Margaret Thatcher to be given state funeral.

[S1ur]

Is this true? because the Daily Mail reported it so obviously I need something more reliable than that

Last year Guardian reported 'there were no plans' for a state funeral.

Anyone heard this from anywhere other than the DM?

and the coal from those mines 'drove' the industrial revolution. Our history would be different if we didn't have all that steam coal.

there is indeed a means tested funeral grant for if you are on benefits and someone dies,but note the small print that says when the estate is settled they want it back.

I liked it thready

Thank you policywonk.

And thank you hugely for your lovely words on another thread. They were very much appreciated.

Good. They were sincerely meant.

Decisions about state funerals are based on a strict list of potentially eligible people. ome categories of people def get on but ex-PMs are on the list as maybes. Whether they get one depends on their own wishes, the wishes of their family, the current head of their own party, the PM and the Palace. Its not up to one party or PM.

wrinklytum - I lived through the miners strike in South Wales and we were personally affected by it as a family and friends (my Dad worked in the mining industry and was at one time a miner himself) however there is a strong argument that the strike and indeed Margaret Thatcher herself were actually a product of the previous labout government and the unions who couldn't seem to work together to run the country in any half way competant manner.

I can vividly remember taking an oil lamp to bed (ironically an old miners lamp) during the power cuts. I can remember the rubbish mountains when it wasn't being collected and shortages of bread/sugar etc.

I'm absolutely not a Thatcher apologist but too often people look at the bad stuff she was responsible for wihtout looking at why there was such a dramatic swing to the right and why she had such a huge following from previously non-right wing ordinary people.

I too clicked on here thinking Is she dead?

thought she was dead.

(I don't usually go round being disappointed that perfectly healthy people are still alive, btw... but for her I make an exception)

That's what I thought - has she died?

PML at fabio, cheered me up no end

is she dead??

bit maudling to dicuss this if not?(the people organising state funerals i mean, not you lto)

Policy Wonk "don't think the Tories ever got more than 50 per cent of the vote in GEs under her (and that's just the people who actually voted), so those who voted for her are going to come to considerably less than 50 per cent of the adult population."

I don;t think any modern government has won with more than 50% of the vote, The Tories under MT won with 44%, 42%, 42% repectively in 1079, 1983 and 1987. Recent labout govt won with 43% 40% and 35% (1997, 2001, 2005)so hardly a resounding moral victory for labour!

Oh quite KewCumber - it's just that the poster who asked the question seemed to believe Thatcher's governments had received the majority of the popular vote. I know that this rarely (if ever?) happens.

sorry my misunderstanding then

To be fair she did seem to be supported by more people than any other prime minister for a long tie and her popularity only really waned when she introduced the community charge.

that would be when she sold the country's inheritance, cheap, from the ones who bought it

that would be when they had to give some of it back

But I don;t think her popularity came form the denationalisatioon spree WW I tthink it came from people being so weary about the strikes and the shortages and thought that she might have an answer.

And of course she did - even if you don't like the result she did what she was voted in to do.

My theory is that poll tax came when she was runing out of ideas and just couldn;t resist trying to "fix" something...

"abolishing of student grants" [confused emoticon] Student grants weren;t abolished until 1998 (by labour) - or am I losing my marbles? I distinctly remember having a student grant in the height of the Thatcher years.

Read thread title in active convos, thought I'd missed big news

I thought for one glorious, glorious moment..........

doh! Just clicked for the same reason!

Was already to break out the bunting and sinf ''Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead...'''

OOh is Maggie Thatcher dead??? First Ive heard

Oh well get the hankies at the ready... to wave at her coffin