I'm Working Next Wednesday

[DJHawkes]

anyway, what is the expected turnout and how many of the onlookers lining the route will be there out of respect or just to be sure? The country is divided now more than ever and those, like me, who are unable to summon any real compassion, (I thought I might just feel some sense of loss or sympathy over the last 24 hours but no) are more concerned with the financial aspect of the occasion. Is that not a considered question?

[Jeza]

Mic and I had a fall out today. I have always been a Thatcher fan. I believe she did what needed doing. The unions were attempting to run this country. Three day weeks. TV going off at 10 pm.. They needed stopping and Thatcher did it. It wasn't Maggie that closed the mines, it was Scargill. Mic and I don't agree.

[DJHawkes]

Why should you agree now when everything you remember happened to you and yours not some strangers in a foreign country. We lived through it day to day and didn't understand the 'greater good' and the economy, people just either were better off or worse off.

[chaptazbru]

I think she should just have a family funeral with a few close friends and that's it !

[DJHawkes]

that's what hindsight and access to economic history tells us but how many millions never look at that , just their life as they knew it?

[237SJ]

How can there be any expected turnout? Turnout for the funeral is not something that can be gauged.

[Jeza]

Dotty, I assume you were directing that at me. I remember a lot Dotty. I lived in London at the time. People were collecting money out side the supermarkets. How many of those £1 coins do you think the miners got?

[DJHawkes]

then why bother with a route and barriers and military personel lining the route at all?

[DJHawkes]

I've no idea but that's what I mean, we remember what happened in our communities not what the central government was doing and why they were doing it.

[Mojo-Jo-Jo]

I'm being hauled into court by the police as a compulsory witness :(

[sandyRoe]

Thatcher started in 1979

[Mojo-Jo-Jo]

Personally I can't stay far enough away from the cold-hearted cow so I'm glad I won't see any of it.

[Zacs-Master]

Methyl, I think you mean 1979.

[mikey4444]

I have been invited to a funeral street party next Wednesday but I shall be heading for the Brecon Beacons with the dog for the day instead. Anywhere I won't be able to listen or watch the semi-state funeral.

[boxtops]

I don't think a "funeral street party" is very tasteful!!

2500 people are going to the service alone, and the Police anticipate "huge crowds" in London along the route. What do you mean, dotty "just to be sure"?

I was there working in the dark in the 3-day week and the power cuts, something had to be done to break the stranglehold of the unions in the early eighties. I was in the Midlands at the time where industry was heavily unionised. I admired her for what she achieved, as the only woman in high level politics at that time - now, it's the norm.

Anyway, if the Queen wants to attend, and those organising it feel that it's appropriate, who are we not to agree with it? It is the passing of a highly influential political lady, whether you cared for her policies at the time, or not.

[Baldric]

methyl, check your dates!

Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, KG, PC, was a British Labour politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980.

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS was a British politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990.

[wimp]

On the financial aspect.,the government are not going to tell the public how much her funeral is going to cost until after the funeral!!! I can see why!If she was to be paraded round the streets of Scotland or in yorkshire etc,you would then see what a lot of people thought of her!As i said before,roll on the 17th!Like you DJHawkes.....NO sense of loss!

[McMouse]

I both admired and respected MT and will be somewhere on the funeral route next Wednesday. I also posted a 'joke' on the MT thread today and over the years have enjoyed and told jokes about other world leaders.