h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think they're having that many military personnel so they don't have to worry about getting enough police to keep an eye on it and stop all those who'll go along to jeer and throw stones.

As a Scot who remembers the 80s fairly well I liked what Frankie Boyle suggested a few years back: give everyone in Scotland a shovel so we can deliver her to Satan personally

I'm not going to rant about how hated she is in our house as I don't think I'm alone in the anti-Thatcher camp , but I will say this: I do admire her balls and for becoming our first female prime minister. Even though she's done nothing for feminism (the glass ceiling she shattered still sprinkles shards upon those trying to follow her lead) it was a huge achievement to even become a female MP back then and for that she should be remembered well. I'm not sure I can think of even one policy of hers I agreed with, but she still stuck by her guns and did what she thought was right; how many MPs have the guts to do that today?

She shouldn't get a state/ceremonial funeral though. Churchill deserved his as he was a truly exceptional prime minister. Thatcher was seen as saving the country from the terrible Labour government at the time, but we're now suffering at the hands of possibly the worst government in UK political history because of the seeds she sowed all those years ago.

well I hope that all the talk about turning the funeral into a demo or worse is just being over hyped, I don't know how long it will take it will take but just for those hours let it be

@ Peanut - oh all the ex-miners get coal free for the rest of their lives I believe, so they'll have plenty

It rather does seem to be a worst of all things deal now. Basically in effect a state funeral with all the trappings and costing us millions. But we don't even get a day off work cause of it!

I'd have insisted on turning up to work anyhow, but I am denied even that!

FB

'A conviction politition'

Being so driven by ideology gets no credits in my book

"George Bush believes the same thing on Thursday he believed on Tuesday. NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENED ON WEDNESDAY!"

Stephen Colbert

FB

I reckon they should send the cortege under the balcony of Arthur Scargill's flat in Elephant and Castle so that he can throw a concrete block on it for old time's sake.

Genius idea!

Seriously good idea... I recall seeing first hand during the 80's the total distruction of communities, in the Wakefield area, on the pits closures... Was so sad to see the society, there, of which, of course Thatcher said didn't even exist (society), go from the thrieving areas they once were, into complete dismantlment of their structures...
They might have chosen a more quiet affiar for her funeral, given the huge amount of bad feelings known to be existing against her,e for what she 'achieved' whilst in power... I don't think its common for all PMs to get state funded funerals?

I saw a great quote online the other day:

"There's no such thing as society" Thatcher, 1987

"There's no such thing as Thatcher" Society, 2013

We're still suffering the after-effects of many of her policies from the 80s, even now...

Indeed we are. Some legacy she left us, eh?

I've just watched Glenda Jackson give her what for in Parliament. It was actually really heartening to see so many empty seats on Labour's side, but then the front bench was also pretty much empty so it must have been fairly late on...

I thought Arthur Scargill had been thrown out of his grace and favour London flat after the union won a court case? He seemed to think it was his in perpetuity.

Aye Orcus, drop a concrete block like the miners used to kill taxi drivers you mean? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_David_Wilkie

"Six picketers died during the strike, and three teenagers (Darren Holmes aged 15 and Paul Holmes and Paul Womersley aged 14) died picking coal from a colliery waste heap in the winter. The deaths of pickets David Jones and Joe Green continue to be viewed with suspicion. Jones was killed in Ollerton, Nottinghamshire, by a flying brick during fighting between police, pickets, and non-striking miners,while Green was hit by a truck while picketing at Ferrybridge power station in Yorkshire. The NUM names its memorial lectures after the two. A taxi driver, David Wilkie, was killed on 30 November 1984. He had been taking a non-striking miner to work in the Merthyr Vale Colliery, South Wales when two striking miners dropped a concrete post onto his car from a road bridge above. He died at the scene. The two miners served a prison sentence for manslaughter".

Wiki. David Wilkie has his own wikipage (RIP) but the six "picketers" who died don't.

As they say around here 'I don't have a dog in this fight'.

That means that I really don't care what the outcome will be, but as I read your posts I wondered if any of you have read this recent, excellent Guide Entry?

A87777445

I don't know if it is appropriate or not, but I thought some of you might find it interesting .


F S

It's at times like this that I wonder why so many people don't realise that most effective way to make a protest is silence and indifference, or, if protocol demands something, at least to damn with faint praise.

As already mentioned above, half the opposition benches were empty because so many opposition MPs didn't attend the session. Here's a picture of it from the BBC timed at 2.38pm http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/66928000/jpg/_66928119_jex_1627839_de27-1.jpg which as far as I can make out is just as David Cameron was kicking things off.

And was it last year that an American university principal had to do the walk of shame after some student protesters were maced by a cop while they were sitting down? She later had to walk along a path lined with students who remained silent. Very powerful. But it would have been even more damning if, as she'd passed by, they had turned their backs on her one by one.

I find it gratifying to see that several organisations including the FA and most football clubs have said they have no plans to mark Thatcher's death, as have county cricket clubs. Why on earth would they? This attempt to raise her to near royal status by certain prominent people is getting quite absurd. She effectively waged war on an entire section of the British population and her policies did terrible things to people's lives. Let's forget her, as difficult as that will be for those whose lives she blighted, and move on.

One form of protest that is peaceful, does not disrupt the funeral (I still think that a funeral itself should be sombre and respectful, but before and after is fair game) - the Wizard of Oz song 'Ding Dong the Witch is Dead' is a hot contender to be this week's Number 1.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead-closer-to-number-one-spot-as-it-reaches-midweek-top-ten-following-margaret-thatchers-death-8566042.html

<BB<

There's a great piece in the Torygraph from Peter Orborne on why Thatcher shouldn't get a state or state-like funeral. It's written not from an anti-Thatcher perspective, but from a politicising-the-monarchy perspective.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9984619/Margaret-Thatcher-This-is-a-state-funeral-and-thats-a-mistake.html

I'm frankly baffled that anyone - anyone - can think that Thatcher deserves a state-like funeral. Surely even her most ardent disciples can see that she's - at best - a hugely divisive figure and for that reason absolutely cannot and should not have a funeral like this.

She's no Churchill - surely this is obvious. I'd argue (and I'm sure others would too), that Clement Atlee was the second greatest PM of the century, and he got nothing. Maybe that's what he would have wanted, and granted we appear to be in a much more emotionally incontinent age now, but even so.... just... WTF?

I hated Thatcher and all that she and her government stood for, and all that the Nasty Party stand for now.

But because I believe in concepts like compassion and community and sympathy and basic human decency, I don't celebrate an elderly woman's death. I'd defend to the hilt the right of her family and friends to mark her death in privacy and dignity. But it's been politicised now. A state or state-like funeral means that who she was and what she did is now being celebrated and given state and civil society approval, which it obviously doesn't have.

To be fair to Cameron, I thought he was fairly restrained in the Commons (though it should never have been recalled) in terms of attempting to make political capital. But in general, all this is just going to be spun as a party political broadcast on behalf of the Tory party, all facilitated by the monarchy and by the BBC. It's absolutely shameful and absolutely baffling.

And what this means, I think, is that all bets are off in terms of protest. The Thatcherites can't have it both ways. They can have the moral high ground with a private ceremony and demand a level of respect for private loss. But if they're going to politicise it - to nationalise it through a quasi-state funeral, ironically enough - people are entitled to respond, and respond through protest, respond through holding their own parties, respond in any way allowed by the law.