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JAB;941414 wrote: I voted 'deffo' cuz I liked the word. :p

Seriously though, I likened it to when a US President dies. He is entitled to a State funeral because of the office he held not whether or not you cared for his politics. Of course the family has the right to decline but the option still remains. I don't know enough about Thatcher's politics to answer whether her decisions earned her the right.


I don't know enough about Thatcher's politics to answer whether her decisions earned her the right.


She's one of the most hated politicians in recent times.

A British prime minister is not the same as a US president. He's merely the "first amongst equals" of the members of parliament. either his/her own party can kick them out or parliament can. Real power, sovereign power, is vested in the members of parliament who have a habit of forgetting that and playing follow the leader. Our head of state is still the queen who's just a figurehead we keep for the tourists although theoretically she has the final say.

She (the queen) would get a state funeral but anyone else only if they have done something very special for the country it is not a right entailed on the office.

JAB;941414 wrote: Seriously though, I likened it to when a US President dies. He is entitled to a State funeral because of the office he held not whether or not you cared for his politics.It's happened eight times in the whole history of this country, it's not like the funeral of a US President in the least. The US President is Head of State. Our Prime Ministers aren't.

JAB;941902 wrote: And what would qualify as 'something special' in your opinion?


Overwhelmingly beaten the combined French and Spanish battle fleets and established Britain's supremacy at sea for the next hundred years;

Defeated the French on land in the final battle of a twenty year Pan-European war, since when the French have never won a single battle against anyone[1];

Convincingly defeated the Afghans and taken their capital city Kabul for the first time in 2,150 years;

Single-handedly kept Britain at war with Germany through World War Two when anyone else would have come to terms;

Declared war on both Russia and China, winning on both occasions, followed at the age of 79 by being cited as co-respondent in a divorce case;

Kept Ulster British in the teeth of both an Irish and British desire to make Ulster Irish;

Destroyed biblical literalism as a rational belief;

and then we have Gladstone, without doubt the nastiest most vicious politician ever to have ruled in fair England. He spent a lifetime belittling the great Disraeli and, when Disraeli died and begged in his will that he be excused a national funeral and allowed merely to be buried beside his wife, said "As he lived, so he died - all display, without reality or genuineness". You have to be an utter bastard to come out with something that offensive, and I speak as an expert.



[1] oh, alright then - World War One. Just.

Bryn Mawr;941481 wrote: That's OK if all other ex Prime Ministers had state funerals but we don't do that here.


Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was given a state funeral when he died in 2000.

I checked this with several creditable news sources on the internet. I would have thought we would have followed British protocol, as the Canadian Prime Minister also serves under the British monarch (much to the chagrin of many of us).

A year or two ago, there was talk about giving the last Canadian World War I veteran a state funeral. There were four left at that time. All declined.

Absolutely not!

But if they do give her a state funeral I want to see a stake through her heart just to make sure!

For those who didn't read it at the time, given the events this week.

The Poll is too biased, I might have answered if there was a simple No option

Bruv;1424225 wrote: The Poll is too biased, I might have answered if there was a simple No option


The thread was written back when the site still had a streak of humour to it. What mattered back then was the discussion. The poll, like all polls, was irrelevant.