Bishop of Grantham has voiced out his stand on the £10 million funeral for the former Prime Minster also known as “Iron Lady” terming it as a mistake that will just be asking for trouble.
About 90% of central London will be closed on Wednesday during the funeral ceremony of Lady Thatcher. The funeral which will be a ceremonial funeral with full military honors at St. Paul’s Cathedral will be attended by the Queen.
The full cost for the grand occasion has been estimated at £10 million, but family of the later Baroness is expected to contribute about half of the cost.
Attending the funeral will be private guests whom were approved to be at the occasion by the “Iron Lady” a decision she took during her last 18 months of her life. The lists reveal an extensive and surprising number of friends. Over 800 people who will be invited to the funeral had been approved by the Baroness while alive.
On the list is American TV host Larry King probably in return favours of his 1995 interview with Thatcher after the publication of her autobiography.
Celebrity Chef Marco Pierre White did indeed please the “Iron Lady” when he was her chef because he is in the list of the invited guests. To those who knew Madam Thatcher she valued a good chef because she wasn’t a good cook herself.
Surprisingly the two men alleged to be most responsible for Thatcher’s downfall as Tory leader Geoffrey Howe and Michael Heseltine are both included as invited guests.
Thatcher’s hairdresser Paul Allen also did make it unto the list. He used to chat to Thatcher during his twice weekly visit to keep her famous hairdo in place. According to Thatcher’s education secretary Kenneth Baker, Allen had much influence in the Baroness’s education policy. He claims Thatcher ends up producing “tatty bit of paper” bearing notes from her hairdressing session with Paul Allen to support her cabinet arguments.
It was the Soviet Union that first called Thatcher “the Iron Lady”, a nickname she took great pleasure in due to the fact that it described her intense opposition to communism.
Author: Nii Palm (www.233times.net)