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 ?

Ooh, that sounds good limited - anyone else go along ?

She wouldn't have wanted the waste - really? Then why didn't she leave very clear instructions that she wanted a private funeral with a suitable memorial service later? I think she was PM when Macmillan died - he got something like 45 mins of tributes in the Commons, when the House was sitting, not all this overblown nonsense.

Her last days were spent in the Ritz, a business that has paid no taxes for something like 17 years. Her funeral is costing taxpayers, we are told, £10m, although the government hasn't bothered to tell us what the bill actually is. Ironic for a woman who imposed savage cuts on public spending - while for much of her time in office it actually rose because she threw so many people out of work and onto benefits.

As for those who say 'the 1970s were horrid, she saved us from the unions'; the early 70s saw the abandonment of fixed exchange rates, which caused rampant inflation, which meant businesses stopped investing, while the oil price crisis also savaged the economy. Both Labour and the Tories held office during this period.

Thatcher's policies also wreaked havoc, but of a different nature. We are still living with her legacy today. Sadly.

The milk float irony wasn't lost on me.

I guess she might have preferred that to being parked outside the Chelsea Hospital while Mark and Carol ate lunch before being driven to Mortlake Crem this afternoon.

I'm getting a bit sick of this 'unions holding the country to ransom' crap. For starters, as other have pointed out, the three-day week was under the Heath govt. Kind of ironic that those of you saying "Oh I lived under it so you can't possibly comment" can't even remember what year it was and who was the PM at the time.

For seconds, the unions only went on strike when they were let down by the govt. For some years previously, they had agreed to very low pay increases in order to counter the problems caused by super-high inflation, meaning that their members had effectively had repeated pay cuts. Once inflation was relatively under control, they started bargaining for more equitable increases, the govt said no, and they (quite understandably) exercised their democratic right to strike. Hardly the actions of a rabid-eyed crazed left-wing putsch.

What is beginning to grate on me is people going on about "pomp and pageantry". Every newspaper column, every TV angle focussing on the sheer spectacle. Yes, that's how we do it in this country, but I fear we will start to be known as "...those Britons, they put on a bloody good show, don't they?"

Important events in freeze frames of soldiers walking, a procession, a cathedral of some sort. Yes, the last two were royal events, hence the pomp, but using the word pageantry while describing this funeral is a bit off.

wallison do you want to join me in a soundbite bingo for those people who've read stuff, sorry, were born then, so know all about it?

I was thinking about this from another angle yesterday. I decided to watch a film on Netflix. Two caught my eye - 'The Queen' and 'The Iron Lady'.

Obviously I couldn't stomach the latter, so 'The Queen' it was. If that film was to be believed she was so so utterly opposed to Diana having a state funeral (yes, I know we aren't allowed to call it that) that Tony Blair had to threaten her with a constitutional crisis.

So why no fuss from the Palace over this one? Has the Queen lost her fight? Will she now roll over and let any PM (Gordon Brown or David Cameron) tickle her tummy? Or was her opposition to Diana's funeral really personal and not, as she said, adhering to protocol?

Gideon crying. He takes benefits away from the disabled and housing from the poor without a thought... And this is what brings him to tears?

Typical. Made me sick to watch.

Sounds good, limitedperiodonly but bagsy I get "the dead left unburied" because I like saying it in lugubrious tones.

williaminajetfighter - yes, not only does he take away benefits and housing, but he brays like a fucking piggy and waves his order paper around and cheers about it.

EldritchCleavage, I made a mistake. Alf's maternal granny was from Kenmare, Co Kerry. I thought it was Co. Cork. Imagine, Maggie the quintessential Brit's dad could have played footie for Ireland and have been eligible for an Irish passport.

I caught Terry Wogan being asked about attending Baroness Thatcher's wedding and the horses being very very playfu :) :)

amused me though not enough the money it cost is disgusting and Liam Fox moaning that Obama not sending a representative pissed me off too I am sure the white house has other more pressing matters to deal with

growlithe I'm thinking the same thing as you, I think.

It's a monster of their making and yes, the Queen will do that. She already accepted it for Diana and her mother.

After Margaret Thatcher we can now expect ceremonial funerals for all Prime Ministers and all reasonably senior Royals.

If we made excuses for Thatcher we can make excuses for everyone can't we? After all, we hand out a minute's silence for every other death.

wallison okay, but only if I can have have Britain went cap in hand to the IMF.

I haven't seen that one yet, which I regard as a sad indictment of our education system. Or people's googling techniques

annoyednow, phew!.

I am astonished at the pettiness of the Obama bashing. This is a massive week in Washington even without the Boston incident thrown in. The gun control bill is in the Senate, for starters (just rejected, sadly).

Obama was never going to leave all that for the non-state funeral of a person whom he did not know who left office many years ago, and nor should he have done. The administration said that the contemporaries of Thatcher who were attending (e.g. George Shultz) would stand as representatives of the US.

To characterise this reasonable decision as a snub is pathetic.

Limited, I agree - I don't see how we could possibly refuse Blair, Major, Brown, Cameron, etc a funeral on this scale now we've done one for her.

One man's meat is another man's poison and all that.

It was such ill-thought through nonsense.

What is beginning to grate on me is people going on about "pomp and pageantry".

youniids I've mentioned on another Thatcher thread that Britain can be proud that we lead the world in teenage pregnancy, binge drinking and potato-based snacks.

I forgot pageantry. Truly, my heart bursts. Which is a bit messy, so thank gawd for the NHS. While it lasts, that is

I think it might be a snub but I might be oversensitive.

After all, this was most definitely not a state funeral in all but name for someone who spent a lot of her time sucking up to the opponents of the Democrats.

And it's not as if it's the funeral of the representative of a country that had a bit of a poor reputation in Kenya, which is, remind me, where Obama's dad came from.

I am pretty confident that this is the last such funeral we'll have for a PM in our lifetimes.

I'm pretty confident it's not grovel.

And Thatcher was not Head of State. If Obama started attending the funerals of all leading politicians around the world he would never be in Washington. I'm pretty sure he would have come if it had been the Queen (subject to domestic dramas).

It will be the last. Think Blair has got his sights on a state funeral. No chance.

Depends how long we live people. 48 years between Churchill and Thatcher's funerals. I can't see Major having a state/ceremonial funeral. I could see Blair wanting one. I wouldn't expect Blair/Brown to go for at least 25 years, and Cameron longer than that.

DomesticCEO, but why?

She was first woman PM, she won a "war" and served longer than any other PM for 150 years.

And it's not as if it's the funeral of the representative of a country that had a bit of a poor reputation in Kenya, which is, remind me, where Obama's dad came from

But Obama is not Kenyan and did not grow up with his father, so it is unlikely he was influenced by that quarter. This whole 'He's anti-British' issue is a favourite of the Daily Telegraph (especially that strange columnist Nile Gardner), but there is no real evidence for it. The fact he didn't keep Churchill's bust in the Oval Office is hardly conclusive.