Music legend Paul Weller has hailed Liverpool supporters who booed the national anthem at Wembley during last season's FA Cup final against Chelsea.
Weller, who formerly made up one-third of the Jam during the 1970s, was performing at Lytham Festival on Sunday evening and ahead of his final song, he took the opportunity to praise Reds supporters who made their feelings towards the government clear ahead of the domestic showpiece final in May.
“Have we got anyone here from Liverpool tonight?" asked Weller, before adding: "I would like to say whoever booed the national anthem: thank you so much. Thank you from West London, for standing up to those f******....that is another story. Please rise now for the new national anthem." Weller and his band then went straight into Town Called Malice.
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Liverpool supporters were criticised by some Members of Parliament in the immediate days following the final, with a spokesman for the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying: "It was a great shame that as we were marking 150 years of the FA cup, an event that brings people together, that a small minority chose to act in that way.”
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, also piled in on those from Merseyside, adding: “I utterly condemn any fans who booed Prince William at Wembley.
“The FA Cup final should be an occasion when we come together as a country. It should not be ruined by a minority of fans’ totally shameful behaviour. In this year of all years – the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee – this is dreadful.”
However, that was before manager Jurgen Klopp jumped to the defence of his supporters, suggesting that those who have an issue with such booing should perhaps look into the reasoning behind such a statement gesture.
"Of course I have thoughts but I think in these situations it's best to ask the question: why does it happen?" said the Liverpool manager two days after the final. "They wouldn't do if there was no reason.
"I've not been here long enough to understand the reason for it - it's for sure something historical - and that's probably questions you can answer much better than I could ever. The majority of our supporters are wonderful people. Really smart, go through lows and highs. They wouldn't do it without a reason."
The decision for some Liverpool supporters to boo the national anthem when it is routinely played before the domestic cup finals is one that doesn't come without plenty of reasoning, and a trip back to the 1980s to a Britain led by Marget Thatcher will explain just that.
Fans of both Liverpool and Everton will remember how the Conservative government, led by Thatcher, had discussed plans for 'managed decline' of the city following the Toxteth riots in the summer of 1981.
In more recent times, the appointment of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister in 2019 brought a fresh spotlight to comments he had previously published in The Spectator, where he held a position as Editor. When speaking about the tragic murder of Scouse engineer Ken Bigley, writer Simon Heffer and his editor Johnson produced a piece which included such statements as: "A combination of economic misfortune — its docks were, fundamentally, on the wrong side of England when Britain entered what is now the European Union — and an excessive predilection for welfarism have created a peculiar, and deeply unattractive, psyche among many Liverpudlians.
"They see themselves whenever possible as victims, and resent their victim status; yet at the same time they wallow in it.” The piece also made untrue and deeply offensive claims about the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, which claimed the lives of 97 Liverpool fans.
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