Thatcher funeral protesters get police go-ahead to turn backs on coffin

[steve2470]

Source: UK Guardian



Protesters planning to demonstrate along the route of Lady Thatcher's funeral procession have been given the go-ahead by police to turn their backs on the former prime minister's coffin as it makes its way through central London to St Paul's.

Scotland Yard has repeatedly asked people planning demonstrations to let them know in advance, warning that anyone causing "harassment, alarm or distress" could be arrested under section 5 of the Public Order Act.

But Rebecca Lush Blum, 41, from Hampshire, who has set up a Facebook event calling on people to turn their back on the funeral procession, said she had spoken to the police and had been reassured that her protest could go ahead near the Royal Courts of Justice.

The prospect of high-profile protests being beamed around the world during Wednesday's funeral has raised concern among some senior Tories. Lord Tebbit, the former Conservative chairman, described the protesters as "mindless bigots" but said that, provided they were obeying the law, the police had no option.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/14/thatcher-funeral-protesters-police

[Arctic Dave]

1. We should have done this for ronnie raygun

Fuck both of them.

I hear hell is nice this time of year, I hope they both enjoy it.

[Dawson Leery]

2. +1,000,000,000,000

[mike978]

18. -1,000,000,000,000

[Nanjing to Seoul]

34. loving that ronnie raygun, son? door is that way! ----------------->

[Amonester]

5. At least they now experience what extreme global warming feels like!

Couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch.

Even if it could only be wishful thinking from the non-believers in any hell and me!

[AngryOldDem]

11. Yeah...isn't it ironic.

Thatcher and Reagan were both cut from the same cloth.

One is demonized, the other canonized.

Just goes to show how blind and/or ignorant we are as a country. Never fails to amaze.

[MisterP]

3. can they arrest a corpse in a casket? "harassment, alarm or distress"

[hrmjustin]

16. +1

[silvershadow]

4. Just curious...

Does one *need police permission to turn one's back during a procession? (or at any time, for that matter?) Have we jumped the shark so far that turning your back is some kind of affront to the state so powerful that the police must be involved? Again, just trying to keep up here.

[progressoid]

6. Yeah that seems a little bizarre.

Perhaps one of our British DUers could explain...

[FreeBC]

8. as long as they do it in a "Free Speech Zone"

no, that's us

[steve2470]

9. link to the text of the law:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1986/64/section/5

[MrModerate]

10. To avoid misinterpretation of what a coordinated movement might suggest is going to happen next...

Causing overreaction from security forces. Actually sounds like a good idea, given how tense it's going to be.

[Prophet 451]

14. It's more playing it safe

The situation is going to be extremely tense between police, protestors and Thatcher's fans. Si it's probably wise to let teh police know that the protestors are all planning to turn their backs so it can't be misinterpreted.

[ManiacJoe]

29. Misinterpreted as what?

[Prophet 451]

31. Lord knows

Our police are twitchy in such situations at the best of times. Best not to give them the slightest excuse.

[muriel_volestrangler]

33. To avoid the farce of being arresting for not smiling at the Olympics:

Olympics spectator with Parkinson's wants 'exoneration' after arrest

A man with Parkinson's disease who was arrested during the Olympic men's cycling road race while sitting beside the route has said he wants a "letter of exoneration" from Surrey police, claiming their treatment of him was disproportionate.

Mark Worsfold, 54, a former soldier and martial arts instructor, was arrested on 28 July for a breach of the peace shortly before the cyclists arrived in Redhouse Park, Leatherhead, where he had sat down on a wall to watch the race. Officers from Surrey police restrained and handcuffed him and took him to Reigate police station, saying his behaviour had "caused concern".

"The man was positioned close to a small group of protesters and based on his manner, his state of dress and his proximity to the course, officers made an arrest to prevent a possible breach of the peace," Surrey police said in a statement.

Worsfold, whose experience was first reported by Private Eye, claims police questioned him about his demeanour and why he had not been seen to be visibly enjoying the event. Worsfold, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2010, suffers from muscle rigidity that affects his face. He was released after two hours without charge or caution.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/08/olympics-spectator-parkinsons-arrest-smiling

Interview with him here - he describes what happened last year starting at about 0:50: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22121686

[steve2470]

59. poor guy nt

[Spitfire of ATJ]

7. I keep being reminded how much conservatives were dancing on Hugo's grave.

[mike978]

17. Hardly a fair comparison

between a dictator that staged a coup to get into power and did not have free and fair elections compared against someone who legitimately became PM and won 3 elections with 42+% each time.
She is not cut from the same cloth as Regan or the Republicans in at least 4 major ways - 1) following international law scrupulously, example getting UN resolutions before resorting to force in the Falklands, 2) voting in the 1960's to decriminalise homosexuality (can you see many republicans doing that now, not 50 years ago), 3) supporting a public health system (NHS) with above inflation pending increases every year and 4) keeping a public system of pensions, not privitisation.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

19. Chavez didn't steal any of the elections despite the noise in US media....

He won because he let the poor vote. In the US, the poor shouldn't have an equal voice,...unless they vote like the rich. (Those are then called legitimate votes)

BTW: He wanted to do certain things and left it up to the people to decide and they told him "no" so he dropped it. Some "dictator". Do you know WHY the US Media called him a "dictator"? Because he told Big Oil they would have to pay a little more for the oil they were taking and then he gave that money to the people and provided health care and schools. Even for jungle villages nobody is supposed to care about.

[mike978]

20. We were talking about Thatcher and Chavez

and the poor are able to vote in the UK, I agree in the US it is more difficult but the UK does not require voter ID, turnout during her time was high >75% (has gone down to the 60's in more recent elections).

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. The UK doesn't have our two party system. Thatcher never won with a majority.

[mike978]

22. Exactly, that is why 42% is quite an achievement in the UK

The results of the three elections and the principal opposition party, Labour :
Conservative Labour
1979 43.9% 36.9%
1983 42.4% 27.6%
1987 42.2% 30.8%

Pretty clear and resounding election victory, and not achieved by staging a coup! No UK Government for at least 60 years has won 50.1% of the vote - not all Presidents need to either Clinton and Bush spring to mind.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

23. Why do you insist on the notion Chavez pulled a fast one?

[mike978]

24. I didn`t invoke Chavez first

and I don`t think anyone should be jumping up and down when he died, just as they shouldn`t when Baroness Thatcher died. Some US Conservatives did jump up and down, but no UK Conservatives as I recall and that is an important distinction. Because US and UK Conservatives are not the same. The UK's political centre, even after Thatcherism, is still to the left of the US (thankfully).
Chavez did orchestrate a coup attempt, which is not something usually associated with democratic politicans.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

25. BIG DIFFERENCE. Chavez was loved and Thatcher was hated.

[mike978]

26. By some

You seem to like black and white answers. Some loved Chavez (maybe you included) and some hated him and others in different and not given to extreme views. The same goes for Thatcher. Opinion polls in the UK have shown many loving her and less thinking she is terrible than Gordon Brown or John Major.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/15/margaret-thatcher-monica-lewinsky

So lets not be too simplistic and have Chavez = Good, Thatcher = Bad.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

27. But Thatcher really WAS "bad".

[mike978]

32. She had good and bad points

and it seems you just focus on the negative when she was the first major world leader to say climate change was an issue (late 1980's), increased funding for the NHS, made reasonable changes to union laws etc.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

35. LOL!!! "Reasonable"

[Spitfire of ATJ]

37. Thatcher HATED the unions. She wasn't motivated by a sense of fairness.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

41. Well,...nobody at the Wall Street Journal.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

48. Do you honestly expect to sell the notion that the Labour Party is Liberal?

[2ndAmForComputers]

40. With that, and your Reagan Love, you made it very clear where you stand. Thank you for being earnest

and enjoy your stay.

[2ndAmForComputers]

43. Post 18, but you knew that already.

Do you think everybody here was born yesterday?

[2ndAmForComputers]

47. No, I do mean #18. And, again, you know that.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

49. "Thatcher had good and bad points"

Uh huh,...and Hitler invented the Volkswagen....

[Spitfire of ATJ]

54. My point? Thatcher sucked. So did Reagan...

The answer wasn't Blair just because he blows.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

57. So you were a KID back then...

That explains EVERYTHING.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

60. Ford created the assembly line. Who cares about the dissemination of the Protocols of the Elders of

Zion?

Thatcher was disgusting. So was Reagan. . .so was Bush, so is Harper!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

62. Wanna see someone cool?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_B._Pearson

[Kingofalldems]

56. I love that story

[Nanjing to Seoul]

61. I'm confused. I alerted this person as a RW troll and the jury voted 2-4 to keep his posts

Now MIRT zoned him into death land? Why do we have a jury system???

[cartach]

12. But no mooning. EOM

[Tempest]

13. I hope they eat lots of beans first

"I fart in your general direction."

[Orsino]

15. Because Thatch was a tireless champion of freedom.

FaceCrime also temporarily authorized during Two-Minute Hate.

[Tikki]

28. Turning one's back on thatcher's coffin sends the best message..feels grand when you do it, also...

Tikki

[steve2470]

30. Thatcher funeral to match theatre of Churchill's – but differences are stark

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/15/thatcher-funeral-scale-churchill-differences



It was, Patrick O'Donovan noted in the Observer, as if "the City was stopped and was turned into a theatre, and it was all performed as a drama that all men understand". The funeral cortege moved slowly from the Palace of Westminster to St Paul's cathedral, through packed streets lined with silent troops, "their heads bowed over their automatic rifles in ceremonious grief". Beneath heraldic banners and attended by straight-backed officers, the gun carriage carrying the body of the former prime minister "moved, huge and red with the union flag, past hotels and steamy restaurants and newspaper offices and pubs" on its solemn journey to the cathedral.

For those who witnessed the funeral of Winston Churchill on 30 January 1965, there will be a great deal in Margaret Thatcher's funeral on Wednesday that will be very familiar. Like the wartime leader, who also died from a stroke, Thatcher's coffin will travel up Ludgate Hill to St Paul's in a display of full military pomp, accompanied by bands playing slow laments, their drums covered with black cloths. Political leaders will be joined by dignitaries from around the world in paying their respects, as her body is carried with great dignity by ten soldiers up the west steps of the cathedral. The bells of Big Ben will be hushed for the first time since Churchill was laid to rest.

Though the baroness's body will not formally lie in state to allow members of the public to file past – as the wartime leader's did, attracting more than 300,000 people to Westminster Hall – at her own request her coffin will spend the night before its funeral and cremation in the medieval parliamentary chapel of St Mary Undercroft to allow MPs and peers to pay their respects.

And critically, just as she was 48 years ago, the Queen will be there, the first prime ministerial funeral she has attended since then, during which no fewer than six prime ministers have died – Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath and James Callaghan.

[trof]

46. Well, that'll teach her a lesson.

Oh wait...I guess not.

[tabasco]

58. How nice of the police to allow the protest!

Ain't it great to be free ?!

[aureliemag]

63. WTF?! Someone FARTS during the funeral of THATCHER

OMG :

[hrmjustin]

64. Welcome to DU aureliemag!