Passions run high as London readies for Thatcher funeral
Tight security against threats
LONDON, April 15, (AFP): London’s historic St Paul’s Cathedral will on Wednesday host 2,000 guests ranging from royalty to television celebrities for the funeral of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher which has polarised the nation.
Queen Elizabeth II will attend the ceremonial funeral, the first time that she has attended one of her prime ministers’ funerals since that of Winston Churchill in 1965.
International guests including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Polish leader Donald Tusk and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti will also pay their respects to the “Iron Lady”, who died from a stroke on April 8 aged 87.
Thatcher’s funeral on Wednesday will be surrounded by tight security as police fear protesters opposed to her political legacy and anarchists could try to disrupt the ceremonial occasion.
The British former prime minister has been as divisive in death as she was in life and police are taking no chances that the funeral procession through central London to St Paul’s Cathedral will be targeted by the same protesters who staged celebrations of her death.
A major security operation has been planned, amid fears it could be disrupted by far-left groups, Irish republicans or individuals obsessed with the Iron Lady.
The high-profile guest list, headed by Queen Elizabeth II and set to include a host of international political figures and celebrities, has also increased the pressure on Scotland Yard.
Hundreds of people joined a “party” in London’s Trafalgar Square on Saturday, and several said they would return to demonstrate when her flagdraped coffin is carried through the streets of the capital with full military honours.
“I plan to go there and turn my back when she comes,” Sigrid Holmwood, a 34-year-old artist, told AFP, saying she objected to the estimated £10 million (11.7 million euros, $15.3 million) cost of the sendoff. Police are scanning social networking sites for information about possible protests, after the events last week were advertised on Twitter and Facebook.
They have also urged people planning to disrupt the funeral to contact them so that lawful protests can be organised, a proactive tactic used successfully during last year’s Olympic Games in London. “The right to protest is one that must be upheld. However, we will work to do that while balancing the rights of those who wish to pay their respects,” said Commander Christine Jones, who is leading the security operation.
Jones was also in charge of security at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in April 2011, which passed off peacefully. “We are hugely experienced in safely delivering high-profile and ceremonial events in the capital,” Jones said.
Police officers will be deployed at strategic points along the route that the funeral cortege will take from parliament to the cathedral and a mobile team will be on hand to deploy to trouble spots.
Fears of violent protests were sparked by impromptu parties by left-wing activists celebrating Thatcher’s death on May 8, which flared up in London, Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow.
Scotland Yard is also bracing for potential threats from individuals fixated with Britain’s first female prime minister, who was in office for 11 years from 1979 to 1990. Dai Davies, a former head of royal protection at the London police force, told The Times newspaper that police chiefs were most likely to be concerned “about a fixated person with a psychological hatred of Margaret Thatcher”.