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Original poster

Margaret Thatcher to get full ceremonial funeral - have they gone mad?

210 replies

rowtunda · 08/04/2013 14:31

Its bloody disgraceful - a tory/establishment decision that insults many. We should riot in the streets on the same day.

I fear becuase she had a film made about her everyone has forgetten what she actually did - including devastating whole communities - and now we are expected to stump up for her lavish funeral?

Bloody disgrace

(oh and she definietly wasn't a feminist icon either!)

OP posts:
tiggytape · 08/04/2013 23:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmmmmmmmm · 08/04/2013 23:44

Grin At anyone quoting Ken Loach on Margaret Thatcher.

Not exactly an old friend of hers..........

fluffypillow · 09/04/2013 00:04

She should have a private funeral. I don't want to pay for it.

I will be avoiding all programmes about her over the coming weeks (yawn), and certainly don't want to watch her funeral on TV.

She didn't do anything good for this country, quite the opposite.

Awful woman.

PoppyField · 09/04/2013 00:18

I think a really good pomp and ceremony funeral would get the country in a spirit of togetherness...just like the Blitz! But there could be various nice touches in the spirit of Thatcherism and her amazing legacy.

She wouldn't want the taxpayer to subsidise her funeral - she was much happier rolling back the frontiers of state - better to maybe have it sponsored by British business - one of the privatised water companies could put a tasteful logo on the coffin, or more appropriately one of the Scottish distilleries could step in.

Perhaps, to show real respect, the boy Mark could hover above the cortege in one of his military helicopter 'ambulances' ready to stage a coup by accident.

Then an honour guard of third generation-unemployed people could form an avenue up to the doors of Westminster Abbey. Some old miners from Oop North perhaps? Maybe they could have the deserving poor on one side of Whitehall and the undeserving on the other, for the benefit of TV viewers trying to tell them apart.

Perhaps we could also find a few nice gay people to come and celebrate her work on equal rights and Section 28. Or some of those 16-18 year olds who were thrown out on the street when they stripped them of housing benefit in the late 80s? How old must they be now?

Finally the hearse would have to be driven by a cabbie yabbering non-stop about how Maggie singlehandedly stopped this country going to the dogs, got rid of all those effing trade unionists trying turn the lights out and yes, she was working for proper British people and would never have let in all those lazy foreigners who are now stealing all our jobs.

cricketballs · 09/04/2013 00:35

and mnetters wonder why the press are having a field day about the users of this site; no matter what your politics are can you please remember that she has died and has family that are grieving Hmm.

I have seen many threads on this site and on facebook that are celebrating her death - have we really got to the point in our society that we are that callous to forget that someone has a family that are grieving?

gaelicsheep · 09/04/2013 00:39

I was no fan of her politics, but she was a formidable politician and a formidable woman. Whether I agree or not, SHE believed in what she was doing and I admire her for that.

cf the current shower.

Darkesteyes · 09/04/2013 01:00

cricketballs the six children who died in that fire have relatives including half brothers and sisters who are grieving.
It didnt stop that awful Daily Mail front page last week did it? Or from certain other people both in and out of Government using the deaths of six chlildren for their own political ends.

applecrumbleandcream · 09/04/2013 01:08

MT was in no way any sort of national treasure and undeserved of a state funeral. She crippled this country with her policies decimating industry and destroying the livelihoods of hard working families some of which are still paying the cost of what she did.

That said even though I don't agree with her politics, I don't wish ill of the dead. That is all.

Morloth · 09/04/2013 01:11

If everyone hated her so much, how come she kept getting re-elected? Genuine question.

LadyBeagleEyes · 09/04/2013 01:14

Poppy, that was a brilliant post. Grin
It's too late and I'm too tired but that could be the making of a brilliant thread.

MidniteScribbler · 09/04/2013 02:34

It's a special kind of arsehole that thinks that a funeral is the appropriate place to stage a protest. Someone has died, and a family is grieving, but oh yes, let's all go along like a bunch of feral yobs and start a riot! Disgraceful.

PigletJohn · 09/04/2013 03:02

Morloth

Because you can get elected even if most people don't vote for you.

Bartlebee · 09/04/2013 03:13

She was the most important PM since Churchill.

Elected 3 times.

A hugely important figure in our national history.

Absolutely she should have ceremonial funeral. Much more entitled to it than that daft bint, Diana, imo.

Panzee · 09/04/2013 03:18

She couldn't be Prime Minister in the current Government. Far too elitist now.

Bartlebee · 09/04/2013 03:26

I'm just watching Nancy Reagan being interviewed about MT.

I thought Nancy Reagan was dead!

CouthySaysEatChoccyEggs · 09/04/2013 05:35

I am as left as left can be. I wouldn't protest at her funeral, it is her funeral. HOWEVER I truly believe that unless a ceremonial funeral will become standard for every former PM still currently alive, then MT shouldn't be having one.

The funeral should be a PRIVATE affair, for her family and friends.

I disagree with the use of public funds on a ceremonial funeral for a politician when that money could be spent on NOT making people with disabilities pay additional rent for essential rooms, say.

I feel it is a misappropriation of public funds.

That is MY take on the subject, as the great granddaughter of a miner, whose entire hometown and the rest of his family were decimated by MT.

CouthySaysEatChoccyEggs · 09/04/2013 05:37

And yes, I spent time campaigning against the Welfare Reform Bill.

cricketballs · 09/04/2013 07:48

the examples you include from the last week quite rightly had the vast majority of mnetters angry Darkesteyes; but how are we any different if we celebrate a death?

twofingerstoGideon · 09/04/2013 07:53

Grin PoppyField

melika · 09/04/2013 08:08

C'mon she was a world leader who stopped the cold war. Does she deserve a ceremonial funeral, probably more so than Diana or the Queen Mother!

Believe me, I didn't like some of the things she did, but she had the courage of her convictions and mostly carried it off.
(Gordon Brown okayd the ceremonial funeral).
I grew up with her in power until I was 25yrs old and even though I was a jobless, labour supporting, teen etc I had some admiration for her as a woman.

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 09/04/2013 08:14

I won't protest at her funeral but I'd rather not have to pay for it.

Poppy Smile

rememberthefallout · 09/04/2013 10:40

She certainly finished off the Tory party in Scotland. There was a so-called economic miracle in the South East where all the votes could be collected and the rest of the country suffered. She ruined the manufacturing industry. She was a disaster as Minister for Education. The poll tax was grossly unfair, her monetarism policy has been discredited... Yes, she took on the unions, but she never tackled the underlying problems of industrial relations.
I think we've taken leave of our senses even considering a ceremonial funeral for such a controversial figure.

Inertia · 09/04/2013 10:40

If this country cannot afford to fully support its people with disabilities, or elderly people needing care, or families escaping domestic violence, then it sure as hell cannot afford to lash out millions on the kind of ceremonial funeral that no other prime minister in the last half-century has had.

She didn't achieve more than 50% of the vote in any election. She was never the choice of the majority.

Her family are perfectly able to pay for her funeral . Alternatively it could be privatised - sponsorship from arms manufacturers might be appropriate, and introduce a family touch for her son. Or it could be put out to competitive tender, with the family forced to go with the lowest price regardless of the service provided. Any of these would be a far more accurate reflection of her policies and her legacy. She's had hundreds of thousands of pounds in state benefits since she retired - she should have been putting some money away from that to pay for her funeral. She tried to dismantle the State, but she's been quite willing to milk it since she retired and now the state has to cough up for her funeral. It's sheer hypocrisy , which the right-wing foamers conveniently ignore in their rants about spongers. (I am no New Labour apologist either).

If we are in austerity measures then there is no excuse for this sort of unnecessary public waste. So what if Gordon Brown suggested it - financial circumstances have changed since 2008, and the govt have discarded plenty of his other plans.

rememberthefallout · 09/04/2013 11:03

I would not take part in any sort of active demonstration but I would like to register a protest somehow - by signing a petition say. Has anybody heard anything?

niceguy2 · 09/04/2013 11:08

She didn't achieve more than 50% of the vote in any election. She was never the choice of the majority.

The way our electoral system works, it's practically impossible for any party to get over 50% of the vote.

Even when his Tonyness came to power with a landslide majority and a swing not seen for 50 years, even Labour failed to get the 50%.

Using your logic, no government we've had since around the 1950's has been the choice of the majority. And even then in 55 & 59 is was slightly less than the magic 50% (around 49%). Interestingly both were Conservative governments.