LAST WORD ON MAGGIE

     This is being written on the eve of Lady Thatcher's funeral and I do hope (I don't pray) that no lunatic(s) attempt to wreck her last Great Day.  But I do wish that a State Funeral had not been planned for her.  It's not just the excessive cost of it at a time when the country is so deeply in debt that bankers are rumoured to be thinking of waiving .01% of their bonuses.  Or that she was one of the most divisive prime ministers of her time.  No.  It's just that I don't think she deserves it.

     If Clement Attlee, who left a legacy of "making the political weather" far greater than any premier of the 20th century with the exception of Churchill, could be buried quietly and without fuss, why should this former very average Education Minister in a bad year deserve a Gun Carriage and the attendance of the Sovereign?

     Beats me.