Liverpool fans should stop booing the national anthem

Liverpool fans, a significant number at least, booed the national anthem at the Carabao Cup final at Wembley yesterday. It wasn’t the first time this has happened – it’s been going on since the 1980s – but it was the first time since the monarch was diagnosed with cancer. This added a certain poignancy to the ‘save’ bit of the anthem, and might have been expected to persuade the Liverpool boo-boys to take the afternoon off. But no.

The usual explanation for this ongoing practice is lingering resentment at how Liverpool was affected by the Thatcher government’s monetarist policies of the 1980s (parts of the city reported 30 to 50 per cent unemployment) and how it has been treated after. One of the most damaging aspect of this story were the revelations (from papers released in 2011) that at one point senior ministers urged Mrs Thatcher to more or less give up on the city and allow its ‘managed decline’.

The other deep wound is the Hillsborough tragedy of 1989 where 97 Liverpool fans were crushed to death during the FA cup semi final against Nottingham Forest.