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| Margaret Thatcher funeral: quotes of the day | Margaret Thatcher funeral: quotes of the day |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| "In a way we're all Thatcherites." – David Cameron on Radio 4 Today programme. | "In a way we're all Thatcherites." – David Cameron on Radio 4 Today programme. |
| "Watching the funeral, finding it hard not to feel we are today somehow burying England." – tweet from Melanie Phillips, columnist. | "Watching the funeral, finding it hard not to feel we are today somehow burying England." – tweet from Melanie Phillips, columnist. |
| "We have to think of her children and grandchildren on a day like this, but we do know, because the polls tell us, 60% of the public don't think a penny of public money should be spent on this funeral and actually we seem to be spending £10m on what is a state funeral in all but name. It's important that somebody speaks up about the cost. £10m when you are cutting disabled people's benefits? I don't think the public understands that." – MP Diane Abbott, Radio 4 Today programme. | |
| "What surprises me is some of the youngsters have no concept of the state we were in before Maggie Thatcher came to power." – Ted Brompton, from Buckinghamshire, 70, who also came to London to see Winston Churchill lying in state. | "What surprises me is some of the youngsters have no concept of the state we were in before Maggie Thatcher came to power." – Ted Brompton, from Buckinghamshire, 70, who also came to London to see Winston Churchill lying in state. |
| "After the storm of a life led in the heat of political controversy there is a great calm." – bishop of London, Richard Chartres, in his funeral address. | "After the storm of a life led in the heat of political controversy there is a great calm." – bishop of London, Richard Chartres, in his funeral address. |
| "Don't touch the duck paté, Bishop, it's very fattening." – Chartres, quoting Thatcher's advice to him at a formal dinner, prompting guffaws of laughter in St Paul's. | "Don't touch the duck paté, Bishop, it's very fattening." – Chartres, quoting Thatcher's advice to him at a formal dinner, prompting guffaws of laughter in St Paul's. |
| "Spending £10m on such a divisive figure in times of austerity, especially when austerity is being imposed on the poor, is wrong, especially when harm is being caused to the disabled and the NHS. I think quite a few disabled people have died since being pushed into jobs they're unsuitable for. I have a friend up north who skips meals in order to feed a child." – Dave Winslow, 22, anthropology student from Durham, holding a "rest of us in poverty" placard at Ludgate Circus. | |
| "Even for her fans and supporters like me, I don't think we expected to see quite so many people turn up to show their affection and their respect for Margaret Thatcher. It is a quite astonishing crowd." – Boris Johnson, on Sky News. | "Even for her fans and supporters like me, I don't think we expected to see quite so many people turn up to show their affection and their respect for Margaret Thatcher. It is a quite astonishing crowd." – Boris Johnson, on Sky News. |
| "Basically she ruined this country, and to add insult to injury we're expected to pay for her funeral." – Charmain Kenner, 58, who turned her back as the coffin passed in Trafalgar Square. | "Basically she ruined this country, and to add insult to injury we're expected to pay for her funeral." – Charmain Kenner, 58, who turned her back as the coffin passed in Trafalgar Square. |
| "I do believe she is the equal of Churchill, and that her reputation will only rise as the decades go past. She was, let's not forget, also a wartime leader … She was an amazing person – a woman from a working-class background who took on the toffs. She rocked the boat something rotten and good for her for doing it. I'll miss her and I'm very sad." – Michael Barton, 70. | "I do believe she is the equal of Churchill, and that her reputation will only rise as the decades go past. She was, let's not forget, also a wartime leader … She was an amazing person – a woman from a working-class background who took on the toffs. She rocked the boat something rotten and good for her for doing it. I'll miss her and I'm very sad." – Michael Barton, 70. |
| "This guest list is a damning indictment of the inefficiency of the IRA." – comedian Frankie Boyle on Twitter. | "This guest list is a damning indictment of the inefficiency of the IRA." – comedian Frankie Boyle on Twitter. |
| "There's about 100 other paratroopers here and we will meet up afterwards and raise a glass to Maggie." – Stuart MacKenzie, 52, from London, a corporal in the Parachute Regiment during the Falklands conflict. | |
| "This is not a national funeral. You can only have a national funeral where there is a national consensus about the person being buried. That consensus does not exist in relation to Margaret Thatcher and no matter how oft people from the frontbenches fawn upon her, pour honeyed words upon her, even outside of this house of course, tell lies about her and her record, that won't change." – George Galloway, Respect MP, failing on Tuesday night to change the parliamentary timetable to accommodate the funeral. | "This is not a national funeral. You can only have a national funeral where there is a national consensus about the person being buried. That consensus does not exist in relation to Margaret Thatcher and no matter how oft people from the frontbenches fawn upon her, pour honeyed words upon her, even outside of this house of course, tell lies about her and her record, that won't change." – George Galloway, Respect MP, failing on Tuesday night to change the parliamentary timetable to accommodate the funeral. |
| "How Lovely is thy Dwelling Place: a hymn about selling off council houses." – comedian Al Murray on Twitter | "How Lovely is thy Dwelling Place: a hymn about selling off council houses." – comedian Al Murray on Twitter |
| "It was very respectful. My sister turned her back but that's what she does … I like pageantry, I like history." – Carol Haviv, 70, on the Strand. Her sister Wendy Landsman interrupted: "A woman who wasn't a feminist in any way. I thought she was divisive. She introduced a level of greed still here." | "It was very respectful. My sister turned her back but that's what she does … I like pageantry, I like history." – Carol Haviv, 70, on the Strand. Her sister Wendy Landsman interrupted: "A woman who wasn't a feminist in any way. I thought she was divisive. She introduced a level of greed still here." |
| "They're from my parents on behalf of the family. It's a thank you for right-to-buy. They bought their council house, a three-bed Victorian in East Dulwich, for £17,000. They've extended it and done a lot of work – we're a family of builders – and it's been valued now at about £1m. It's a policy which changed everything for us." – Samuel Tuck, 40, from East Dulwich, who brought a bouquet of flowers to St Paul's. | "They're from my parents on behalf of the family. It's a thank you for right-to-buy. They bought their council house, a three-bed Victorian in East Dulwich, for £17,000. They've extended it and done a lot of work – we're a family of builders – and it's been valued now at about £1m. It's a policy which changed everything for us." – Samuel Tuck, 40, from East Dulwich, who brought a bouquet of flowers to St Paul's. |
| "I would say she was the greatest Briton and prime minister since Winston Churchill." – David Lydiat, 25, a Conservative town councillor in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, who brought flowers to St Paul's. | "I would say she was the greatest Briton and prime minister since Winston Churchill." – David Lydiat, 25, a Conservative town councillor in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, who brought flowers to St Paul's. |
| "The decision to have Osborne cry was actually taken in 2009 by Labour and Mrs Thatcher herself." – comedian David Schneider on Twitter | "The decision to have Osborne cry was actually taken in 2009 by Labour and Mrs Thatcher herself." – comedian David Schneider on Twitter |
| "Under this person I've seen disgusting things. I've seen kids being run over by horses at Wapping. Let alone the miners' strike, what about the printers' strike?" – Tim Perkins, 44, who described himself as an anarchist, came from Doncaster, and was briefly held by police on the Strand after he shouted "fuck off!" and "destroyed us!" as the coffin passed. | "Under this person I've seen disgusting things. I've seen kids being run over by horses at Wapping. Let alone the miners' strike, what about the printers' strike?" – Tim Perkins, 44, who described himself as an anarchist, came from Doncaster, and was briefly held by police on the Strand after he shouted "fuck off!" and "destroyed us!" as the coffin passed. |
| "I spent 30 years working at Lord's cricket ground and I served her two or three times and she was very pleasant … I didn't agree with any of them [her policies] but it was nice to have a woman in charge." – Anne Wesham, 75, retired, from Stanmore, north-west London. | |
| "Farewell Iron Lady. Great radical achieved huge changes, but still much to do." – Rupert Murdoch, on Twitter | |
| "The occasion was one of majesty. There was a tremendous sense of history." Liam Fox, former defence secretary. | |
| "The demise of one rightwing ideologue, however iconic, is of less importance to us than confronting and overcoming the policies of the current breed and debunking the myth that weak unions, minimal employment rights, privatisation and deregulation are the prerequisites of economic success." – Grahame Smith, general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, at their annual conference in Perth. | |
| "I remember her as a great leader but subtle too. She wasn't a sledgehammer. She knew when to go slow." – Lord Brittan, former Thatcher cabinet secretary, home secretary and trade and industry secretary. | |
| "We have to pay for our own funerals so why didn't she pay for hers? It's £10m that could be put into the community." – Jim Sellars, 52, former miner, at Grimethorpe working men's club, which showed television coverage of the funeral. | |
| "I was a wet. I wasn't one of us. All she ever did was promote me." – Lord Clarke, as Kenneth Clarke a member of the Thatcher cabinet. | |
| "The funeral was, in every respect, perfect for the occasion. You can't mourn too much when someone is 87, has had an extraordinary life, and has achieved so much. Lady Thatcher wrote much of the service herself and who knows, perhaps she was enjoying it from somewhere else as we listened to the music and listened to what was being said." – Sir Malcolm Rifkind, former Thatcher cabinet member. | |
| "I have been watching so much psychotic drivel on the news this morning talking about the names of each horse in the funeral. It's the kind of stage-managed stuff we see in North Korea." – David Douglas, former miner for 35 years at Doncaster colliery, who said he had come to a celebratory event at Easington "to mourn her birth". | |
| "I think she was an iconic leader and has a fabulous legacy. Am I surprised some people act the way they do in a completely uncivilised manner? That is unfortunately part of our societies. She should have been allowed the privilege of going to her grave in peace … She is up in heaven smiling." – Brian Mulroney, former prime minister of Canada. | |
| "I like the way she put England on the right path. In Brazil now there are a lot of strikes, like in England when she came to power, and a lot of corruption. She's a very important woman in the world and we came to pay respect to her." – Giselle Bartoloni, 53, from Brazil. | |
| "Generally, she is not well-liked in France. She made decisions that needed to be made, but there was a big human cost. We're just here to see the event." – Odele Njuon, 51, from Paris. |