rotheram in an attempt to get a reaction and thus more attention.

“No prizes for guessing who the only person smiling in the Hillsborough charity video was, eh?” sneers the snooty and insensitive Cole in a Tweet accompanied by a video still showing Rotheram, er, not smiling. But let’s cut the talking bogbrush a little slack here: maybe Rotheram has been smiling where others have not in the promotion of this track? Let’s check that out.

Sadly, no, Rotheram is not the only one happy to see the potentially significant benefit for relatives of all those dead fans whose memory was so shamefully trashed back in 1989 and who have had to fight so hard and for so long to get where they are today. For starters, former Liverpool player and manager Kenny Dalglish was also smiling when promoting the single.

And as can be seen here, rather a lot of people were smiling at the release of the song today, and not just Steve Rotheram. That anyone is so low to even think that the MP is in this for himself either knows nothing about the Hillsborough tragedy, nothing about the city of Liverpool, nothing about Steve Rotheram, or in the case of the flannelled fool, most likely all three.

Worse, he probably doesn’t give a damn that he is so ignorant of a subject on which he pretends to be knowledgeable, however tangentially. Perhaps his best pal (yes, it’s her again) Nadine Dorries could put him straight on matters Merseyside before he makes himself as popular in Liverpool as his hero Boris, and the Sun newspaper. Or perhaps he considers Liverpudlians beneath him.

After all, they generally don’t do serial dishonesty so well. Another fine mess.