"I'm not dead yet."
Sometimes the necessities of real life remind me of the absurdities of a Monty Python sketch.I was away for the weekend and not paying attention to the news, so I did a double take at the Guardian headline, State funeral planned for Lady Thatcher. No, the iron lady had not died. The government and the state were "only" making policy and plans. It's a reminder of the important role Margaret Thatcher played in modern British politics.
A state funeral is a big deal and it requires not only grand planning, but also widespread approval. It is, after all, partly a policy decision.
Michael White wrote in the Guardian, "Lady Thatcher is expected to be granted the rare honour of a state funeral when she dies.
"The first since Sir Winston Churchill's in 1965, the funeral would acknowledge the exceptional impact of her 11-year premiership in reversing the decline in Britain's postwar fortunes.
"As such, it would be certain to prove controversial among the many people who lost their jobs during the 'Thatcher revolution' which reintroduced market forces into many fields of activity and for which she has not been forgiven by some.
"Yesterday, when the consent of Buckingham Palace and No 10 was reported by the Mail on Sunday...
"State funerals are routinely accorded only to monarchs, and Buckingham Palace was forced into a compromise after being wrongfooted over the sudden death of Princess Diana in 1997, the most memorable public funeral in Britain since Queen Victoria's..."
Labels: leadership, UK
posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:39 AM
1 Comments:
From The Guardian, 2 August:
Harman: we have not agreed Thatcher state funeral
"The government has not agreed to grant Lady Thatcher a state funeral, contrary to reports last month, Labour's deputy leader, Harriet Harman, said yesterday.
"Harman, who ended her week in charge of the government yesterday, declined to comment on whether a state funeral should be held, but said she had been told by other senior figures in the government that no decision to hold a state funeral had been made..."
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