By Mathew Carr*

Billionaire-loving PM Starmer could have made this apology anytime in the past two years … and is only doing it now to desperately try to find a legacy he does not deserve.

Babies were snatched and adopted through 1976.

Bet there won’t be compensation for mums and kids and no consequences for the arseholes who initiated the policy.

LBC the radio station treats this as a win for women while barely criticising at all the half century of injustice.

That’s because media like LBC are to blame for letting injustice run and run and run.

* Plus Gemini:

The UK has a deeply troubling history of institutional scandals where citizens have suffered severe injustices, followed by decades of state denial, cover-ups, and delayed accountability.

To give you a clear, scannable overview of these major structural failures, here is a breakdown of the groups affected, the core injustices they faced, and the length of time it took for the state to acknowledge the truth.

Major UK Institutional Injustices & Delays

Scandal / Group Affected The Core Injustice The Institutional Delay to Truth & Apology

Infected Blood Scandal(NHS Patients & Hemophiliacs) Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, thousands of patients were given NHS blood products contaminated with HIV and Hepatitis C. Over 3,000 died. ~50 Years Victims faced decades of institutional stonewalling and destroyed medical records. The final statutory inquiry report and a full government apology did not arrive until May 2024.

Nuclear Test Veterans(1950s/60s Servicemen) Around 22,000 British servicemen were ordered to witness atmospheric nuclear tests with zero protective gear, leading to chronic illness, early cancers, and genetic defects in their children. 70+ Years Successive governments denied radiation exposure and withheld medical records. A dedicated commemorative medal was only finally delivered in late 2023 after decades of campaigning.

Primodos & Medical Device Victims(Women & Children) Women were ignored for decades regarding severe physical harm and birth defects caused by the hormone pregnancy test Primodos (1960s-70s), the epilepsy drug Sodium Valproate, and pelvic mesh implants. 50+ Years The landmark First Do No Harm review (2020) concluded that the state healthcare system was “swaddled in institutional defensiveness” and had dismissed women’s systemic health complaints for half a century.

Bloody Sunday Families(Northern Ireland Civilians) In January 1972, British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a peaceful protest in Derry, killing 14. The initial 1972 state inquiry (the Widgery Tribunal) whitewashed the event and falsely blamed the victims. 38 Years Families fought the official narrative until the Saville Inquiry published its findings in 2010, proving the victims were entirely innocent and prompting a historic formal apology from the Prime Minister.

Hillsborough Disaster(Football Fans & Families) 97 Liverpool fans were unlawfully killed due to severe policing and crowd-management failures at the stadium in 1989. South Yorkshire Police then orchestrated a massive cover-up to blame the victims. 23 Years The state and police actively protected their reputation until the Hillsborough Independent Panel exposed the cover-up in 2012, leading to the quashing of the original inquests and a formal apology.

Horizon IT Scandal(Subpostmasters) Between 1999 and 2015, the Post Office prosecuted over 700 subpostmasters for theft and false accounting based on faulty data from Fujitsu’s Horizon IT system, bankrupting and imprisoning innocent people. 20+ Years The Post Office and government departments actively covered up software bugs and aggressively defended the prosecutions. Mass exonerations and structural compensation schemes are still being untangled.

The Windrush Generation(Commonwealth Citizens) People who arrived legally in the UK from the Caribbean between 1948 and 1973 were suddenly classified as illegal immigrants under the Home Office’s 2012 “Hostile Environment” policies. Many lost homes, jobs, healthcare, or were wrongfully deported. Decades of Status Erasure Despite internal warnings, the government ignored the systemic flaws until the scandal broke globally in 2018. While an apology was issued, the state-run compensation scheme remains heavily criticized for its slow rollout.

Common Themes Across the Injustices

When analyzing these cases collectively, independent inquiries consistently point to the same structural pattern:

• Institutional Defensiveness: A default bureaucratic reflex to protect the reputation of the department, ministry, or state corporation over the safety of the public.
• The “Gaslighting” of Victims: Campaigners across all these groups were routinely dismissed as conspiracy theorists, or told their illnesses and grievances were merely coincidental.
• Attrition by Delay: Accountability is frequently pushed back so far that a significant percentage of the original victims pass away before ever receiving an apology, compensation, or legal vindication.

And we have even started on brutal colonialism.