A petition calling for the resignation of Westbury town and Wiltshire councillor Russell Hawker has been started in Westbury following a row over comments he made about the Hillsborough disaster.
Cllr Hawker sparked outrage and anger after he posted comments on his Twitter page, in which he said that the 1989 Hillsborough disaster was caused by hooligans pushing and shoving.
A later apology has done nothing to quell the anger.
Scouser and Westbury resident Billy Mack has started the petition calling for the councillor to resign, and has been collecting signatures around pubs, shops, and places of work.
“I’m absolutely appalled by the comments, and the statement he made yesterday (Friday 16th July) was equally outrageous,” he said. “This man, who is an elected official, knows nothing. I’ve already got hundreds of signatures on the petition.”
Councillor Hawker’s comments also brought condemnation from Jim Sharman, editor of The Hillsborough Football Disaster: Context & Consequences and Dave Hawkins of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign.
People in Westbury have also been distancing themselves from Cllr Hawker’s comments. At the start of the meeting of Westbury Town Council on Monday 5th July, Mayor of Westbury, cllr Christine Mitchell made the following statement: “There has recently been widespread coverage of comments made by Councillor Russell Hawker in connection with the Hillsborough Disaster and I would like to start by saying that Westbury Town Council disassociates itself from these comments and would like to stress that these views were certainly not shared or endorsed by Westbury Town Council.”
Matravers School, where Cllr Hawker is the Wiltshire Unitary Authority’s nominated Governor, has also issued a statement disassociating the Governors and school from his “hurtful comments”.
Cllr Hawker has stated that he will not be resigning. Last Friday he issued a statement, where he said: “I apologise unreservedly for any offence I have caused as result of some quick comments I made on my personal Twitter page on 29 June 2010 about the Hillsborough stadium disaster.”
He continued: “It is important to appreciate that Twitter messages (“tweets”) can only be up to 140 characters long, including spaces, which allows only a very brief and often out-of-context message – hence also the brevity of my explanation and initial apology.”
However, Cllr Hawker continued: “my view – which I have not changed and am entitled to hold and express – that it is a fact that hooliganism was one of the “root” causes of the Hillsborough stadium disaster in April 1989.”
He continued: “Hooliganism played its part in setting the scene for the disaster, through the erection of the fences and pens. Also, on the day, there were unruly elements in the crowd exhibiting aggressive and dangerous behaviour that helped to make the crush at the stadium entrance into a crisis where police feared for “a serious danger of deaths or injuries”. In other words, some fans were at least partly responsible for the disaster.”
Councillor Hawker’s statement is printed on page 20.
Cllr Hawker’s statement has done little to pacify the outrage his initial comments caused. Dave Hawkins, of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, said: “There is a huge level of outrage in this ‘statement’. The first half of it is him trying to blame ‘the media’ for stirring it up. It was his comments that angered people and it was his comments on www.westburytownforums.co.uk that disgusted people. Incidentally, he makes no mention of comments on that forum, only ‘apologising’ for his original tweets. He then goes on to berate the ‘campaigners’ claiming we are a nuisance and we are smearing him.
“He is the one making one false comment after another, accusing innocent people of being hooligans.”
Nicola McMillan, author of The Hillsborough Disaster: Context & Consequences, also responded to Hawker’s statement in a letter addressed to him. “Despite the wealth of evidence available, evidence that is readily available, evidence that contradicts your outdated and baseless viewpoint, you still cling to it, attempt to justify it and then, worse still, try and peddle it to others in your continued search for your five minutes of fame,” she said. “Under such circumstances, offering an apology, whilst not only maintaining your offensive view but actively continuing to advocate it, even in the face of substantial contradictory evidence, it is not hard to understand why such an apology is seen as hollow at best, cynical at worst.”
Nicola McMillan’s letter is also printed on page xxx.
Cllr Hawker’s statement comes as people in Westbury have been distancing themselves from his original twitter comments. At the start of the meeting of Westbury Town Council on Monday 5th July, Mayor of Westbury, cllr Christine Mitchell made the following statement: “There has recently been widespread coverage of comments made by Councillor Russell Hawker in connection with the Hillsborough Disaster and I would like to start by saying that Westbury Town Council disassociates itself from these comments and would like to stress that these views were certainly not shared or endorsed by Westbury Town Council.”
Matravers School, where Cllr Hawker is the Wiltshire Unitary Authority’s nominated Governor, have also issued a statement disassociating the Governors and school from his “hurtful comments”.
Dave Hawkins said, “As for the people of Westbury, do they really want him representing him at Councillor level? The reception I received from the people I have spoken to and met on Monday when I attended the Town Council’s meeting has been overwhelming, their support and kind words have been reassuring and heartfelt. It’s not for me to comment on how the residents of a town I don’t live in act, but if he was my councillor I would be doing anything and everything I could to have him removed.”
Jim Sharman, editor of The Hillsborough Football Disaster: Context & Consequences said: “Some members of the local council have gone to pains to stress their disassociation from him, and I have seen comments on various fora including those of local people declaring him to be nothing more than an embarrassment to Westbury. Anyone holding public office has a responsibility to the people he represents and should remember that elected office is a privilege that should not be sullied by any conduct, whether in connection with said office or not. His actions are in the public domain, therefore he is accountable for them.” He added: “This man is an embarrassment to your region.”
Cllr Hawker made the original offending comments on his twitter page at the end of last month after Jeremy Hunt, minister for culture, apologised after making offending comments on the disaster. Cllr Hawker reacted by saying the minister “should not have apologised”, and tweeted that the “Hillsborough disaster WAS caused by hooligans pushing and shoving!!!”
