To spend my morning watching the funeral of Maggie Thatcher (on BBC) ?

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

She was our first woman prime-minister - a significant personal achievement, especially for the daughter of a grocer from Grantham, born in 1925

Also I agree with those that say these ceremonial occasions are something we do really well in Britain.

So AIBU to be watching this morning - in spite of disagreeing with many of her policies ? Will you be watching ?
And what do you make of both her personal achievement and her legacy ?

Oh, didn't realise anti-Thatcher opinions weren't allowed today. My mistake .

I think Baroness T made some good decisions and bad ones to as they do.
First woman PM.
Longest serving PM.
the main message was anything is possible by working hard.
problems with other parties are they allow people to take but give nothing back so some people expect all on a plate - all to be paid for and not have to work for it.
RIP Maggie

Main reasons people are Anti -thatcher ?

I'm with domesticCEO personally I have the desire to riot in the streets, all my 80's angst is flooding right back! Respect to our country? Fuck that!

And 10 million is ridiculous and deeply deeply offensive I agree, it's bloody shocking.

Hillsborough.
Miners.
NHS.
Right to Buy.
Care in the Community.
Flogging of Assets.

I've no respect for my country today for spending £10,000,000 of public money on a dead millionaire's funeral, particularly such a divisive one.
But at least it's all done and dusted now, and i can actually switch the news on again tomorrow, without throwing anything at the telly.

Does anyone know whether the £10 million figure has actually been calculated or just plucked out of the air?

Would it include the salaries of the police, military etc, as they would have to be paid anyway, just somewhere else.

Also as the ceremony would have been broadcast worldwide and was very well brought off, it was presumably a positive advertisement for Britain, albeit impossible to quantify in monetary terms.

Leaving divisive politics aside; just on a purely practical note, loads of people would presumably be expected at funeral anyway - even if they had tried to keep it private - (politicians, representatives of armed forces, party representatives, association members, foreign representatives and Heads of State, ex-staff of Downing street etc etc) so they would have had to be accommodated somewhere large anyway - with attendant security measures - all of which costs money. And with so many public servants attending - the cost would naturally fall to the public purse.

Arf at Katherine Jenkins

Gailforce I made exactly the same comment about TB 'grandstanding' to dh just now. Dh (who never has a bad word to say about anyone) commented that if you were a foreign visitor, you would probably quite like to be greeted by someone familiar in that situation. I said in that case TB could have done it out of view of the cameras then!

the main message was anything is possible by working hard.

This is far too simplistic. Some people have to work harder than others. Cameron, for example, was blessed with being born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He might have got to Eton from a mining/steel making community, but I doubt it.

Don't anyone say that a miner didn't work hard. Where has their hard work taken them?

My main reason to be Anti-Thatcher is this:

Throughout the history of the last century, the thing that has stood out as Great about this country is the people. They are our greatest asset. Two world wars won by people who were proud to fight for and protect the rest back home. People who cared about each other, and looked out for each other. Community.

No matter what else she did, and why she did it, she took that away. She made this country one in which profits matter more than people. She made it the norm to stop investing in the people in this country, but instead buy in cheaper.

She put the profits of the few before the good of the majority. That is so against everything I have ever stood for in my own life.

And the thing is, people don't even realise what is lost. And those she has spawned now talk about the 'Big Society' and 'we're all in this together'. Bollocks.

I keep hearing about all the billions abroad that would watch it.
Why would they?
Would anybody here spend half the morning watching the funeral of a foreign prime minister that had nothing to do with them?

superfluousecurves If they had had a private funeral, I imagine that they would have had a Memorial service at some later date.

They would have needed somewhere like St Paul's to hold them all, but I doubt whether they would have needed to close whole streets off. They would probably have needed to heighten security, so there would be additional policing, but they wouldn't have needed the military to be involved.

Well they might not watch the whole live event but it will presumably get extensive coverage in their media.

And what does it actually give this country that we can put on such an event? I personally think Disney puts on a much better parade.

I suppose they might watch for the same reason that we would watch the US President being inaugurated. Or remember those May Day parades that used to take place in Red Square, which were televised.

Her sex is a red-herring for people looking to make excuses for the terrible things she did. "but she was a woman - what an amazing achievement!" - WTAF? How does having a vagina make her support for Pinochet any less repulsive, for example? Who cares what genitalia she had, the things she believed in were selfish, bloodthirsty and greedy. Very bad things.

I'm not watching it as am at work, but I am wearing a red jumper!

Dish8 -yes there are people who expect something for nothing - they're mainly called hedge fund managers, corporte CEOs & the aristocracy. Down with them all, I hear you say!

Think military would have insisted on being there and would have wanted to be represented Volcan I have huge numbers of cousins in the military and they all adored her - she gave them their first wage rise in years!

I don't think she merits a funeral on this national scale. And especially not since it costs £10m. I agree her sex is a red-herring. Her own party and most of her so-called friends couldn't wait to see the back of her when she was voted out of being leader of the Conservatives. And that's a simple truth which makes today's fuss all the more unnaceptable. (For want of a better word.)

I imagine the top brass military would have attended but I doubt whether all the rest would have been given time off.

Yanbu but went and got my son some shoes instead.

I think it is completely missing the point to discuss money and costs- how low can you get?

Those people who are complaining about the cost should remember the amount people like John Prescott spent doing up his flat in Admiralty Arch at the tune of several millions- just so he had nicer wallpaper.

When someone spends MY money on something, then I'll damn well discuss it as I please.

I also wonder how many people on this thread were actually adults, working etc when she was in government? If you had lived through the 3-day week, the lack of power, the bodies not buried, and the streets full of rubbish due to strikes, then you would have more perspective and be better placed to comment.