Fear and loathing at the Hill Dickinson

Dear readers — Welcome to your Monday edition of The Post, and a special welcome to those who joined us for Abi’s great story about Integritas and the perils of off-plan developments.

Over the weekend, Laurence published a profile of and interview with Billy Moore, the former fighter and inmate whose experiences of addiction and boxing in a Bangkok prison were adapted into A Prayer Before Dawn, currently streaming on Netflix. 

It’s got a lot of you talking in the comments — “I do wonder if Billy’s content would have moved in this direction were it not for the ability these ‘click bait’ headlines have on views on YouTube and in turn the monetisation,” one of you wrote. “Yeah we live in the age of the "attention economy", whoever is the most entertaining/shocking/accessible gets to set the political agenda,” another reader responded. 

What’s going on with Billy Moore?

The Prayer Before Dawn star is going viral for all the wrong reasons. We ask him if he’s really turned to the “far-right.”

The PostLaurence Thompson

We encourage you to get stuck in with that story today — but first, here’s your action-packed Monday briefing. 

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The big story: Can we have the “friendly derby” back, please?

Top line: Liverpool have won the first Merseyside derby at Everton’s new stadium. But the growing animosity between the fans threatens to divide the city

Context: Despite the brand new setting for it in Everton’s impressive Hill Dickinson home on the docks, Sunday was an almost quintessential Merseyside derby: tentative optimism, rough tackles, refereeing controversy, late drama, and a Liverpool win. 

But among the usual paroxysms of recrimination among the defeated fanbase, nastier emotions have also been present. Liverpool fans leaving the Hill Dickinson yesterday reported being targeted by bottles, punches and even racial abuse. 

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Although all Everton fans should be shocked to read this, for many of us Toffees it won’t be a surprise. The run-up to the derby has seen real acrimony on social media, with viral posts from both sides invoking the tragedies of Hillsborough and Heysel respectively to score rhetorical points over their opponents.

All this, unfortunately, is nothing new: at last season’s Anfield derby, Everton fans complained of police containment tactics as officers protected them from Liverpool supporters throwing bottles. But coming just a few days after the Hillsborough anniversary, a time when the city traditionally unites, the taste in the post-derby air seems especially bitter. 

Ten days ago, it seemed a very different story. Liverpool fans had reacted with anger when it was announced by the club that season ticket prices were to rise again, and an explanatory newsletter from LFC’s CEO Billy Hogan seemed to only throw fuel on the fire. In a rare example of a club’s fans protesting their own club, Spirit of Shankly — the largest Liverpool supporters’ union — organised a “No Pound in the Ground” boycott for the Champions League second leg against Paris St-Germain, while another fan group Spion Kop 1906, withdrew their flags from Anfield’s world-famous single-tier stand. 

Before long, Everton fans also learned that their season ticket prices would be going up. Within hours, a graphic was shared around social media calling for Evertonians to follow their red counterparts’ suit and refuse to buy merchandise, food, drink or matchday programmes inside the Hill Dickinson. Although it’s not clear where this graphic came from, the Everton Fan Forum released a statement on X saying they “stand alongside fans calling for football to be affordable,” an oblique reference to Spirit of Shankly and others. 

Many fans explicitly called for solidarity between the two fanbases over the rising and increasingly prohibitive cost of going the match. Reposting a critical statement from the Everton Fan Advisory Board, the West Derby MP Ian Byrne commented: “We need joint actions from supporters at next week’s Derby.”

Byrne is a Liverpool fan, but he also co-founded the charity Fans Supporting Foodbanks with Everton fans Dave Kelly and Robbie Daniels. He, and many others in the city, will remember when the fixture between the city’s teams was known as “the friendly derby”, and understand what can be achieved when fans put differences aside. In 1986, a year after the Heysel disaster that many claim began a deepening in the rivalry between the two sets of supporters, Liverpool and Everton fans chanted “Merseyside” together at the FA Cup final in Wembley Stadium. 

But that seems a long time ago now. Days before yesterday’s derby, a tifo — a behind-the-goal display — designed by an Everton fan group was leaked online. Among other provocative elements, including the Beatles wearing blue scarves, the tifo featured a Liver bird, the current crest of Liverpool Football Club; not out of solidarity, but as a reminder that Everton were the “original” football club in the city. By the time the derision and mockery was done, even the mutual calls for solidarity from several days earlier were a distant memory. 

By Friday, author and Everton fan Jim Keoghan was writing (in an article entitled “Viva Hate”): 

“Underwriting the whole relationship, simple hate. A pure and undiluted loathing that has become an indelible part of the Blue psyche. Loathing not of individuals, although that can sometimes be the case, but of the body, the great heaving Kopite mass... The truth is that Evertonians hated the neighbours long before the [Heysel] ban. We loathed them when we were successful. We’ve loathed them for generations. And we always will… it’s in our DNA”

Is that really the case? Must what colours we wear perpetually divide us? With apologies to Bill Shankly, must this really be so “life and death”? Apparently, some of us prefer it that way. 

That same day, Merseyside Police made an announcement that they would support Everton club stewards in ejecting any Liverpool fans found in home areas of the Hill Dickinson. The Merseyside derby was once the only Premier League fixture the police did not feel the need to segregate. As someone who has sat in the home section at Anfield without any trouble, the fact that’s no longer the case feels like a bigger defeat than anything happening on the pitch. 

Bottom line: Sometimes, just a handful of unpleasant fans can spoil the occasion for everyone else. It’s also important not to overstate the importance of social media. Looking at X for too long can lead you to believe the city is split into some kind of red vs blue civil war. But when that acrimony spills over into real life, which it undoubtedly has at derbies in recent decades, it threatens to undermine the strong local identity that has kept the city together through thick and thin. The real dispute is between genuine supporters who want to continue attending matches and the multinational firms that now own their football clubs exploiting that loyalty. 

Your Post briefing

An update on our investigation into Big Help Project: Last week, it was announced that another charity in Liverpool was being investigated by the Charity Commission amid financial and governance concerns. That charity? Dovecot and Princess Drive Community Association (known as ‘The Drive’). Perhaps the name sounds familiar: readers of our award-nominated investigative series into former Labour councillor Peter Mitchell and his defunct poverty charity, Big Help Project, will remember there were other organisations that made up the wider Big Help empire — The Drive being one of them. Now, the Charity Commission is appealing for information about The Drive, as its accounts are ten weeks overdue and it does not appear to have any trustees. One of the last known trustees was Colette Goulding — the absent councillor for West Derby Muirhead and long-term partner of Peter Mitchell. We’ve been investigating The Drive this year as part of our Big Help series, and are keen to hear from anyone with information. Please contact Abi on abi@livpost.co.uk. 

A rescheduled election: The upcoming ward election for St Helens Town Centre will be rescheduled after the candidate for Reform UK died.  Tributes have been shared on social media since his death was announced, with the Market Tavern pub writing: "He lived his life defined by courage and commitment to his family, his country and to his community, whether in uniform or everyday life, he stood for what he believed in and gave his best to others." Now, the election will be rearranged from 7 May to a different date — with new polling cards sent to voters once this is decided. Candidate nominations will also reopen, but all previously validated candidates will remain on ballot papers.

The final curtain for LIPA School: After months of protests and campaigns by parents in an attempt to “save” the schools from closure, both LIPA Primary and Secondary have officially shut for good. Back in 2024, Abi published her investigation into LIPA School, revealing questionable decision-making by its headteacher that had led to massive overspend. Since then, things have only got worse — we published our follow-up piece to that investigation in March this year, which explored LIPA’s finances in closer detail and found a £1.5mn deficit. As a result, LIPA School was given a notice of closure by the Department of Education, but parents have attempted to challenge that decision. Now, though, the current chair of the trust that runs LIPA School has confirmed there is no option other than to close both schools. "Following the listening period and consideration of the responses, the Department for Education has confirmed that LIPA School will close permanently at the end of the summer term on Wednesday, July 22, 2026,” he wrote in a letter to parents. "This decision was not taken lightly.”

Post Picks

🍺From Thursday until Sunday, enjoy a huge selection of 100 real ales and draught beers at the Bombed Out Church Beer Festival. Expect street food, live music and discounted drinks — details here.

🎸Contemporary Americana band Police Dog Hogan are coming to The Tung Auditorium this Friday. The band spent early 2025 touring to promote their 6th studio album, Lightning Strike, recorded over a single weekend at Middle Farm Studios in Devon. Now, they’re bringing that album to Liverpool. Find out more here.

🎭On Saturday, the Unity Theatre is showcasing Casu Martzu – a surreal and mischievous play about a duo of Sardinians living in Liverpool. Expect physical comedy, clown, bouffon and live music. Find out more here.

Photo of the week

A gorgeous photo of Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, taken by Reddit user Joel-117 over the weekend. The ribbed neogothic vault is especially impressive from this angle!

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