State Funeral for Thatcher

There are many tories who worship at the shrine of Thatcher. There are many, many other, more rational beings in the UK, who hold a very different view. One such appeared in the Independent yesterday.

“The fact that a state funeral for Margaret Thatcher has even been contemplated (report, 21 December) is a slap in the face for the millions of people whose lives she ruined.

She destroyed the British manufacturing base, destroyed the coal industry and destroyed the steel and ship-building industries as well as destroying whole communities which are still suffering from her legacy today. She ruled a land where an estimated five million were unemployed, forming the basis of today's multi-generational benefit-dependent families. She waged a war which could have been avoided.

She allowed Nigel Lawson, her chancellor, to begin the ruination of pensions by allowing employers to take a "pensions holiday". She created a nation reliant on financial services and service industries (and look where that has landed us) and changed a cohesive society to one which was and is selfish, self-serving and hypocritical, and this has led to a divided nation.

Her premiership started and ended with nationwide riots and protests. All this came from her fanatical ideology and it came to a point where even her own colleagues decided to get rid of her.

Today's austerity was born from her ideology, so why should taxpayers' money be wasted on a divisive state funeral?”  Letter from S. Silgram, Blackburn Lancs.

It would probably be best all round if she were to be buried at sea. That would at least stop people dancing on her grave.