Showing posts with label Baroness Thatcher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baroness Thatcher. Show all posts
Friday, October 06, 2023
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Baroness Thatcher's Ashes Laid to Rest
Baroness Thatcher's ashes were laid to rest today in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
Members of her family including her children Sir Mark and Carol Thatcher attended a short church service in the chapel of the central London site before a solid oak casket containing her ashes was placed in the ground.
A headstone bearing the simple inscription "Margaret Thatcher 1925 - 2013" was being erected on top of her final resting place in the leafy grounds of the hospital.
The country's first female prime minister died aged 87 on April 8. » | Saturday, September 28, 2013
Monday, April 22, 2013
Friday, April 19, 2013
THE CHRISTIAN POST: President Barack Obama's decision not to attend or dispatch high-ranking members of his administration to the funeral of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Wednesday was criticized in the United States as well as the United Kingdom.
Given that the White House sent an official delegation to the funeral of Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, a "tyrannical socialist dictator," Obama's treatment of the funeral of the "Iron Lady" was an "amazing snub," said the website of the Tea Party News Network. » | Anugrah Kumar , Christian Post Contributor | Thursday, April 18, 2013
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
THE GUARDIAN: Barack Obama sends presidential delegation with no serving politicians to London ceremony
The US is to send distinctly low-key official representation to Lady Thatcher's funeral on Wednesday, with a delegation led by George Shultz and James Baker, who both served as US secretary of state while Thatcher was in power.
While Barack Obama was invited, he has opted to send a presidential delegation comprising no serving politicians. Shultz was secretary of state to Ronald Reagan while Baker served the elder George Bush. Also representing Obama will be Barbara Stephenson, chargé d'affaires at the US embassy in London, and Louis Susman, the recently departed ambassador to Britain.
Separately, the Republican party is sending three members of the House of Representatives: Marsha Blackburn, who will lead the delegation, along with Michele Bachmann and George Holding. Blackburn is a leading fiscal conservative, while Bachmann, a member of the hard[-]line conservative Tea Party faction, became internationally known during her spectacular if brief bid for the 2012 presidential nomination. » | Peter Walker | Tuesday, April 16, 2013
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Michael Deacon reports on the chapel service held for the late Baroness Thatcher in the Palace of Westminster, the day before her funeral.
Footsteps on flagstones echoed through the vast hall, breaking the cold, draughty silence. Faint sunlight crept in from the outside world through the stained glass; otherwise, the hall was dim. Darkness spread from the high rafters down the dingy stone walls. Into this echoing gloom, the mourners slowly filed.
The day before her funeral, a chapel service was being held for Baroness Thatcher in the Palace of Westminster. Tucked away in a poky corner of Westminster Hall, up a short flight of steps, and guarded by wrought-iron gates, was a small door headed, “Chapel of St Mary Undercroft”. It was here that, this afternoon at three o’clock, Lady Thatcher’s coffin was brought.
As a television news helicopter thundered overhead, crowds gathered outside Parliament to watch the hearse draw up at Old Palace Yard. Solemnly the bearers hoisted the coffin on to their shoulders. The union flag in which it was draped fluttered in the breeze. Nestled in the wreath was a small white card. It read, simply, “Beloved Mother – always in our hearts.” » | Michael Deacon, Parliamentary Sketchwriter | Tuesday, April 16, 2013
ABC NEWS: More than 2,000 invitations were sent out for the Wednesday funeral of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Among the former U.S. presidents, surviving U.K. prime ministers, world leaders and celebrities who made the cut are some high profile would-be guests who sent regrets: Former First Lady Nancy Reagan — whose husband had a close relationship with the late premier — will not be able to attend; nor will former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who shared key moments in history with the Iron Lady. Germany's Angela Merkel is sending her foreign minister, while U.S. power families the Clintons and the Bushes won't be making appearances.
Here's a look at who is — and isn't — attending the funeral Wednesday at St. Paul's Cathedral. » | Associated Press | Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
EXPRESS: GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel will not attend tomorrow's funeral for her fellow "Iron Lady", Baroness Thatcher, it was confirmed today.
Germany's government will instead be represented by foreign minister Guido Westerwelle.
Mrs Merkel has been described as the "Iron Lady of Europe" and "Iron Lady Lite" for her tough negotiating stance.
Embassy sources said she rarely attends such funerals overseas and that foreign minister Mr Westerwelle - who was in London last week for a G8 meeting - is the next most senior figure who would usually take up such an invitation to her government.
Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl might have been a candidate to represent the state as he knew then PM Thatcher personally but he is too infirm to travel.
Downing Street yesterday insisted it was "not at all" concerned that relatively few heads of government from major countries have so far accepted the invitation to join mourners in London's St Paul's Cathedral. » | Alison Little | Monday, April 15, 2013
Sunday, April 14, 2013
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: A senior Cabinet minister has appealed to people planning to protest at Baroness Thatcher’s funeral to allow the ceremony to take place in a “dignified” way.
Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, has urged protesters to be “respectful” of the mourners attending Lady Thatcher’s funeral.
There are fears that protesters could attempt to disrupt Wednesday’s funeral ceremony in central London.
On Saturday night police were putting on a show of force in an attempt to discourage violent protests by groups who were gathering in Trafalgar Square to “re-enact” the Poll Tax riots of 1990.
Among those massing in the capital were anarchist and far-Left groups which have been planning for years to stage disruptions on the first Saturday following Lady Thatcher’s death. » | Peter Dominiczak, Political Correspondent | Sunday, April 14, 2013
Saturday, April 13, 2013
MAIL ONLINE: Anyone who can yield great power easily and painlessly is probably ill suited to exercise it. So it was with Margaret Thatcher. Leaving Downing Street in 1990, ousted by her own colleagues, was more than a wrench for her. It was a personal catastrophe.
She had driven herself so hard and excluded so much else from her life that by then all she was made for was to lead. Suddenly she found herself on the political scrap-heap — and irreversibly so.
Some around her thought of a possible return to power. But she never did, and, contrary to whispered allegations, she always discouraged such imaginings. She knew she was out for good.
The transition to private life was stressful for her, and immediately after her departure from No. 10, her mood was black. She was prone to tears, she was difficult and ill-tempered, sometimes she seemed unhinged. She was almost certainly clinically depressed. Perhaps she should have taken some medication, but she did not.
It was a condition not helped by her belief that her successor, John Major, was betraying everything she stood for. She disliked what she perceived as his lack of principle, his pursuit of consensus, his wooing of interest groups and his chippiness. She was tortured by his constant attempts to distance himself from her.
Suddenly deprived of staff, she had to make her own phone calls, and it emerged that she had no idea how to use a push-button telephone. She had to get advice from her police minders to do so.
More difficulties arose with finding somewhere suitable to live. The new house she had bought in Dulwich, South-East London, was too far out of town, and so the Thatchers borrowed a flat in Eaton Square, Belgravia.
It was suitably grand and central but dark, and her husband Denis in particular disliked its gloom. Mrs Thatcher, sitting beneath a painting of Queen Isabella of Spain, hosted sometimes lachrymose and slightly mad lunches there, while her friends and advisers around the table lamented bitterly the turn of events.
It is to this time in her life that can be traced another problem — her drinking. Contrary to legend, Mrs Thatcher never drank heavily in office.
She enjoyed relaxing with a whisky and soda (no ice), her favourite drink because it was less fattening than gin and tonic. But she was never tempted to over-indulge because she always had a low threshold for alcohol, and even the mildest inebriation would have dulled her mind during the long hours she worked on her papers.
But, out of office, the demands on her were far less — and, like many unhappy people, she hoped a drink would make life bearable. Read on and comment » | Robin Harris | Friday, April 12, 2013
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Baroness's Thatcher daughter has spoken of "tough and tearful week" ahead and thanked those who paid tributes to her mother.
In her first public statement since the former Prime Minister's death five days ago, Carol Thatcher also said that her mother had told her daughter that she was confident her place in history was "assured".
"I feel like anyone else who has just lost a second parent," Thatcher's daughter said. "It's a deeply sad and rather thought-provoking landmark in life. » | Robert Watts | Saturday, April 13, 2013
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Lady Thatcher planned her own funeral, right down to the hymns, writes Michael Deacon .
In death as in life, Margaret Thatcher remains firmly in charge. The woman whose premiership was marked by ramrod certainty and whipcrack decision-making had, it turns out, a characteristically needle-sharp idea about how her funeral must proceed. Today, the details of that idea emerge.
From the singing of I Vow to Thee, My Country to the choice of readings, every aspect of the occasion will reflect some part of Baroness Thatcher’s character: her love of Britain, her Christian faith, her belief in tradition.
One of her chief orders was that David Cameron give a reading. This is not, it seems, because he is David Cameron, or because he is the leader of Lady Thatcher’s party, but simply because he is Prime Minister: her instructions were that there should be a reading by whoever was the prime minister at the time of her death, regardless of political affiliation. It could have been Ed Miliband. (Mr Miliband, and indeed Mr Cameron, will no doubt be grateful that it isn’t.) » | Michael Deacon | Friday, April 12, 2013
Friday, April 12, 2013
BBC: BBC Radio 1 controller Ben Cooper has said that a "four or five" second clip of the Wizard of Oz song at the centre of an anti-Margaret Thatcher campaign will be played on the Official Chart Show.
Sales of Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead have soared since the former Prime Minister's death on Monday, aged 87.
Mr Cooper called the decision "a difficult compromise" and said he was "stuck between a rock and a hard-place". Watch BBC video » | Friday, April 12, 2013
My comment:
The BBC loses all sense of credibility playing this clip. Even if it is only “four or five” seconds. The song, which I have reluctantly just listened to on YouTube, is in incredibly bad taste. Only a person without any sense of propriety, decency, taste, refinement, or civility would rejoice in the death of another human being.
Mrs. Thatcher, as she was then, was an extremely dedicated leader. She did some great things for this country. Anyone who is old enough will be able to remember the parlous state this country was in when she came to office. Mrs. Thatcher, love her or hate her, turned this country around. And one should respect her for that. You don’t have to agree with all she did, but she should be respected for her efforts to pull the country up by the bootstraps.
Baroness Thatcher was a human being. To be human is to err. So although she did some wonderful things for this country, she also made some mistakes. As we all would.
But I believe that history will be kind to her. She was a lady who rose through the ranks through sheer guts and determination. She had pluck, determination, ‘stickability’, vision, and conviction aplenty. Everything was set against her. In fact, it is quite remarkable that she was able not only to become Britain’s first woman prime minister, but that she was able to become its first Conservative woman prime minister. Give credit where credit is due!
Many of those demonstrating are too young to remember what Britain was like in the pre-Thatcher era. So in many ways it can be said that they don’t even know what they are demonstrating against. They are basing their demos on hearsay and emotion.
Regardless of all this, it is in very bad taste to speak ill of the dead. These people should also remember that there are members of Mrs. Thatcher’s family who are still grieving her death. They should bear this in mind when they demonstrate in the coming days. It would be far better for them to go home in peace and hang their heads in shame, for no-one deserves to be treated like this. Neither in life nor death, but especially in death. – © Mark
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Police are preparing for violent scenes tomorrow after football fans vowed to confront anti-Thatcher protesters during a day of protest across the capital.
Officers will have to deal with three protests by left-wing groups, including an event to "celebrate" the death of Baroness Thatcher in Trafalgar Square, as 50,000 football fans head into central London following the FA Cup semi-final between Millwall and Wigan.
Some fans from Millwall have threatened to confront the anti-Thatcher protesters. The public have been warned to avoid central London.
Tomorrow night thousands have vowed to hold a party to celebrate the death of Baroness Thatcher in Trafalgar Square.
On the same day, UK Uncut, the anti-austerity protest group, have promised to hold a day of "civil disobedience" in protest to reforms to welfare, in which they will "evict" the "architects of austerity". It could mean the homes of Cabinet ministers are targeted.
And separately, the TUC is leading a march from 11am of "one thousand mothers" against benefit cuts in Tottenham - the scene of the worst disorder in London eighteen months ago. » | Hayley Dixon | Friday, April 12, 2013
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