Police knew about Blair Peach cover up – report

28 Apr 2010 09:27p.m.

Mike Garner wrote:

I was on the same demonstration. Although I never met Blair, I spoke to him on the phone a few days before to get him to speak at a public meeting. He was active in 'Teachers Against Racism'. There never was any doubt that the SPG (Special Patrol Group) killed him; there were witnesses and plenty of evidence. Even now, the British state will not face up to that and accept the blame. He was killed away from the demonstration, if my memory is right, after the demo when he and some others were leaving. The purpose of the demonstration was to try and stop the neo-nazi National Front from marching through Southall with it's large immigrant community from the Indian subcontinent. Under the guise of 'free speech' the police were permitting and assisting the neo-nazis to do so. The New Zealand Government should apply the strongest, public pressure to the UK government to hold the formal inquiry that was denied as part of the cover up. Peach's family and the honour of his own memory deserve the closure of a government with the strength and humility to admit that justice did not prevail 30 years ago. It is time for that to be rectified, publicly, now.