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MacKenzie

Mark Thomas

Tuesday, December 12th, 2006

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Mr. Mackenzie, do you sleep well at night?
Those left behind don’t, try as they ever might
Your deeds for that ‘paper, so vile and uncouth
Forever tainted by lies, dressed up as “The Truth”

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 A litany of invention and your vicious words spread
Some fans picked the pockets of our beloved dead
Words that cut through us like an old jagged knife
Some fans beat a policeman, giving the kiss of life

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Reading is believing and judgement without escape
Front page accusations, we wanted necrophilic rape
Now a lifetime of misery, a futile search for peace
Some fans urinated on the brave Yorkshire police

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 Why can you not see, the heartache and the pain?
Your only claim to fame, peddled again and again
Not sorry then, not sorry now, return to media glare
You will never know because you were never there

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 A source of family pride? You evil, loathsome liar
At Anfield burns eternal, our flame of golden fire
As the good await the toll of the glorious justice bell
You’ll never see heaven; they wouldn’t have you in hell

Notes

Kelvin MacKenzie bears direct responsibility for the notorious front-page headline and story which appeared in the Sun a few days after the Hillsborough tragedy. He shaped the story, even though the reporter, who pulled the copy together, Harry Arnold, warned him: ‘We’ve got to be really careful with this stuff. These are only allegations we’re reporting, you know.’ MacKenzie assured him: ‘I know that. It’s all right, Harry. Don’t worry. I’m going to put in “some fans”.’

Despite the findings of The Taylor Report and his own subsequent admission that the story was untrue, he was recently quoted as saying “I wasn’t sorry then and I’m not sorry now.”

Justice For The 96.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/mackenzie/