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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

893 replies

JugglingFromHereToThere · 17/04/2013 09:34

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

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 ?

OP posts:
Original poster
JugglingFromHereToThere · 17/04/2013 19:02

Well bialy I did ask in the OP what people made of her legacy too .... if some people got distracted by hats and pall-bearers don't blame me !

OP posts:
BananaGio · 17/04/2013 19:09

Bial I would join you on a legacy thread. Particular points that have made my teeth itch this last week are the - I remember before she got in, the three day week blah blah - the 3 day week wasnt bloody Labour, go back a few years to the Tory government. I know things were bad before she got in before anyone starts going on about the winter of discontent etc but please leave the 3 day week out of it unless you are using it as an example of how things werent great throughout the 70s under both sides. Another one the collective amnesia regarding the way the Tories got rid of her, yes that would be the Tories who are now gushing over her every move, not the disrespectful lefties who probably werent born at the time. The only 2 people I have seen mention it so far are Tebbitt and Skinner!

Original poster
JugglingFromHereToThere · 17/04/2013 19:10

And mother's place - thanks for the name check .... and an OP's place is often in the wrong too Grin - slightly mad grin Wink

OP posts:
JakeBullet · 17/04/2013 19:14

I was distracted by hats and pall bearers .

This was less about politics for me and more about a State occasion....and we DO those so well here.

Dawndonna · 17/04/2013 19:15

I remember Black Monday and Black Wednesday. Both Tory governments.

exoticfruits · 17/04/2013 19:23

I am just relieved that it all went so well.

dotnet · 17/04/2013 19:29

I read - I think in the i yesterday - 8million pounds for the funeral; compare/constrast this with the withdrawal of 11million pounds of Arts Council funding.
Most people didn't vote for this government; Cameron had no right to big up the event as if we all wanted this. He was being arrogant, imposing his desire for a huge public Tory preening on the rest of us.

limitedperiodonly · 17/04/2013 19:38

How did you expect it to go exotic?

Beveridge · 17/04/2013 19:44

If 'not even being born then' denies you the right to comment on a period in the past, then I probably shouldn't bother going to work tomorrow (history teacher).

If you have evidence, you can have an opinion. And eye witnesses can be notoriously unreliable as a source of historical evidence - rose-tinted glasses, mistaking anecdote for data, misremembering things.

CocktailQueen · 17/04/2013 20:05

Great post, Beveridge :)

AFAIK, dotnet, it wasn't Cameron;'s decision at all. It was Gordon Brown's (in his brief period in power) to make Baroness Thatcher's funeral a ceremonial one. Mind you, Labour were always good at spending public money :)

Growlithe · 17/04/2013 20:08

Cameron should have had the sense to cut the spend in the same way as all other public spending. After all, we are all in this together.

LineRunner · 17/04/2013 20:23

Labour decided to have a lot of things.

Cameron said No, let's not. He could have cut the funeral arrangements, too. Thatcher wouldn't have wanted the sheer waste.

limitedperiodonly · 17/04/2013 20:25

I imagine it was a tactical decision by Gordon Brown. How would it look if a Labour administration denied Margaret Thatcher a lavish funeral?

I guess it's also been a problem for Dave in these times of austerity. But should we have stuck her on the back of a milk float?

exoticfruits · 17/04/2013 20:26

I expected there to be trouble, limitedperiodonly.

Original poster
JugglingFromHereToThere · 17/04/2013 20:28

I think she would have loved some of it LineRunner - especially the applause when coffin left the church.
It's a shame really we all don't get to see more of our own funerals isn't it ?
My DM had the right idea and had a big 70th "3 score years and ten" party !

OP posts:
Growlithe · 17/04/2013 20:28

limited that would have had a certain irony that the public might have enjoyed.

bialystockandbloom · 17/04/2013 20:29

You don't have to be homophobic to alter the manufacturing base

Exactly linerunner

I didn't say I believed the union stranglehold should have been left as it was. But tackling the unions doesn't negate the terrible and cruel things that were introduced during her PMship. Two wrongs don't make a right.

This isn't selective memory - all those things I listed happened, and the less easily tangible things (eg societal/community breakdown) can also be easily and clearly drawn back to the 80s. She and her govt introduced and championed the individual over society, and that legacy is clearly stronger today than ever.

I also never said that anyone not born at the time had no place to comment Hmm - but I have frequently seen "I wasn't there and don't know... but she was a great leader and great that she was a woman". And even (slightly paraphrasing) "I wasn't around then and cba to google to find out, but...".

limitedperiodonly · 17/04/2013 20:31

Thatcher wouldn't have wanted the sheer waste.

I guess Thatcher insisted she didn't want to make a fuss while knowing that everyone would.

It's what old ladies do, isn't it?

Original poster
JugglingFromHereToThere · 17/04/2013 20:33

I still think bial that whatever else it was "great that she was a woman"

But agree with all those saying that once she became PM especially, she could have remembered that more, and done more for women and families, and for women's rights.

OP posts:
bialystockandbloom · 17/04/2013 20:39

But should we have stuck her on the back of a milk float?

That would have been quite apt, no? Wink

LineRunner · 17/04/2013 20:43

I do feel there is some middle ground between £10million grandiosity and being flung on the back of a milk float.

bialystockandbloom · 17/04/2013 20:43

She did nothing for women!

She ignored calls for equal pay, did nothing about childcare to enable more women to get into work, and didn't she even say something about not being a feminist?

bialystockandbloom · 17/04/2013 20:44

Meant it would be ironic, given the 'milk snatcher' thing.

Wallison · 17/04/2013 20:45

I think the exact words were "I hate feminism. It is a poison".

limitedperiodonly · 17/04/2013 20:45

Some of us growlithe Grin

I went to this morning's procession in Whitehall with 15 minutes to spare. I was right by Downing Street in the front row. It was reasonably well attended. There was polite applause and no dissent. There were a lot of tourists and curious office workers who, like me, were there for the occasion.

By contrast you couldn't get near the wedding of William and Kate or the Queen's diamond jubilee celebrations unless you'd camped for at least 12 hours beforehand.

I guess that there was more of an attraction towards St Paul's.