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margaret thatcher
Former British PM Margaret Thatcher divides Britain in death as much as in life; while she was hailed by business leaders and former colleagues, ordinary people who suffered from her brutal policies were celebrating the Iron Lady’s death.
Hundreds took to the streets as macabre “Thatcher death parties” were held late across the country last night, organized by Baroness Thatcher’s critics.
In Bristol, seven police officers were injured – one seriously – as violence erupted at a street party of 200 people and officers were pelted with bottles, cans and rubbish.
Riot police were deployed in Brixton, south London, as the crowds, which had been drinking since 5 p.m., started to become more aggressive, while in Liverpool flares and fireworks were set off outside Lime Street Station.
Messages to organize the parties began flooding the internet minutes after the official announcement.
In Bristol police were called to Chelsea Road in the Easton area of the city during the early hours of today after violence erupted at a street party.
Trouble flared after midnight when a rowdy 200-strong crowd refused police requests to disperse.
People who suffered from Margaret Thatcher’s brutal policies as PM were celebrating the Iron Lady’s death on the street
Dozens of officers donned riot gear and used shields and batons as they were pelted with bottles, cans and rubbish.
Wheelie bins were set on fire by the mob and a police car was damaged by the flying missiles.
Some of the injured police needed hospital treatment and one male officer was still detained today with a neck injury.
One man was arrested for violent disorder and it took police more than two hours to restore calm.
It was not until 3 a.m. that most of the police units sent to the scene were stood down.
The party had started outside the Chelsea Inn in Easton, which is one of Bristol’s poorest and multi-cultural neighborhoods.
The air was thick with cannabis smoke as revelers toasted the death of Margaret Thatcher, chanting: “Maggie Thatcher, Maggie Thatcher, she’s not living anymore. She’s not living anymore.”
Some people drank champagne while others walked around in Margaret Thatcher masks and one man dressed up as the former PM.
Sound systems were set up in the street to fuel the party atmosphere and the trouble broke out when police tried to stop the music.
Unemployed Julian Styles, 58, who was made redundant from his factory job in 1984, said: “I’ve been waiting for that witch to die for 30 years.
“Tonight is party time. I’m drinking one drink for every year I’ve been out of work.”
Speaking to Stephen Nolan on BBC Radio Ulster, former PM Tony Blair said the celebrations of Margaret Thatcher’s death were in poor taste.
When asked if he worried there would be similar celebrations when he dies, Tony Blair said: “When you decide, you divide. I think she would be pretty philisophical about it and I hope I will be too.”
In Brixton, south London, two women were arrested on suspicion of looting a store and riot police were deployed as the crowds which had been drinking since 5 p.m. started to become more aggressive, refusing to let buses through the streets.
More than 300 people, including the young and old partied until late at night on the streets of London, clutching cans of cider and cartons of milk as they danced along to reggae and 1980s music.
Many children also attended the impromptu event with their parents some wearing fancy dress, fairy wings and clutching balloons.
The carnival-like celebrations also drew crowds who had no knowledge or interest in at Margaret Thatcher, but who wanted to join in with the revelry.
Brixton was the scene of intense rioting during her time as Prime Minster – the unrest was blamed on deep social divisions, racial tensions and unemployment.
At 11 p.m. last night, party-goers climbed the Ritzy Cinema to replace the billboard of films to say “Margaret Thatcher’s dead”.
They received cheers and applause from fellow revelers as they did so.
Later they added the words “LOL” (laugh out loud), followed by “Oh Aye”.
The two hooded men who covered their faces as they replaced the words on the Picture House cinema also attached a sign reading “the bitch is dead”.
The Ritzy Cinema said it had nothing to do with masked people and later tweeted its thanks to those who helped clean up broken letters and damage.
Pictures of anti-Thatcher graffiti scrawled on walls in Brixton also appeared on Twitter, with one reading: “You snatched my milk! & our hope.”
Banners were held stating “Rejoice Thatcher is dead” by drunken crowds, many of whom were too young to remember her as prime minister.
Sickening messages also began flooding the internet minutes after the official announcement.
Revelers danced the conga, drank champagne and chanted: “Maggie, Maggie, Maggie – Dead, Dead, Dead.”
Barnados charity shop was a casualty of the celebrations and this morning the store front had been left with a gaping hole in the glass.
Alex Bigham, a councilor in Lambeth representing Stockwell condemned the celebrations and said: “Even if you detested her policies, many of which I did, it is tasteless posturing.”
The Metropolitan Police said: “Police dealt with a group of approximately 100 people in Brixton who caused low level disorder including throwing missiles at officers.”
Police confirmed that two women were arrested on suspicion of burglary after being found inside a shop in Brixton. The shop front had been smashed.
Meanwhile, in Glasgow, more than 300 people gathered in the city centre for street party, organized on Twitter.
Members of organizations including the Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation, the Communist party, the Socialist party, the Socialist Workers party and the International Socialist Group, were joined by members of the public in the city’s George Square.
A chorus of “so long, the witch is dead”, along with chants of “Maggie Maggie Maggie, dead dead dead”, could be heard among the popping of champagne bottles.
In Leeds, people cheered and even handed out “Maggie death cake” at another of several street parties across the UK last night.
In west Belfast, a crowd assembled on the streets outside the Sinn Féin office in the Lower Falls road where music was played as people danced and passing motorists sounded their horns.
People were seen huddling in a crowd as they drank and sang to celebrate Margaret Thatcher’s death.
Petrol bombs were thrown at police near Free Derry corner amid celebrations and missiles were also used against the officers.
Martin McGuinness has called on people not to celebrate the death of Margaret Thatcher.
Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein’s Deputy First Minister at the Northern Ireland Assembly, tweeted: “Resist celebrating the death of Margaret Thatcher. She was not a peacemaker but it is a mistake to allow her death to poison our minds.”
Unionists like DUP First Minister Peter Robinson have praised Margaret Thatcher’s commitment to the Union but Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams accused her of pursuing “draconian, militaristic” policies which prolonged the conflict.
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Margaret Thatcher’s funeral will take place on Wednesday, April 17, Downing Street has announced today.
Former British PM Margaret Thatcher died on Monday, April 8, after suffering a series of strokes.
The funeral ceremony, with full military honors, will take place at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral, following a procession from Westminster.
Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, will attend the service, Buckingham Palace said.
Margaret Thatcher’s funeral will take place on Wednesday, April 17
Margaret Thatcher will not have a state funeral but will be accorded the same status as Princess Diana and the Queen Mother.
A ceremonial funeral is one rung down from a state funeral – normally reserved for monarchs – and requires the consent of the Queen.
A Downing Street spokesman said the details had been agreed at a “co-ordination meeting” between the Thatcher family and Buckingham Palace on Tuesday morning.
Baroness Thatcher, a Conservative, was Britain’s first female prime minister. She was in office from 1979 to 1990, winning three successive general elections.
She died “peacefully” after suffering a stroke while staying at the Ritz hotel in central London. Lady Thatcher had been staying at the hotel since being discharged from hospital at the end of last year.
An undertaker’s van carrying a silver casket left the hotel early on Tuesday morning for an undisclosed location.
Parliament will be recalled from its Easter recess this Wednesday to enable MPs and peers to pay tributes.
But Labour MP John Mann said: “I do not know why we are wasting taxpayers’ money on an additional session.
“It is perfectly valid that, when a prime minister dies, MPs can pay tribute, but this could be perfectly properly done on Monday.”
PM David Cameron has described Margaret Thatcher as a “great Briton” and international leaders, including US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have praised her.
Lady Thatcher was born Margaret Hilda Roberts, the daughter of a shopkeeper and Conservative councilor in Grantham, Lincolnshire, in 1925. She became an MP in 1959.
Having been education secretary, Margaret Thatcher successfully challenged former PM Edward Heath for her party’s leadership in 1975 and won general elections in 1979, 1983 and 1987.
Margaret Thatcher resigned as prime minister in 1990 and had been in poor health for several years prior to her death.
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Queen Elizabeth II is often said to have had a less than easy relationship with former premier Margaret Thatcher, her eighth – and longest-serving – prime minister.
Born six months apart, Margaret Thatcher and the Queen were two women very much making their mark in a man’s world.
Always mindful of her constitutional role and cordial to the last, the British monarch is nevertheless said to have personally disagreed with some of Margaret Thatcher’s more divisive policies and privately expressed her alarm over issues such as unemployment and the miners’ strike.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman issued a statement on Monday saying the Queen was “sad to hear the news of the death of Baroness Thatcher” and would be sending a private message of sympathy to her family.
Born six months apart, Margaret Thatcher and the Queen were two women very much making their mark in a man’s world
However, there was no confirmation that the Queen would attend the funeral (as she did for Sir Winston Churchill, although that was a state occasion), despite having no public engagements in her diary for either Wednesday or Thursday next week.
Instead, a spokesman said the Queen was “waiting for details about the funeral arrangements from the Government”. While Her Majesty may have found her first female prime minister somewhat frosty, Lady Thatcher’s respect and admiration for the monarch knew no bounds, not least because she had been raised in an intensely patriotic family.
Margaret Thatcher once told author Gyles Brandreth that the talk of a strained relationship with the Queen was “a lot of nonsense” and spoke with admiration about her commitment to the Commonwealth and armed services.
“No one could curtsey lower than Margaret Thatcher,” said another former aide.
Inevitably, after 11 years of almost weekly meetings, the Queen and Margaret Thatcher reached something akin to friendship.
Margaret Thatcher was even said to have jokingly sent the monarch a pair of rubber gloves as a Christmas present after witnessing her doing the washing up following a barbecue at Balmoral without a pair. Other sources say it wasn’t that the two women did not like each other, they were simply very different people.
The Queen is dry and rather witty in private, while Margaret Thatcher always had a tendency to hector, regardless of her audience.
In 1986, their relationship was put under the spotlight when The Sunday Times reported sources close to the Queen saying she was “dismayed” by “uncaring” Margaret Thatcher’s refusal to impose sanctions on apartheid South Africa, a decision the monarch feared would split the Commonwealth.
The story caused uproar. The Queen is required constitutionally to keep her opinions private. The quotes were subsequently attributed to the Palace’s press secretary, Michael Shea. The monarch is said to have rung Margaret Thatcher to reassure her that her views were nothing of the sort.
If the relationship was never entirely easy, the two certainly never wavered in their mutual respect. The Queen, in particular, is said to have admired Margaret Thatcher’s grit, determination and enormous achievements.
After Margaret Thatcher’s enforced resignation in 1990, the Queen awarded the baroness the Order of Garter and the Order of Merit – neither of which has been offered to Tony Blair.
The Queen was also a guest of honor at Margaret Thatcher’s 80th birthday celebrations.
Fellow guests were touched at the sight of the Queen taking the hand of Margaret Thatcher as she gently raised her from a deep curtsey, before guiding the already frail baroness through the throng of assembled guests.
Former British PM Margaret Thatcher will be given a ceremonial funeral with full military honors at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
Margaret Thatcher’s funeral service is expected to take place next week, and will be similar in status to those accorded to the Queen Mother and Princess Diana.
Many members of Parliament have called for Iron Lady to be given a state funeral, as was given to former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, but that was against her own wishes.
Margaret Thatcher’s spokesman and friend, Lord Bell, has said that Britain’s first female PM “specially did not want state funeral, and nor did her family”.
Margaret Thatcher’s funeral service is expected to take place next week, and will be similar in status to those accorded to the Queen Mother and Princess Diana
“She particularly did not wish to lie in state as she thought that was not appropriate,” Lord Bell said.
“And she did not want a fly-past as she thought that was a waste of money – somewhat in character you might think.”
Details of the ceremonial funeral with military honors are understood to have been mapped out in talks between government officials and Baroness Thatcher more than five years ago.
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Nancy Reagan, wife of her closest ally US President Ronald Reagan, are expected to lead a list of international mourners.
Margaret Thatcher did request a central role for The Chelsea Pensioners at her funeral. The Army veterans will not only welcome her coffin when it arrives at St Paul’s, but will also benefit from donations made in her memory – her family have requested that, instead of flowers.
Margaret Thatcher funeral cortege route and procession details
The day before the funeral takes place, Margaret Thatcher’s coffin will be moved to the chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster. There will be a short service following its arrival and the coffin will rest there overnight.
The following day, the streets will be cleared before the coffin travels by hearse to the Church of St Clement Danes, the central church for the RAF, on the Strand. There it will be transferred to a gun carriage drawn by horses of the King’s Troop of the Royal Artillery, the Queen’s ceremonial Saluting Battery.
Lady Thatcher’s funeral cortege will pass through Whitehall, Trafalgar Square and along the Strand, round Aldwych and then up Ludgate Hill to St Paul’s. Serving members of all three Armed Forces will line the route, alongside an expected crowd of tens of thousands of people.
At the steps of St Paul’s, the coffin will be met by another Guard of Honour and the Chelsea Pensioners. Members of the three services will then bear the coffin into St Paul’s for the funeral service.
As well as friends and family of Margaret Thatcher, politicians who served in her cabinet are expected to attend the service alongside current cabinet members. It is not yet known whether the Queen will be attending.
After the service, there will be a private cremation service in Mortlake, south-west London. It is understood that Margaret Thatcher wished to be laid to rest alongside her husband, Denis, who died in 2003, in the cemetery of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
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A guide to the extraordinary life and career of the first British female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher:
Who was Margaret Thatcher?
Margaret Thatcher, born Margaret Hilda Roberts in Grantham, Lincolnshire on 13 October 1925, was the longest-serving British prime minister in modern times and the first woman to lead a major Western democracy. She won three successive general elections and spent a total of 11 years in Downing Street, from May 1979 to November 1990.
What did Baroness Thatcher achieve?
British society changed almost beyond recognition during the Thatcher years, as heavy industry closed and a new free market economy was born. The political philosophy she established still dominates British politics to this day. But critics say the changes came at the price of a more divided society and the destruction of traditional working-class communities.
Margaret Thatcher was the longest-serving British prime minister in modern times and the first woman to lead a major Western democracy
What about on the international stage?
Margaret Thatcher joined forces with US president Ronald Reagan to pioneer a new form of dynamic free-market conservatism, which has since taken root around the world. Her support for reforming Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev arguably hastened the end of the Cold War and the spread of democracy to former Eastern Bloc states.
What was Margaret Thatcher’s background?
The younger of two daughters, Margaret Hilda Roberts was born in 1925 in Grantham, a small market town in eastern England. Her father, Alfred, owned a grocer’s shop and was involved in local politics. She went to an all-girls grammar school, before studying chemistry at Oxford University. She then trained as a barrister, specializing in tax. She married divorced millionaire businessman Denis Thatcher and had two children – twins Carol and Mark.
How did Lady Thatcher get into politics?
She owed her lifelong passion for politics to father Alfred, who was on the local council in Grantham. At Oxford in the mid 1940s, she became the first female president of the university’s Conservative association. In 1959, at the age of 34, she was elected as an MP, for the north London seat of Finchley, in an era when female politicians were still a rarity.
How did Margaret Thatcher become prime minister?
Margaret Thatcher had a rough ride after Tory leader Ted Heath made her education secretary in 1970. She was dubbed “Thatcher the milk snatcher” after her decision to end free school milk for older primary school pupils. The prospect of her becoming party leader, let alone prime minister, seemed a distant one. But after the Tories lost the second 1974 general election there was a hunger in the party for a different approach and to the surprise of many, herself included, she defeated Ted Heath in a 1975 leadership election. Four years later she was elected prime minister with a Commons majority of 43.
What were the key moments of her early years in power?
Margaret Thatcher was determined to revive Britain’s ailing economy but her choice of medicine – squeezing inflation and clamping down on public spending and borrowing – led to a far worse downturn than most had predicted. Unemployment soared above three million as large chunks of Britain’s manufacturing and heavy industries closed down. England’s inner cities saw riots in 1981. Her refusal to do a U-turn – as her predecessor Ted Heath had done – meant she appeared to be heading for defeat at the next election. The Falklands War – when she sent a naval task force to retake the South Atlantic islands invaded by Argentina – and Labour’s leftward lurch are both credited with helping her win that second election.
What about Margaret Thatcher’s second term?
Margaret Thatcher was re-elected by a landslide in 1983, in a wave of post-Falklands patriotic fervour. But her second term saw more turmoil – including one of the longest and most bitter industrial disputes in British history in the 1984 miners’ strike. In October of that year, with the strike still under way, the IRA attempted to murder Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet by bombing her hotel during the Conservative Party conference in Brighton. The economy improved towards the end of her second term as free market reforms and the sale of state assets gathered pace.
What about her third term?
A second landslide followed in the 1987 general election, with Margaret Thatcher returning to Downing Street with a 102 seat majority, becoming the longest continually serving prime minister since Lord Liverpool in the early 19th Century. Her third term was marked by an increasingly hard line on Europe, and the continuation of economic reforms with privatization and the further growth of home and share ownership.
How did Margaret Thatcher’s premiership come to an end?
In one of the most dramatic episodes in political history, Margaret Thatcher was ejected by her own MPs three years after her 1987 election victory amid public anger over a new tax system for local government, dubbed the poll tax. The resignation of ultra-loyal Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe, over her increasingly skeptical stance on Europe, finally triggered her downfall after senior Conservatives told her she would lose a leadership election. She never lost an election.
What were Margaret Thatcher’s key domestic reforms?
Seeking to tame inflation through monetarist economic policy, curbing union power, selling off nationally owned monopolies, liberalizing the stock market and introducing the right-to-buy for council tenants.
What is Margaret Thatcher’s legacy?
Britain would probably be a very different place today without Margaret Thatcher. Her bold free market reforms and curbs on union power – that caused so much controversy in the 1980s – are now accepted as conventional wisdom by all mainstream British political parties. The centre ground of British politics shifted to the right as a result of her time in power.
Margaret Thatcher is, furthermore, a global icon and role model for female politicians and, with Ronald Reagan, one of the towering figures of the political right.
She suffered from poor health for several years before her death.On 21 December 2012, she underwent an operation to remove a growth from her bladder.
Margaret Thatcher died on 8 April 2013 in London following a massive stroke. Her spokesman, Lord Bell, confirmed her death at 12:52 BST (11:52 UTC) by press release.
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Wikileaks has published a new collection of more than 1.7 million of US diplomatic and intelligence documents from the 1970s.
The documents include allegations that former Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi was a middleman in an arms deal and the first impressions of eventual British PM Margaret Thatcher.
The records have not been leaked and are available to view at the US national archives.
Wikileaks says it is releasing the documents in searchable form.
Wikileaks has published a new collection of more than 1.7 million of US diplomatic and intelligence documents from the 1970s
Much of the work has been carried out by the website’s founder Julian Assange while he has been holed up at the Ecuadorean embassy in London.
Julian Assange took refuge in the embassy last June to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations that he assaulted two female ex-Wikileaks supporters in 2010.
He denies the allegations, and has said they are politically motivated and part of a smear campaign against him and his whistle-blowing website.
Wikileaks made headlines around the world in 2010 after it released more than 250,000 leaked US cables.
Julian Assange told Britain’s Press Association that the latest collection, entitled the Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD), reveal the “vast range and scope” of US diplomatic activity around the world.
The data comprises diplomatic cables, intelligence reports and congressional correspondence running from the beginning of 1973 to the end of 1976.
Much of the correspondence is either written by or sent to Henry Kissinger, who was US Secretary of State and National Security Adviser during that period.
It includes claims, being widely reported by the Indian media, that Rajiv Gandhi – of India’s most famous political family – was employed by the Swedish firm Saab-Scandia as it tried to sell its Viggen fighter jet to India.
Rajiv Gandhi was working as a commercial pilot and not in politics himself at the time.
A US diplomat is quoted in a February 1976 cable as saying: “We would have thought a transport pilot is not the best expert to rely upon in evaluating a fighter plane, but then we are speaking of a transport pilot who has another and perhaps more relevant qualification.”
Rajiv Gandhi became India’s prime minister in 1984 and was assassinated in 1991.
Saab-Scandia did not win its bid to sell Viggen fighter jets to India; the contract went to Britain’s Jaguar planes.
Another cable, dated February 1975, from London sets out “some first impressions” of new leader of the Conservative Party, Margaret Thatcher.
The diplomat wrote that “she has a quick, if not profound, mind, and works hard to master the most complicated brief”.
Margaret Thatcher is “crisp and a trifle patronizing” with the media, but “honest and straight-forward” with her colleagues, “if not excessively considerate of their vanities”, the diplomat wrote.
“The personification of a British middle class dream come true,” she is the “genuine voice of a beleaguered bourgeoise [sic], anxious about its eroding economic power and determined to arrest society’s seemingly inexorable trend towards collectivism”, the cable said.
The diplomat noted she had “acquired a distinctively upper middle class personal image”, which might damage her chances of becoming prime minister, but said she should not be underestimated.
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Seven outfits worn by Margaret Thatcher during the 1970s in the early part of her career are being auctioned at Christie’s on Monday.
They form part of its London Sale, which is being held to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and London 2012.
Sold by a private collector, the suits which come in an array of colors, are thought to be the first of Lady Thatcher’s clothes to be sold at a public auction.
All of the Iron Lady’s outfits have been given a guide price of between £1,000 ($1,600) and £1,500 ($2,500).
Pat Frost, Head of the Textiles Department at Christie’s told the BBC: “These outfits were worn at the beginning of her career, when she got the <<milk snatcher>> tag, and were part of important moments like her introduction as leader at the Conservative Party conference.”
She said she was not aware of any previous auctions of Lady Thatcher’s outfits.
Last year Lady Thatcher’s black Asprey rectangular leather handbag sold for £25,000 ($39,000) at auction.
She was said to deploy it to enforce cabinet solidarity.
The term “handbagging” was used as a reference to the way she disciplined unrurly Tory backbenchers and ministers during her years in Downing Street.
Seven outfits worn by Margaret Thatcher during the 1970s in the early part of her career are being auctioned at Christie's on Monday
Canary yellow dress
This was worn to the Conservative Party conference in 1975 and Lady Thatcher can be seen wearing it in contemporary news footage, standing alongside Edward Heath on the conference platform.
Navy dress
Margaret Thatcher can be seen in the navy suit during a Valerie Singleton programme.
Peach wool suit
This outfit she wore while being grilled about moisturiser by Sue MacGregor in 1971.
Light green suit
This was worn when she was confirmed as the new leader of the Conservative Party .
Navy suit
Margaret Thatcher is seen wearing the navy suit in an episode of Val Meets the VIPs, which was presented by Valerie Singleton.
Green suit
Margaret Thatcher wore the green suit in a 1972 edition of Panorama called Women in Politics.
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