Funeral held for Iron Lady
Harper, Mulroney among 2,300 hand- picked mourners
Cheering crowds outnumbered protesters as the funeral for former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher was held in London.
LONDON — In the end, most Britons marked the passing of the Iron Lady with warmth and affection.
Crowds turned out to cheer and sometimes applaud with respect as the funeral cortège of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher proceeded slowly through the streets of London. Some threw flowers. “Maggie did what had to be done,” said Nick James, a veteran of the Falklands War who watched the cortège. “I am paying my respects to her and to all those who died in the South Atlantic. She was definitely good for the country.”
“It has been an emotional day,” said Barry Carter, a retired history professor from Oxford Brookes University. “Margaret Thatcher came on the scene when Britain was going backwards. She made decisions that had to be made and turned the country around.”
The coffin of the Iron Lady was taken by hearse from her short, but pomp- filled funeral service to the Royal Hospital Chelsea Wednesday. Her ashes, after a private cremation in southwestern London, are to be interred at the hospital alongside those of her husband, Denis, who died nearly 10 years ago.
Hers was not a formal state funeral, but some 2,300 handpicked mourners gathered at St. Paul’s Cathedral in the morning, where Bishop of London Richard Chartres delivered a frank but warm acknowledgment of the controversy Thatcher stirred when she was prime minister of Britain.
He said debates about her policies and legacy should be left to the politicians; instead, he shared his own personal and sometimes humorous encounters with the former Conservative prime minister, and of her Christian faith.
“The storm of conflicting opinions centres on the Mrs. Thatcher who became a symbolic figure — even an ‘- ism,’ ” he said.
There is an important place for debating policies and legacy ... but here and today is neither the time nor the place.
RICHARD CHARTRES
BISHOP OF LONDON
“There is an important place for debating policies and legacy ... but here and today is neither the time nor the place.”
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were among those in attendance, as was former U. S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former prime minister Brian Mulroney were among the mourners.
“It is a sad time because it is the death of someone,” Harper said.
“On the other hand it is a chance ... to reflect on the passing of someone who is really going to be a historic personage, a legend.
“It is a time to reflect on a great sweep of history. When I look at that history from the time I was a young boy and a young man until today I think that the world, for all its troubles, is a much better place than it used to be,” Harper said.
As Thatcher’s coffin was carried from the church after the service, there were cheers of “Hip Hip Hooray” from supporters gathered outside.
A BBC reporter noted a protester with a megaphone outside, but wrote “it is hard to hear what he has to say as he is drowned out by booing. ... The pro- Thatcher contingent appears to be ruling the roost here.”
Thatcher’s Union Jack- draped coffin had arrived at St. Paul’s after a military procession through the streets of London. About 4,000 police blanketed the procession route through Central London to ensure that any activists planning to disrupt the former prime minister’s funeral would be unable to do so.
While Scotland Yard decided several days ago that there would be no attempt to prevent protesters from gathering or making their views known, it had let it be known that if they were disruptive, abusive or violent, police would respond quickly and firmly.
Reuters reported that some protesters had turned their backs on the coffin as it was carried toward the cathedral. Large crowds on the route sombrely watched, with some applauding Thatcher’s coffin in respect. Flowers were also strewn along the route.
The security plan was tightened even further after Monday’s terrorist bombings at the Boston Marathon added a new dimension to the potential threat to public safety in London.