SJM - Minutes silence vs Liverpool

[Elm Park Pasty]

I have a feeling that we normally publicise these sort of things a few days before the game, so I would presume the press office probably had their release ready to go this afternoon or tomorrow when Sir John went and put his size nines through it.

I guess I'm not sure whether we should have a minute's silence for Hillsborough, Liverpool had one against West Ham, we are the home team, it was the 24th anniversary rather than a symbolic date (such as 25th, 30th or 50th) but then it is the first anniversary since the findings of the group that looked into it. And what they have said all along was true (no matter how much a scouse accent still makes me want to explode!). And Hillsborough played a large part in ensuring that we can watch football now the way we can, open expansive stadiums with minimal fencing and a seat for everyone, so on balance I would say it was fair we had one this year. I remember watching the footage of that game live and on the news that evening, and remember how upsetting it was. That wasn't a way for anyone to die, life squeezed out of you as you are powerless to do anything about it, 96 people who just went to watch a football match and never came home.

As for Thatcher? Not sure she should have a minute's silence, should any politician irrespective of their political views? She did a lot for this country no doubt, but she didn't always go about it the right way, and towards the end she was just off on one. I am not going to dance on her grave, and I find the glee of some people utterly distasteful. Fine if you hate her but she's dead, what more do you want?

[MouldyRoyal]

Surly it's simple, hold a joint silence for the victims of Hillsborough and Lady T?

That way the mongs in the crowd won't know what to do and will probably spend 60 seconds staring at their shoes in silence.

Delightful.

The Liverpool fans would just spend the minute chanting about Justice for the 96 so it wouldn't work.

[Norfolk Royal]

Surly it's simple, hold a joint silence for the victims of Hillsborough and Lady T?

That way the mongs in the crowd won't know what to do and will probably spend 60 seconds staring at their shoes in silence.

Delightful.

There's an obvious way to solve it.

Before the match starts we have a minute's silence for the victims of Lady T, and a minute's silence for the victims of Hillsborough before the second half starts.

[Z175]

SJM shouldn't have said this before the Liverpool match, its irresponsible as it will incite Liverpool and create a tinderbox situation.

I dont agree with most minutes silences/applauses at football matches, they should be reserved for relevant ones like where a STH died in Upton Nervet after the previous home match or the passing of certain ex-players. It loses its poignancy if you do it 19 times a season. So it would be a bit odd to honur politicians, but its even more strange for it being a few days after 24 years after the Hillsborough disaster.

That said I get the impression we are going to be treated to political offensive chants all game long from Liverpool fans, with the fans of the Socialist Republic of Reading joining in, so its already been politicised.

But isn't Reading somewhere that gained under Thatcher? I would assume that in 2013 Reading is surely a nicer place than in 1979, so perhaps we should, in ther interest of balance, show that if Liverpool suffered with redundant dockers, Reading gained something like massive employment , numerous jobs in IT, finance, property etc . This is tongue in cheek as I was only 4 when Thatcher left office, so don't really have an opinion on her, Snowball, perhaps you can explain your stance? Why don't prosperous Berkshire pensioners with ipads owe something to Thatcherism? Were you born ooop north?!

[Norfolk Royal]

SJM shouldn't have said this before the Liverpool match, its irresponsible as it will incite Liverpool and create a tinderbox situation.

I dont agree with most minutes silences/applauses at football matches, they should be reserved for relevant ones like where a STH died in Upton Nervet after the previous home match or the passing of certain ex-players. It loses its poignancy if you do it 19 times a season. So it would be a bit odd to honur politicians, but its even more strange for it being a few days after 24 years after the Hillsborough disaster.

That said I get the impression we are going to be treated to political offensive chants all game long from Liverpool fans, with the fans of the Socialist Republic of Reading joining in, so its already been politicised.

But isn't Reading somewhere that gained under Thatcher? I would assume that in 2013 Reading is surely a nicer place than in 1979, so perhaps we should, in ther interest of balance, show that if Liverpool suffered with redundant dockers, Reading gained something like massive employment , numerous jobs in IT, finance, property etc . This is tongue in cheek as I was only 4 when Thatcher left office, so don't really have an opinion on her, Snowball, perhaps you can explain your stance? Why don't prosperous Berkshire pensioners with ipads owe something to Thatcherism? Were you born ooop north?!

Maybe all iPad owners should break into a minute's applause at a given moment on Saturday.

[peterroyal76]

YNWA

Most pathetic song in football these days. Song itself is mediocre, gets cringeworthy when they sing it in a football stadium.
It's like some team singing Justin Bieber songs 30 years down the road.

least they have a unique song

What's unique about it, whenever you pass some shitty karaoke bar there'll be some drunk 60-year-old harping it out..
It's about as unique as "hit me baby one more time".[/quote]

What's unique about them singing it? Those other oxf*rd's celoltic sing it too.

[peterroyal76]

Britian now >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Britain in 1979

To be honest I think you should all just say thank you.

This.

Lets not forget she got rid of hooliganism, so that you can enjoy your mozzarella and pesto baguette.

[sandman]

http://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/article/silence-for-the-96-090413-763022.aspx

Haven't we done enough this season? The scarves at the memorial and then the YNWA song after the truth came out. I think this is a joint Thatcher/Hillborough minute so the Liverpool fans can't boo.

It is also rather selective, as an earlier poster pointed out nobody discusses the Heysel disaster or any of the unneccessary deaths caused then. Deaths which still leave Juventus fans bitter and have likely led to some of the hostility to English sides playing in Turin in recent years (stabings, assault...).

So that's a minutes silence for Thatcher, the 96 and Heysel. Have we settled on it now?

[Norfolk Royal]

Having a rampant Tory as a chairman was always going to have some sort of kickback at some point.

[Lucky Libran]

But isn't Reading somewhere that gained under Thatcher? ... Why don't prosperous Berkshire pensioners with ipads owe something to Thatcherism?

So we should only think about ourselves, and not consider anybody else? Where have I heard that before?

[philM]

We have to assume that the club are smart enough to know that in the current climate they shouldn't mention/praise Thatcher over the pa this weekend. It's so not the time or the place to do it.

[Gunny Fishcake]

This has got disaster written all over it , as if the season wasn't bad enough we now find ourselves embroiled in this debacle .If there is to be anything let's hope it's a minute's applause so at least everybody can make a racket whether they believe in it or not

[The Goat was fed]

I'm all for it. Wonderful woman and quite fit. Compare that with the common scouser - disgusting bunch and ugly. I know who I'm being silent for.

[parky]

I fairly sure it's not going to be a silence on Saturday. It will be a one minute chant of 'Justice for the 96' to negate any media spin that it was a silence for Hillsborough and Thatcher.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

This is clearly one of SJM's "off the leash, talking to the media without a minder" instances - and all it's done is muddy the waters about what was mairly straightforward.

I think now the club (who are probably cursing SJM for saying this) need to come out and clarify exactly what the minute's silence is for on Saturday.

Any attempt to combine the two - or even have confusion about it - would be an unmitigated disaster.

[Royalclapper]

Dave Whelan and Sir John Madejski have suggested that remembering one of Britain's finest leaders seems an appropriate tribute for those who have clearly forgotten how inconvenient it was not to be able to go shopping on Sundays.

[Tommy Youlden's Ears]

Frankly, I think the whole minutes silence thing is an unfortunate modern plague.

Once there was the Remembrance Sunday minute, and state funerals. Now it's an almost weekly occurrence. Someone who played 50 years ago dies. Have a silence. Some people die in a disaster somewhere. Have a silence. Something really horrid happens have two minutes. Three. Ten.

So now it feels to some that Thatcher 'deserves' or 'merits' a silence, and that not to do so is disrespectful.

I categorise the whole minutes silence epidemic as part of an increasingly lazy and infantalising media. The forced hilarity and empathy of comic relief. The mawkish 'back stories' of X-Factor. The mass ululation and flower laying for 'Baby X' who "I nivver met but woz luvvly an is wiv da angels".

So, on Saturday, "You will feel sorry now...and....whistle...lets carry on then". Bunch of arse. We are all capable of feeling appropriate emotions at appropriate times, and of due reflection on loss and meaning. I think such matters must and should be personal.

11/11 is different. A nation showing its respect for miilions of soldiers and civilians who did what was asked of them and lost everything. Their loss was collective and communal and demands respect and remembrance. Whether you think Thatcher, Churchill or Gordon Brown the finer leader - we can all agree that it was the world wars that destroyed our economy and our national vitality. Preserve the silence for things that matter, I say.

If there's a silence on Saturday I will observe it out of courtesy - but with less engagement than were I watching a crisp packet floating in the breeze.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Didn't we also have a 90 minutes silence last Saturday?

[melonhead]

KPOOF!


keep politics out of football!

[Divvy]

This is clearly one of SJM's "off the leash, talking to the media without a minder" instances - and all it's done is muddy the waters about what was mairly straightforward.

I think now the club (who are probably cursing SJM for saying this) need to come out and clarify exactly what the minute's silence is for on Saturday.

Any attempt to combine the two - or even have confusion about it - would be an unmitigated disaster.

Agreed. Liverpool fans are raging. They don't want a minutes silence at all just in case. They're looking at it as a ploy to get what SJM wanted but using Hillsborough as the way to get it. As you say, they need to now come out and make it 100% clear it is for Hillsborough and NOTHING AT ALL to do with Maggie Thatcher.

Another shambles in what has been a shambolic season. Let it end now, please!