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Blair 'planning State Funeral' for Thatcher

TONY Blair is backing a controversial plan to provide a state funeral for one of the Labour Party's most reviled enemies of recent decades: Margaret Thatcher.

Scotland on Sunday can reveal that civil servants have been working for months on the details of Baroness Thatcher's funeral, even though there is no suggestion the 80-year-old is suffering from any life-threatening condition.

But Blair believes Thatcher's eventual passing should be marked with the first state funeral for a commoner since Winston Churchill more than 40 years ago.

The proposal has astounded constitutional experts, who argue that - royalty aside - the honour is normally reserved for politicians who "saved the country at times of dire need".
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=824002006

I was going to say I'm speechless, but seeing as he was inviting Thatcher for tea weeks after moving into No. 10 it's not much of a surprise he now wants to give Thatcher such undeserved honour.

Laughable.
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
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Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Oh dont be so cynical! It should be any excuse to have a party ... ;)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Oh there will be people dancing in the streets no doubt.

    I expect Brixton will be teeming :D

    Not to mention just about everyone in the North of England.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote:
    Oh there will be people dancing in the streets no doubt.

    I expect Brixton will be teeming :D

    Not to mention just about everyone in the North of England.

    Don't forget us! ;)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Why? Whats the point? Maybe he's hoping someone will do the same for him.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    So long as they make provision for Elvis Costello to make good on his lyrical promise! ;)

    edited to add:

    Well I hope I dont die too soon
    I pray the lord my soul to save
    Oh Ill be a good boy, Im trying so hard to behave
    Because theres one thing I know, Id like to live
    Long enough to savour
    Thats when they finally put you in the ground
    Ill stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down

    When england was the whore of the world
    Margeret was her madam...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Drag her dead body through the streets Baghdad style is what I say! :thumb:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Seems over the top to me. We've previously only had State funerals as PM for Duke of Wellington* and Churchill and saving us from Galtieri and some over powerful unions is probably not in the same league as saving us from Napoleon and Hitler

    *and the Duke of Boots was more given a state funeral for his role as military leader than his unspectactular time as PM
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's probably a mixture for her being the first female PM and her sucess at the helm, well when I say sucess I mean managing to win 3 General Elections.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    There might be the odd commie-obsessed weirdo out there who might believe Thatcher did "save the country at times of dire need"- though I'm sure anyone who's not a loonie wouldn't agree at all.

    Perhaps Tony Blair thinks so though. Or perhaps he's secretly in love with Maggie. Either way it's utter bollocks. Little more than a cheap, suppossedly populist (with the tabloid press at least, which seems to be the only people Tony ever listens to) measure to distract attention from his failings and his lies.
  • Teh_GerbilTeh_Gerbil Posts: 13,332 Born on Earth, Raised by The Mix
    That old bag wouldn't even want it... she'd want it private!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Although i dont see the need for her to have a state funeral, i still think all you people saying your going to dance on her grave and she should have her dead body dragged through the streets are sick sick people.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    subject13 wrote:
    sick sick people.

    :D:D:D
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Teh_Gerbil wrote:
    That old bag wouldn't even want it... she'd want it private!

    :lol:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    If displaying joy over the eventual demise of one who brought so much misery to so many to serve the big money interests of so few is sickness, Ill take a second helping gladly!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote:
    Oh there will be people dancing in the streets no doubt.

    I expect Brixton will be teeming :D

    Not to mention just about everyone in the North of England.
    I can see most of the people over the age of 40 especially celebrating in my town (ex mining town)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Blair must go ...by morning.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    with a bit of luck ...it will spark off riots in the streets of london.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Maybe he'll request to be buried alongside Maggie- there and then.

    There's hoping.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    She did do a lot for this country, she certainly saved it from Scargill. I'd say Scargill was a real and present danger.

    Personally I won't care when she dies, but I am always delighted when a trade union boss dies. I'd love to piss on Jimmy Knapp's grave, for one.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    US presidents (unless they explicitly state otherwise as Nixon did) are given a state funeral. As are notable leaders in many countries around the world. Even if you disagree with Thatcher politically as the longest serving British Prime Minister in the 20th century who inherited a second world country but following her demise left a leading European power she is undeniably a noteworthy figure...

    Anyway Aladdin - not being British your opinion on whether a former British Prime Minister receives a state funeral is frankly irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure British residents in Spain wouldn't give a toss about what kind of funeral the Spanish give a former leader.

    Regardless if it wasn't for Thatcher I shudder to think what kind of country Britain would have become. It's depressing anyway to talk of funeral plans for Baroness Thatcher while she's still alive, tbh any talk whatsoever of the death of Britain's greatest living Prime Minister is thoroughly depressing.

    Meanwhile...one of the greatest US presidents with the greatest post-war Prime Minister.

    withthatcher86.gif
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Party in Trafalgar Square from 6pm, the Saturday after Thatch pops her long overdue clogs! See some of you there...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    An overrated senile B-grade actor strolls alongside his self-important megalomaniac dominatrix. Brilliant!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    ill be fucking pissed off if they do a state funeral for that cow, but i wont be particularly surprised.
    Itll be worth it though if it means shed be dead.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    An overrated senile B-grade actor strolls alongside his self-important megalomaniac dominatrix. Brilliant!
    :lol:

    well... itd be funny if it wasnt sadly true.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Anyway Aladdin - not being British your opinion on whether a former British Prime Minister receives a state funeral is frankly irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure British residents in Spain wouldn't give a toss about what kind of funeral the Spanish give a former leader.
    Well damned if you do, damned if you don't. If a foreigner doesn't take an interest in local affairs is seen as disinterested and disrespectful to their host nation. And if they do they're told it's not of their business. :rolleyes: ;)

    I do take an interest Disillusioned just as you take an interest in the lives and deaths of statesmen from US to Palestinian Presidents.

    Evil does not know of national borders anyway. When a truly nasty (or a truly nice) person known round the world dies everyone has a right to an opinion.

    Anyways, I pay my taxes in full and don't want any of my hard earned money to go towards such innapropriate and extravagant blah blah blah...
    :p
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    "I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left."
    Margaret Thatcher

    So true. The left can't stand Thatcher and the late, great Ronald Reagan and it's not surprising. Why would the left like two great leaders that reduced the reliance of the poor and the vulnerable on the state? Thatcher helped decent working class people to better themselves. The left, as signified by its hatred of grammar schools seem to have some kind of problem with self-improvement.

    Reagan was instrumental in the demise of the Soviet Union and Thatcher was his staunchest ally. Reagan brought freedom to Eastern Europe, over there and in the States he's got the admiration he deserves but the fall of the Soviet Union still irks some sections of the left here. Those that support freedom along with conservatives rightly give Reagan the respect he deserves.

    And Thatcher? She cannot be praised enough. Her predecessors left Britain in an awful state, their failures were frankly criminal. Under Thatcher's Labour predecessors Britain crawled to the International Monetary Fund for loans like some tinpot South American dictatorship and strikes were constant. The rubbish piled up, buses didn't run, shops were empty, bodies piled up - bin men, bus drivers, lorry drivers, grave diggers were all on strike. The UK was the sick man of Europe before Thatcher, after Thatcher Britain's status was restored. If you don't like Britain I guess understandably you won't like Thatcher since she did so much good for Britain.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Thatcher helped decent working class people to better themselves.

    LOL!

    Sublime spin there Disillusioned. On a par with suggesting giving the electric chair to convicts helped improve their appearance by making them look tanner.

    Bra-vo! :D
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Dis is just an unthinking mouthpiece for neo-liberalism, I don't believe he actually has an original thought in his body.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote:
    Well damned if you do, damned if you don't. If a foreigner doesn't take an interest in local affairs is seen as disinterested and disrespectful to their host nation. And if they do they're told it's not of their business. :rolleyes: ;)

    Sorry. It's just well I don't really care what Spain does to its former leaders. Living hear local affairs directly affect you, hence I see why you take an interest. I just can't really see the concern of whether Thatcher gets a state funeral or not. I mean how Britain honours its former PM's it's not really a big deal.
    Aladdin wrote:
    I do take an interest Disillusioned just as you take an interest in the lives and deaths of statesmen from US to Palestinian Presidents.

    Arafat was a terrorist. I didn't really care that greatly about the Palestinians hagiographical marking of his death though.
    Aladdin wrote:
    Evil does not know of national borders anyway. When a truly nasty (or a truly nice) person known round the world dies everyone has a right to an opinion.

    Ha. And I thought you hated Bush for using the term 'evil.'

    Everyone has their right to express an opinion but it is regardless disrespectful and pretty sick to celebrate Thatcher's death. Politically I detest the likes of Tony Benn, etc but I wouldn't celebrate their death. Callaghan wrecked Britain but I didn't see his death as something to celebrate. The whole idea of celebrating the misfortunes or whatever of people you dislike is just plainly distasteful.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote:
    On a par with suggesting giving the electric chair to convicts helped improve their appearance by making them look tanner.

    The working class disagree with you...Thatcher won three successive elections - she wouldn't have done that without the support of some sections of the working class. The far-left like Blag don't even recognise the merits of the right-to-buy scheme...Labour was forced to drop its opposition to right-to-buy because it was losing so many votes. Thatcher won the battle of ideas, Labour only got back in by convincing the British people it would not reverse Thatcher's improvements/reforms.
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