Diamonds in the Mud’ asks why the British have traditionally been taught to venerate kings and queens, generals and Eton-educated Prime Ministers, while, a few notable exceptions aside, those who changed history from below rarely got a look-in. Eventually, in 2012, the truth was established in an independent report, the Accidental Killing verdicts overturned and fresh ones of Unlawful Killing handed down by a jury.

She'd been told at the Sheffield inquests that Kevin had spoken a word to a Special WPC 42 minutes after he was supposed to have been dead: "I said straight away, 'It was mum, wasn't it?" said Anne. “The policeman nodded and I broke down in tears. I was inconsolable. That word shattered my heart. I felt I had lost Kevin all over again." One story he told me in 1992 summed up how long he'd been fighting the good fight. And how, compared to him, so many politicians were pygmies.Imagine the fear in the pit of your stomach and the pee and the crap in your ragged trousers as you heard young men scream like babies, saw their faces blown off and knew you would probably soon be falling on to this piece of scrubland, 1,300 miles from home, and left to bleed to death. The book argues that these are the type of heroes we should be teaching future generations about. That, perhaps, if children in state schools were taught about the achievements of those from the same class as them they would have a fraction of the confidence enjoyed by public school pupils and realise that they too have the capability to change the world. This doughty, then 69-year-old, said there was a "disease in this country" citing South Yorkshire Police's role in Hillsborough, the Battle of Orgreave and Rotherham sex abuse scandal, and argued "Hillsborough was bigger than the police. It was political. It went right to the top. So it's up to you politicians to unite and never let the likes of it happen again." For 27 years I'd dreamt of watching a parent who lost a child at Hillsborough stand up in Parliament and slaughter the political class for their gross dereliction of duty. Diamonds in the Mud' asks why the British have traditionally been taught to venerate kings and queens, generals and Eton-educated Prime Ministers, while, a few notable exceptions aside, those who changed history from below rarely got a look-in.

You have to change things for the good of the ordinary people because if they can cover up 96 deaths what can they do to individuals?” Not that the middle-classes aren’t real, or that there’s an inauthenticity to middle-class experience, but there is something undeniably exciting about Cinnamon’s rootsy energy. Working-class life is too often portrayed, in the arts, by a wallowing in misery, whereas what he embodies – in his sound, in his songs, in his soul – is a kind of madcap joy. The audience is crucial to this. No one goes to see Gerry Cinnamon as an individual. You go to be part of a crowd, part of that bounce and roar. The noise that once greeted goals by Law and Dalglish and Best now finds an echo at Gerry Cinnamon shows.

Summary

They let the world know in the face of terrible slurs and criminal indifference that the 96 who died that day were more than names engraved in cold stone.

When I see the way my country is run under them, I'm reminded of what Gandhi said when asked what he thought about civilisation in Britain. Whether it's celebrating people, remembering a place long forgotten or opening the Echo archives to mark a special anniversary, Days Gone By will be an essential read. The politicians of this country ought to be ashamed of themselves for what's happened in their name. We as a nation should be ashamed that our families had to fight for almost 30 years to get to the truth,” she told them.

Missing lyrics by Gerry Cinnamon?

He was a formidable force who fought for the 96 years he was alive for the underdog. He didn't draw lessons from history, he delivered them.

While I agree with most of the sentiments he expresses in “Diamonds in the Mud”, Reade is rarely subtle. His sledgehammer denunciations of sundry royals and Tory big-wigs can be overly didactic, and this book is far stronger when it tells of the genuine everyday heroism of the healthcare workers, campaigners, and activists whose lives he has chosen to spotlight. But, you could easily counter that if you’re trying to fight a rearguard action in a class war declared against you by the Tories, then subtlety is a luxury you can ill afford. The announcement this week that the Glaswegian singer, whose real name is Gerry Crosbie, will play the main stage of the TRNSMT festival in his home town, just below headliner Stormzy, was greeted in some circles with rolled eyes. The charge is that Cinnamon is not an interesting artist, that there is something lowest-common-denominator and lumpenproletariat about him. This, though, is to miss the point. As festival director Geoff Ellis puts it, he and Stormzy are “both in their own way kind of people’s poets … They both come from the street and they both represent real people.”When that government fell, a junior minister called Portillo sought asylum in Britain. Today his son, Michael, sits in the Treasury making cuts that hit the elderly. They refused to give in to the incessant calls to “let it go” from people who failed to understand why they couldn't. Because they were consumed by the most invincible of emotions: Love. And there she was. Margaret Aspinall, in 2016, a fortnight after jurors at fresh inquests had returned Unlawful Killing verdicts on the 96, in Portcullis House, raining guilt down on the assembled MPs, Lords, and party leaders.