should the tax payer fund Margaret Thatchers funeral ?
 

should the tax payer fund Margaret Thatcher funeral ? 10.04.13

its very controversial,
tongs will be wagging,
publicity needs not to be commercial,
because the turn out won't be sagging.
the "upper class" adored,
extravagant, pompous, with a endless tab,
walking the "walk" you must applaud,
not forgetting her gift of the gab.
with the good there's a down,
its a red light that's not green,
the "miners" felt the brown,
but still attending the funeral is the "Queen".
i watched Margaret's daughter,
"I'm a celeb" was a insight,
a good lady with no alter,
Carroll was a pure delight.
the "funeral" is hard to swallow,
the cost is ragging,
will the send off cause wallow,
because "bitterness" will be s ageing.
time to close the door,
all stand and be quiet,
is this moment very sore,
when to rest we lay the "llady" who started the "poll tax riot".

( i am very sorry if anyone find these words hard to read. battling with all what i have just said above i find myself asking - word this country be is the state it is in if we had a strong leader like her ? i predict not - and these are the words i hope brings comfort to my negative poem. but what do you think ? was she good for this country ? )

No

This is really bugging me actually. She specfically said she did not want a state funeral, so they decide to give her the next step down from it. Something she clearly didn't want, and something this country cannot afford allegedly.

Exactly ..... :thumbs:

As a non-Brit it's really not my place to have an opinion about such specific matters. I do hope that she is treated with dignity though.

I believe that she deserves to be treated with dignity.

another thread
one is enough

Sshe is obviously a target in death so it puzzles me why a very public parade has been arranged given she didn't want it. Surely here wishes should have been paramount?

No, it should be paid for from her estate, by her Family as with other families in the UK and if a really lavish funeral is desired then the Conservative party should fund it from their own funds not the taxpayers.

I see no reason whatsoever for the Military to be involved in this funeral,to me that is ridiculous,Margaret Thatcher had no real military connection.
I am really surprised the Queen will be attending too,I do not think that appropriate.
She should not be there adding even more to security costs,by all means make a broadcast marking her perceived achievements of Margaret Thatcher but not be at this funeral.

She was the first female PM of the UK and longest serving one.
Just, by a year or so though,she has rightly had the accolade of endless media coverage and documentaries on TV and tributes made in that way.
This planned funeral as it is, is out of order in my view and should not receive a single pence of taxpayers money as to it.

No other PM has hd that except for Winston Churchill who was there all through world war 2, no one would dispute he should have got that kind of funeral but not Margaret Thatcher,nor any other PM before her or after her either.

Being fair to Margaret Thatcher too, she herself would likely be horrified at the planning of this funeral the way it has been.
She would have gloried in the TV coverage accorded to her time as PM on TV since her death but she herself likely would not want her funeral to be turned into this farce.

This is specifically about her funeral though and who should be paying for it, the other thread is about her lifetime and legacy. It was confirmed on the news last night that the Thatcher family would be contributing a portion I want to know who is paying the rest don't you?

Expecting the taxpayer to foot the bill for her funeral is ridiculous, it's not as if the Thatchers don't have the money.

I agree,I don't think the taxpayer should be funding a single bit of it.

William Hague going on today about the rebate she won from the EU ages ago as a just reason for spending money on such a lavish funeral in these difficult times, again shows how out of touch this Govt and Cabinet are with ordinary people.

Margaret Thatcher's estate still a family secret
 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...-family-secret

Denis was worth a few bob, too :

I was employed by QH and was told that DT was on a retainer, as a non-executive director, of at least £250k pa plus expenses.

He also had fingers in more pies than mentioned above.

It does seem this way like it's one last finger to the public, something more low key would not have incited so much furore, and as said that was her wish.
this will be a catalyst for some to demonstrate against the 'austerity cuts' in the face of this sickening show of false sentiment.
The sad thing is that whoever does will not be seen a championing the thoughts and feelings of many but a disrespectful 'philpott'. This is how far we have come since the days of Thatcher.....Full circle.

How much does everyone think a state funerl is going to cost, in real terms? Probably less than it costs the country to keep all our alcoholics and junkies on benefits for a day. And why the hell shouldn't the military be involved? The military had respect for Thatcher and she had respect for them. This woman did get us a HUGE rebate from the EU, I don't see why that shouldn't be mentioned now. Like her or hate her, she was a great stateswoman and politician. As for the call that she was unpopular, I'd remind everyone that she never lost an election. She was in power for over a decade.

''Probably less than it costs the country to keep all our alcoholics and junkies on benefits for a day''
And there it is the view that everyone on a welfare benefits is a drug and alcohol addicted scrounger....

I think it says white clearly the words ALCOHOLICS AND JUNKIES. It doesn't say that everyone on welfare is a scrounger. It's very, very specific.

I would imagine the security alone will run into millions, it's a smack in the teeth to anyone who has had their disability allowance cut that on 1st April the country was broke and these cuts were vital, two weeks later we can host a lavish funeral for someone who expressly said they didn't want it. There are many other ways her supporters can pay their respects without lining the route to St Paul's.

It's not my country's money so I don't have much of an opinion on it but If she did say she didn't actually want one then it seems ridiculous to go against her wishes and spend so much of the Tax Payers money on something she didn't even want.

You say "lavish" like they're all going on somewhere afterwards to party.

It's all very well saying, oh it will cost more than the benefit cuts to the disabled. You could say that about anything. It's a fraction of what we send to India. It's a fraction of what we send to Africa, where we'vebeen digging wells for the last two hundred years and yet they're still drinking dirty water. If there wasn't anything to moan about, the Thatcher-haters would invent something.

Excellent point cherie, this is rubbing salt in a festering wound, whatever respect the military had for her (if any) is not really the issue here.
The only factor is the expense incurred, those who wish to mourn would do so whatever sum was spent surely?

I made the comment about the military. Why would you weave in your little comment in your reply to Cherie's post?

Oh actually, yeah... I remember why you do that now.

It's the minority ***** making a fuss over this funeral. As usual.

Yes of course it is a fraction of what is spent on other things, though I assume there will be soup and sandwiches afterwards for visiting dignitaries, are they really going to send the Queen et al home on empty stomachs? :joker:

It is the principal here. A. She didn't want it. B. We are in times of austerity (allegedly). C. If it is tax payers money there is quite likely to be a lot of protest which may or may not end in people being injured which could have been avoided had she had a private ceremony. I really don't get it.

Ok if you don't like lavish how about ceremonial? It is all very well attempting to justify it too, are you now suggesting that we suspend aid to developing countries to fund this?

Well now lets see.... Due to her misguided greedy selfish policies Britain has ended up where we are today.......Broke !!! whilst Mrs Thatchers families combined wealth probably runs in the tens of millions .So if you are asking if the Tax payer should fund a Public Funeral with Full military honours I would have to say NO..!!!!

No, i don't think so. Why should they ? :conf:

WHAT!!!!!LOL

Unfortuantely there is so much to complain about with Thatcher that there's no need to invent anything.

I admit certain things evade me re politics and off shore accounts etc.

But on reading the quoted news item, Maggie was the PM, and she had offshore accounts? Don't offshore accounts effect the economy of the Country? and if so, shouldn't a PM or former PM lead/have lead by example, considering the supposed state this Country is in that stealing from the poor to give to the rich, re our latest PM, robbing hood. Does he have offshore accounts also then?

As for the thread question itself. If Maggie herself requested no State Funeral or the likes, in that respect her wishes should have been respected, especially by her kin. Simple as. Now her funeral could be a mockery if some people who disliked her bombard it. What a memory for her family and it's their own faults.

I say no too and I doubt very much that I would be alone in my opinion there, no need to be rude though, I appreciate there will be some who welcome this news however thin on the ground they are.

Suze, you are right it does affect the economy quite considerably.. But you have to understand there is a big difference between tax 'evasion' and tax 'avoidance'... What that difference is I'm not sure :)

Absolutely not - she didn't request a state funeral so any tax payer funded one is disrespectful to her wishes. I quite like(d) the private company bidding idea. That is, after all, what she would have wanted. But then I suppose she'd have also wanted to rob the poorest of some more valuable money so maybe this'll keep her spirits happy too.

I sincerely hope and expect that if this goes ahead there will be some kind of riot that kicks off. I wouldn't usually support that but if you're going to use tax payers money to fund a funeral for a woman whom for a lot of those tax payers she will have destroyed their communities, then you'll get what's coming to you. And the minute I see the police turning into some military style force, sh*t will hit the fan.

I'd actually rather support them considering Thatcher herself will have inadvertently pushed a lot of them into that position as a result of her policies.

She was a successful politician for her party, to be admired in some ways for attaining the status she did in that party and her determination to succeed, she lays claim to the fame of being the first UK PM, not the first in the World however, she was a strong and successful leader of her party.
She was a strong but not necessarily good PM overall as to large sections of the UK.

She was PM for over 11 years, won 3 elections, Harold Wilson actually won 3 elections too and led his party the be the largest party in a 4th,(Tony Blair was PM for over 10 years too, only about 18 months less than Margaret Thatcher).
The Queen did not attend Harold Wilson's funeral, no military were involved as to that so I see no reason why money should be spent from the taxpayer for her funeral and the Queen should not be there,she should represent all the people not a narrow section of it.

Margaret Thatcher will be talked about in political history in a good and bad way for as long as politics endures along with many others.
She has a statue erected in Westminster for her and for me that is where it all should end.

Her funeral should be the sole responsibility of her own estate, her family and if they so wish the backstabbing Conservative party who threw her out, not the taxpayer.
I also fail to see why those who disliked her intensely should now because she has died, become hypocrites and be expected to not say anything bad as to her.

I am sad for her, that her last years were riddled with illness, she would have got my vote once and once only,however in the end as far as I am concerned she was no more than a privileged citizen with a title.
This overblown coverage about her funeral is ridiculous and I also have little doubt as I have said before, that she would likely be as infuriated at it as many others are and rightly so.

Ah.. you mean who're?

Is it the minority though... who're the supporters?

''Operation true blue''

This is totally ridiculous...
''The “True Blue committee” brings together MI5, National Security Secretariat, the police, Buckingham Palace, the Church of England, the Parliamentary authorities, Government departments and representatives of Lady Thatcher’s estate''

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...ral-plans.html

Of course
what else would they do

No. We are apparently broke.

And she wouldn't have wanted it anyway.

So I dont get it at all :S

I don't think operation true blue is ridiculous, daft title but there you go.

However as long as those involved in it were the ones paying every pence as to cost and security and not one pence of taxpayers money was used then that would be fair enough.
However since they are not footing 100% of the cost then that part is not only ridiculous but also massively wrong and unacceptable in my opinion.

They shouldn't even have to be considering the extra cost of security for the Queen and Prince Philip's presence at it, they should not even be there at all anyway.

I am also though a bit sick of the Falklands conflict being milked regularly for all its worth, I expected to hear some mention of it but it does seem rather sick to keep milking it over and over.

It is a disgraceful waste of money . I hate that the Queen is attending this ridiculous overblown funeral and i hope it all goes tits up !

I'd be happy if they chucked her on the nearest bonfire

Total abuse of tax payers money !!!

I think its a bit of a gamble to hold such a high profile funeral given the extreme divisiveness that currently exists in relation to Mrs Thatcher and her legacies.

This is still a huge amount of bad feeling from people and families across the social spectrum that still to this day hate everything about Thatcher and Thatcherism. The depth of anger I fear is strong enough to motivate certain groups to plan major disruptions to this funeral.

Coupled with the current protest mentality we have seen in the last few years then this funeral could provide a trigger for some of the largest and most explosive protests the Capital has seen in a long time.

I hope the policing and security for this event are ready for all eventualities...!!!

Its not all tax payers
some of it is paid by her Estate