Britain gave Margaret Thatcher its grandest political funeral in half a century on Wednesday as her flag-draped coffin was borne through central London on a horse-drawn gun carriage. In an event comparable to Sir Winston Churchill's funeral in 1965, the Queen joined top British and foreign politicians past and present to pay her final respects to the "Iron Lady."  Thousands of supporters lined the streets of London as Thatcher's casket made its final journey from the center of British political power in Westminster to St Paul's Cathedral.  Lady Thatcher was honored with a gun salute from the Tower of London every minute and the silencing of the bells of Big Ben, military bandsmen played Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Chopin.  As a bell mournfully tolled, a party of soldiers and sailors carried her casket on their shoulders into St Paul's Cathedral.  Beneath its giant painted dome - the same place where Horatio Nelson's funeral was held and Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were married - more than 2,300 mourners then heard a somber service filled with hymns and reflective readings.

  http://news.yahoo.com/britain-stages-grand-funeral-iron-lady-margaret-thatcher-000541922.html

  Lady Thatcher, who ruled Britain from 1979-1990, died after suffering a stroke on April 8. She was the country's first and only woman premier, its longest-serving Prime Minister of the 20th century, and won three consecutive general elections.  She sought to arrest Britain's post-war decline to Socialism by smashing the trade unions and privatizing Britain's national assets, while boosting home ownership and the services sector.  In 1979, when she came to power, Britain was in the grip of a long post-war decline with troubled labor relations and low productivity and Britain was being outperformed by continental rivals France and Germany.  She turned that around, but the price in growing inequality and the closure of large swathes of Britain's industrial base left parts of the country struggling to create new jobs and rebuild communities.  More than 20 years later, her supporters view her as a modernizing champion of freedom.  Before Prime Minster Thatcher came to power I made frequent trips to London, and there was always a number of strikes underway, life for the people of England was difficult, garbage was often piled high in the streets because of strikes, the unemployment rate was extremely high, and the economy was failing.  Lady Thatcher turned that around with her conservative principles and free market philosophy.  The Iron Lady, as she fondly referred to herself, worked very closely with President Reagan and Pope John Paul to help bring down the Iron Curtain.  The leftist and Socialist in Europe continue to berate her, will never forgive her for breaking so many strikes that were paralyzing England’s economy for many years before she was elected, and the Socialists are now rewriting college history books so the younger generation will not know how Lady Thatcher saved the Free Enterprise System.   

Two heads of state, 11 serving Prime Ministers, 17 Foreign Ministers, and Official Representatives from 170 nations attended the state funeral including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, former Polish President Lech Walesa, ex-Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and many others too numerous to relay.  The current resident of the Oval Office shamed the Republic in the eyes of world by refusing to send a high profile US Delegation to honor Lady Thatcher at her state funeral; yet the resident of the Oval Office sent a high profile US Delegation to the funeral of the Socialist Dictator of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez who repeatedly attacked President Bush in speeches at the UN and belittled Obama as well to the disgrace of the Republic (the left of center liberal media establishment covered up the uncalled for “diplomatic snub” of England; this was yet another slap at the people of Great Britain, the Commonwealth of Nations, and Queen Elizabeth II of England (who knighted Margaret Thatcher).  We were so very pleased to see Vice President & Mrs Cheney, and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger attended to honor Lady Thatcher.  Former Secretaries of State George Shultz and James Baker were the low level delegation representing the administration; they were members of President Ronald Reagan’s Cabinet.  Nancy Reagan, the widow of Lady Thatcher’s greatest US friend and ally, President Ronald Reagan, was too frail to attend, but sent her respects to the Queen.  Separately, the Republican Party sent three members of the House of Representatives including Cong Marsha Blackburn, Cong Michele Bachmann, and Cong George Holding; Cong Newt Gingrich attended on his own.  America needs a Lady Thatcher to save it from the Socialist programs being forced upon it by the Obama Administration.  God Bless Lady Thatcher’s noble soul, may she rest in peace, finally free from the “slings and arrows” of Socialists and leftists she so ably defeated.

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Margaret Thatcher

         I met Margaret Thatcher in 1987 when she was pretty much at the height of her powers as the UK’s Prime Minister.  By that time the reforms she had initiated in the first few years of her Premiership were working, inflation had come down significantly, several of the privatizations had been completed and the UK had started to rebuild its economy.  As I was being taken to a meeting, one of our escorts described how the long curtains which adorned government buildings were there to absorb glass shrapnel if the IRA was successful in setting off another bomb.  There had been several such incidents and an attempt on Thatcher’s life which had taken place just several years before.  I was told for the first time of the winter of discontent which brought Mrs. Thatcher to power.  It was almost unbelievable.  Striking unions had brought the country almost to a standstill.  There were limits (very small amounts) on how much money could be taken out of the country.  The top tax rate was 83%.  At one point, conditions were so bad the dead went unburied for days.  I recall wondering what in the world I had gotten myself into.

         So it was interesting to watch BBC’s Question Time last Thursday at which two Liberals, two Conservatives and a former Scottish MP debated the Thatcher legacy.  One of the Conservatives was Ken Carke who served in the Thatcher cabinet.  The other was her biographer.  What I found most worrying was when Ken Clarke made the point of how bad conditions were when Mrs. Thatcher ran for PM, the crowd in the studio hushed.  Judging by their looks, many not have been alive at the time and have only heard about what happened from family or perhaps at school, they had not lived through it.  But then incredibly, the commentary turned to the assessment that things were so bad they would have changed anyway.  Unless I missed it, Mrs. Thatcher was given limited, if any credit for the changes which did take place.  It was as if some invisible hand would have moved the country in that direction anyway.  My point is reforms would not have happened without her.  The people who ran the country in the mid-1970s were quite happy to continue their Socialist heaven and would have gone on doing so, unless stopped.  Mrs. Thatcher, acting a mandate from the British people, was elected three times to change the course of the country.  The London we all see today is the result of policies she set in motion thirty-five years ago.  Even Mr. Blair, who won several elections as Labour leader, kept many of her initiatives in place.  The old saying, cometh the hour, cometh the man (woman), certainly applied to her.  The Western democracies are once again approaching such a moment.