LAST week I attended Lady Thatcher’s funeral procession with my back turned. Perhaps my Tory MP should understand why. In his latest homily (The Press, April 12), Julian Sturdy explained his admiration for Lady Thatcher.

I’ll take just one of his points, that she “oversaw a dramatic economic period”: dramatic, but disastrous. She spent North Sea oil receipts on mass unemployment. She privatised state capital assets, but squandered the proceeds as current income. She kept the pound strong, damaging exports. She deregulated the financial sector – trouble.

She sold council houses without replacement – more trouble. Yet she never raised growth above the 1970s level of 2.2 per cent. As her minister Lord Gilmour said: “The sacrifice imposed on the poor produced nothing miraculous except for the rich.” Finally, even the Tories abandoned her.

Despite this, and much more, she requested a funeral in St Paul’s. Bizarrely, her wish was granted. And so, in a daylong party political broadcast, the whole patriotic panoply of royalty, military, and established church was dedicated to sanctifying one politician, one political party, one political ideology. And taxpayers paid for this. Conservatism does give you something for nothing – provided you’re rich.

John Heawood, Eastward Avenue, Fulford, York.

 

• MUCH was said about the £10 million public cost of Baroness Thatcher’s funeral.

To arrive at that figure, the cost of the security, policing and the 700-plus armed forces who were engaged in the ceremony would have to be included.

All of these personnel would receive usual salaries whether they were attending to funeral or not. In this case their deployment for the day cannot be included as extra cost.

With the contribution from Baroness’s family and now, it is said, a £1 million contribution from the Falklands Islands, it may be concluded that the £10 million alleged cost was pure speculation.

J Beisly, Osprey Close, York.

 

• A COMMEMORATIVE library dedicated to Mrs Thatcher and costing £15 million would appear to be the sort of costing expected in this day and age and doesn’t take a lot of understanding.

However, the cost of Mrs Thatcher’s funeral was put at £10 million, which does take some understanding.

Just how was such a colossal amount made up? Isn’t it high time taxpayers who footed this cost saw some sort of breakdown of how this vast amount was arrived at?

The service personnel/police were being paid already, so there was no extra outlay. There may have been some overtime payments for the police. However, the military aren’t eligible for overtime.

Rather than a figure being bandied about, it would be far more appropriate for the “costings” to be published so the public can see exactly how much Mrs Thatcher’s funeral did cost.

Philip Roe, Roman Avenue South, Stamford Bridge, York