Diamonds in the Mud

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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. Some cynics might say, ah, but they're only binmen. Why do we need to reward them so well for a job that anyone with two arms and legs can do? But I'd ask the cynics why they believe they are more important than a binman? I'd ask them to think how proud they would be if their dirty city became the cleanest in the world? 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?”

And he described the moments before was hit: “It was like entering Hell. Everything was thrown at you. Machine-gun fire, shells, grenades, snipers' bullets. I was firing with my rifle, trying to take cover with the bullets whizzing over me and shells blasting on the ground, when all of a sudden my shoulder and right arm went numb. Blood was scuffing everywhere. I thought I was a goner.” In his new book Diamonds In The Mud, Brian Reade asks why we're taught to revere monarchs, generals and aristocratic politicians while those who change the world from below rarely get a look-in. He does so by telling the inspirational stories of working-class heroes he's met through 40 years of journalism Getting to the truth of Britain's worst sporting disaster was all about working-class heroism, beginning on the afternoon, when the only people trying to save lives were fans who turned advertising hoardings into stretchers. The three-decade long fight for justice was won through the bereaved families refusing to be cowed by the weight of denial from on high. We were labelled communists who went to Spain to bring down democracy but I went there to fight on the side of the elected Popular Front government against a military coup.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. 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. He once told me that if he became a binman he'd be the greatest binman who ever lived and he'd have his city the cleanest on earth. 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.

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. Those songs are something. Diamonds In The Mud is a hymn to Glasgow – “from the swords in the schemes to the art school dreams of the toon” – as beautifully observed as a Liz Lochhead poem, a Billy Connolly routine. Keysies, named for a childhood game, is a delicate portrait of boyhood that somehow recalls Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher. His use of local dialect – belter, dafty, bastart – may be specific to the streets of his home, but the emotions his songs convey are universal. 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.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." Signing up is free and it only takes a minute for you to get the best stories, sent straight to your inbox.

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 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.