RSS Feed
April 10th, 2013 
Peter Nolan Updated: 13:09, Wednesday April 10, 2013
Britain stands deeply divided over the legacy of former Prime Minister, Baroness Margaret Thatcher, as it makes preparations for the grand funeral next week of the woman known around the globe as the ‘Iron Lady’.
Tributes from world leaders who hailed her role in bringing down communism kept flooding in as the British Government announced that Baroness Thatcher will be laid to rest on April 17 in London’s St Paul’s Cathedral.
Queen Elizabeth will lead mourners at the ceremonial funeral, one step down from the State funeral given to legendary wartime leader Winston Churchill, but the same honour afforded to the Queen Mother and to Princess Diana.
‘Maggie’ remains as polarising in death as she did in life, with violence erupting at street parties celebrating the demise of a figure who critics say destroyed millions of lives with her free-market economic policies.
Lady Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister and longest serving premier of the 20th century, died on Monday aged 87 after suffering a stroke. She had suffered dementia for more than a decade.
Foreign Secretary, William Hague, a fellow Conservative, told a briefing ahead of a meeting with G8 counterparts that Britain was grateful for the condolences from around the world.
‘She was an inspiration to many people in other countries, not just this country, particularly people aspiring to their own freedom and democracy at a time they didn’t have it, such as behind the Iron Curtain,’ Mr Hague said.
Condolence books were set up at several British embassies around the world.
Pope Francis was among the latest to pay tribute to Lady Thatcher, hailing her ‘promotion of freedom’. Similar tributes have come from US President, Barack Obama, and dozens of current and former world leaders including her one-time Soviet adversary, Mikhail Gorbachev.
Current British Prime Minister, David Cameron’s, office said the Government had agreed during a meeting with Thatcher’s family and Buckingham Palace that her funeral will take place next Wednesday, followed by a private cremation.
The Queen and her husband Prince Philip will attend the funeral, Buckingham Palace said.
Lady Thatcher’s coffin will rest in the Houses of Parliament the night before the funeral and will be taken through the streets on a gun carriage to the cathedral with full military honours.
Several Conservative MPs have called for her to receive a full State funeral but her spokesman, Lord Tim Bell, said Lady Thatcher believed it was ‘not appropriate’.
MPs have been recalled to parliament this Wednesday to debate Lady Thatcher’s legacy and will vote on a motion paying tribute to her.
That legacy – encompassing brutal clashes with miners, the crushing of the trade unions, violent poll tax riots and the Falklands War with Argentina – remains as divisive in 2013 as it was during her 11 years in power from 1979 to 1990.
Even in her home town of Grantham, eastern England, where she was born to a humble grocer and his wife, opinion is sharply split.
‘I am glad she is dead. … She closed down the mines and bought the coal from communist countries, our enemies,’ said Michael Blocksidge, 39, outside the town’s guildhall, where the flag flies at half mast as it does over the Parliament and Buckingham Palace.
Trouble erupted at several parties to celebrate her death in south London, Bristol in south-west England and Glasgow in Scotland, reminiscent of the sometimes violent protests during her time in office in the 1980s.
In Bristol six police officers were injured, one seriously, bottles and cans were thrown at officers and fires were started in bins.
Britain’s newspapers were also divided, with the right-wing Daily Telegraph calling Lady Thatcher a ‘champion of freedom for workers, nations and the world’ and the left-wing Guardian saying she promoted a ‘cult of greed’.
Lady Thatcher’s twin son and daughter were overseas when she died. Her husband Denis died in 2003.
Source Article from http://rss.skynews.com.au/c/34485/f/628636/s/2a86583b/l/0L0Sskynews0N0Bau0Ctopstories0Carticle0Baspx0Did0F8620A630GvId0F390A3641/story01.htm
Posted in 
