Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

i was very surprised that no current high ranking usa rep was there ..... understandable that BO wasn't, but given the relationship between usa and uk, one would have thought the ambassador would have been

Barack Obama announced on this week that former US secretaries of state George Shultz and James Baker III would lead a US presidential delegation to the ceremony. Louise Susman, the recently departed US ambassador in London, would also attend.

He himself had better things to do.

Should have sent Bush.

Are there any Russian oligarchs attending?

One of those from the post "fall of the post iron curtain" era?

As it wasn't a state funeral then heads of state were not invited and were not expected to attend.

Will Blair be entitled to a State Funeral?

The pattern has been set!

What a haunting thought!

He's not dead yet Fred.. or did I miss that? -):

I think there might be a lot of demos against Blair's funeral. I am not sure where the protestors get the £10m figure for the funeral from apart from the Daily Mirror. The government have released no figures and expect it to be a lot less.

"The government have released no figures and expect it to be a lot less."


Due to cutbacks, or party headquarters fiddling the books?


Sorry, meant No 10 and No 11.

£10m is peanuts about which the empty vessels make a lot of fuss and nonsense .... parliament (last labour admin) voted and approved this funeral format .... whether or not it is justified or sets a slightly unwelcome precedent is an irrelevance

get a life and get on with it

Look at teflon Tony lording it outside of St Paul's.

No thanks, but some of you "Con" supporters might get some pleasure.

Bishop of London's address was well worth listening to - very impressive.imo

Agreed - and on balance, I think the day was largely treated with respect.

Is Thatcher's carcass going to be buried or burnt?

This should appeal to a few on here of late :- Applicants wanted for a one-way ticket to Mars

Want to go to Mars? Dutch organisation Mars One says it will open applications imminently. It would be a one-way trip, and the company hopes to build a community of settlers on the planet.

Cremation Stan, though I think it is called 'a body' when related to humans.

The few banners that were waived had Socialist workers party printed across the bottom. No surprises then. The SWP rent a mob turn out at all the demos. It was their banners that were thrown at the police in Parliament Sq over student fees. It was the wooden poles of the banners that were used to spear and hit police at demos.Thatcher would have been pleased to see the socialists showing themselves up again.

Thanks H/C, In that case that is the least environmentally way of disposing of a carcass, .. but there again Thatcher cared little about that either of course.

why are you so bitter stan? ..... many brickbats can be thrown at all PMs, and even some plaudits, as is assuredly the case with MT