I was not called to speak until late on during Monday's debate in Parliament on Hillsborough. This gave me the opportunity to listen to most other Members speak before I did.
It was wonderful be part of a debate that praised the Hillsborough families. Without their determination nothing would have been achieved.
There was however a big downside. Many MPs commented on how wonderful the House of Commons was behaving. It was good that we were not enforcing divisions when no divisions existed.
But the House was in one of its moral fits. Practically every institution was guilty. There were notable exceptions of individuals in these organisations but the overall all impression was, to use that terrible phrase, of institutional failure.
The one institution upon which the searchlight was not shined was ourselves – Parliament. How could we go on accusing every other major organisation in the country of being guilty of neglect, of cover-up, of callousness, when it took us 23 years to debate the vindication of the 96 of our fellow citizens who tragically died at Hillsborough?
Surely, when we were calling for reform of every institution we could think of, we should include the House of Commons. So what are the lessons for us? Sadly, there we no answers provided during Monday’s debate. But it is vital that lessons are learnt, and this is something I will both be personally thinking about over the coming weeks and also advising my colleagues here to do likewise.
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