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| Parliament Debates Thatcher Legacy, as Vitriol Flows Online and in Streets | Parliament Debates Thatcher Legacy, as Vitriol Flows Online and in Streets |
| (34 minutes later) | |
| LONDON — If Margaret Thatcher stirred deep divisions in her political life, death changed almost nothing. | |
| For three days since she died in a London hotel suite at the age of 87, an outpouring of sympathy, respect and reverence from those who have hailed Mrs. Thatcher as Britain’s greatest peacetime prime minister has been accompanied by a parallel, and deeply antagonistic, critique. | For three days since she died in a London hotel suite at the age of 87, an outpouring of sympathy, respect and reverence from those who have hailed Mrs. Thatcher as Britain’s greatest peacetime prime minister has been accompanied by a parallel, and deeply antagonistic, critique. |
| Her death has been received in many quarters with a vituperation that was notably absent in the United States with the passing of former President Ronald Reagan, her ideological counterpart and cold-war wingman, and much of that criticism has played out on Britain’s streets. “Death parties” have been held in cities including London, Belfast and Glasgow, with banners reading “Rejoice, Rejoice,” graffiti declaring “Rot in Hell, Maggie” and celebrants “dancing on the grave” of the former prime minister. | Her death has been received in many quarters with a vituperation that was notably absent in the United States with the passing of former President Ronald Reagan, her ideological counterpart and cold-war wingman, and much of that criticism has played out on Britain’s streets. “Death parties” have been held in cities including London, Belfast and Glasgow, with banners reading “Rejoice, Rejoice,” graffiti declaring “Rot in Hell, Maggie” and celebrants “dancing on the grave” of the former prime minister. |
| Nor has the vitriol been confined to the streets. An arch-advocate of modernizing Britain, Mrs. Thatcher has effectively been put into the stocks of the Internet age, with a blizzard of hostile Facebook posts, Twitter feeds, blogs on leftist Web sites and comments on online newspaper articles about her death. | Nor has the vitriol been confined to the streets. An arch-advocate of modernizing Britain, Mrs. Thatcher has effectively been put into the stocks of the Internet age, with a blizzard of hostile Facebook posts, Twitter feeds, blogs on leftist Web sites and comments on online newspaper articles about her death. |
| A Facebook campaign was under way to drive the street protesters’ anthem, “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead,” to No. 1 in Britain’s popular music charts. | A Facebook campaign was under way to drive the street protesters’ anthem, “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead,” to No. 1 in Britain’s popular music charts. |
| A more measured debate took place on Wednesday in a special session of Parliament, in remembrances that went on for seven hours and rehearsed, mostly with a respectful forbearance, the embittered political arguments of the 1980s. While Prime Minister David Cameron, a fellow Conservative, described Mrs. Thatcher as “a prime minister who defined her age,” her harsher detractors depicted her as a relentless — many said heartless — destroyer of social cohesion, with policies that devastated state-owned industries and celebrated the pursuit of personal wealth as a civic virtue. | A more measured debate took place on Wednesday in a special session of Parliament, in remembrances that went on for seven hours and rehearsed, mostly with a respectful forbearance, the embittered political arguments of the 1980s. While Prime Minister David Cameron, a fellow Conservative, described Mrs. Thatcher as “a prime minister who defined her age,” her harsher detractors depicted her as a relentless — many said heartless — destroyer of social cohesion, with policies that devastated state-owned industries and celebrated the pursuit of personal wealth as a civic virtue. |
| The disputes extended to the government’s elaborate plans for Mrs. Thatcher’s funeral next Wednesday. The Cameron government has decreed that it will be a state funeral in all but name, partly in deference to Mrs. Thatcher’s own insistence on “not making too much fuss” about her passing — and on not wasting unnecessary money on embellishments like a Royal Air Force flypast. | The disputes extended to the government’s elaborate plans for Mrs. Thatcher’s funeral next Wednesday. The Cameron government has decreed that it will be a state funeral in all but name, partly in deference to Mrs. Thatcher’s own insistence on “not making too much fuss” about her passing — and on not wasting unnecessary money on embellishments like a Royal Air Force flypast. |
| The funeral will be attended by Queen Elizabeth IIand Prince Philip, who have attended no other former prime minister’s funeral since Sir Winston Churchill’s in 1965, which was designated as a state funeral in deference to his leadership in World War II. But despite the careful calibration, and the government’s description of the arrangements as being modeled on those for the funerals ofDiana, Princess of Wales, in 1997, and for the Queen Mother in 2002, there has been intense public and political discussion about the plans. | The funeral will be attended by Queen Elizabeth IIand Prince Philip, who have attended no other former prime minister’s funeral since Sir Winston Churchill’s in 1965, which was designated as a state funeral in deference to his leadership in World War II. But despite the careful calibration, and the government’s description of the arrangements as being modeled on those for the funerals ofDiana, Princess of Wales, in 1997, and for the Queen Mother in 2002, there has been intense public and political discussion about the plans. |
| Critics have questioned whether the government should shoulder the estimated $15 million cost, whether Mrs. Thatcher deserves a horse-drawn gun carriage and gold-braided cavalrymen to escort her through London’s streets, and whether history is mocked by having her flag-draped coffin laid before the altar in St. Paul’s Cathedral — reprising honors for historic heroes like Adm. Horatio Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Churchill. | Critics have questioned whether the government should shoulder the estimated $15 million cost, whether Mrs. Thatcher deserves a horse-drawn gun carriage and gold-braided cavalrymen to escort her through London’s streets, and whether history is mocked by having her flag-draped coffin laid before the altar in St. Paul’s Cathedral — reprising honors for historic heroes like Adm. Horatio Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Churchill. |
| Some critics suggested, satirically — and abusively, in the view of government officials organizing the event — that the funeral should be privatized, with the government seeking a profit, along the lines of Mrs. Thatcher’s sell-off of a range of loss-making, government-run businesses. | Some critics suggested, satirically — and abusively, in the view of government officials organizing the event — that the funeral should be privatized, with the government seeking a profit, along the lines of Mrs. Thatcher’s sell-off of a range of loss-making, government-run businesses. |
| Government officials brushed off the criticisms, saying the issue of greatest concern for the funeral was security, along the two-mile route of the cortege and at the cathedral, where there will be an invitation-only gathering of 2,000 mourners. Officials at Scotland Yard and MI5, the domestic security agency, said their concern focused on jihadist groups that have made Britain a target for recurrent terrorist plots, and on unreconciled offshoots of the Irish Republican Army, which backed a huge bombing attack in 1984 that was aimed at killing Mrs. Thatcher while she was attending the Conservatives’ annual conference at the seacoast resort of Brighton. | Government officials brushed off the criticisms, saying the issue of greatest concern for the funeral was security, along the two-mile route of the cortege and at the cathedral, where there will be an invitation-only gathering of 2,000 mourners. Officials at Scotland Yard and MI5, the domestic security agency, said their concern focused on jihadist groups that have made Britain a target for recurrent terrorist plots, and on unreconciled offshoots of the Irish Republican Army, which backed a huge bombing attack in 1984 that was aimed at killing Mrs. Thatcher while she was attending the Conservatives’ annual conference at the seacoast resort of Brighton. |
| These debates, played out courteously in Parliament and the news media, contrasted sharply with the unbridled anger on the streets and the Internet. Some of the protests occurred in areas that took the hardest hits from Mrs. Thatcher’s drive to pare back the frontiers of the state, including coal-mining districts, mainly in the Midlands and the north, where hundreds of thousands lost their jobs from the Thatcher government’s decision to close down heavily subsidized mines that produced high-priced coal that found no buyers. | These debates, played out courteously in Parliament and the news media, contrasted sharply with the unbridled anger on the streets and the Internet. Some of the protests occurred in areas that took the hardest hits from Mrs. Thatcher’s drive to pare back the frontiers of the state, including coal-mining districts, mainly in the Midlands and the north, where hundreds of thousands lost their jobs from the Thatcher government’s decision to close down heavily subsidized mines that produced high-priced coal that found no buyers. |
| Dave Hopper, general secretary of the Durham Miners’ Association, told one protest marking Mrs. Thatcher’s death: “It’s a great day. She did more damage to us thanHitler did.” Looking forward to a labor union gathering in the summer, he said it would be a jamboree to note the passing of the miners’ greatest enemy. | Dave Hopper, general secretary of the Durham Miners’ Association, told one protest marking Mrs. Thatcher’s death: “It’s a great day. She did more damage to us thanHitler did.” Looking forward to a labor union gathering in the summer, he said it would be a jamboree to note the passing of the miners’ greatest enemy. |
| “We will have a hell of a time, we will have comedians and bands and we are going to enjoy ourselves,” he said. “There will be a lot of men wanting to have a drink and celebrate.” | “We will have a hell of a time, we will have comedians and bands and we are going to enjoy ourselves,” he said. “There will be a lot of men wanting to have a drink and celebrate.” |
| The Daily Telegraph, a staunchly Conservative newspaper that ran a hagiographic obituary of the former prime minister calling her “the outstanding peacetime leader of the 20th-century,” was forced to shut down all its comments sections on Web-posted articles about her death because of what the paper’s editor described as the “abuse” that was pouring in. | The Daily Telegraph, a staunchly Conservative newspaper that ran a hagiographic obituary of the former prime minister calling her “the outstanding peacetime leader of the 20th-century,” was forced to shut down all its comments sections on Web-posted articles about her death because of what the paper’s editor described as the “abuse” that was pouring in. |
| One Web site, calling itself Twitchy, offered glimpses of the purged comments. “My mum is phoning all her pals and away to get champagne already hahaha,” was among the posts. Another said: “Goodbye Maggie, and good riddance. Along with Thatcher, Reagan destroyed the safety net and the social contract in the West.” | One Web site, calling itself Twitchy, offered glimpses of the purged comments. “My mum is phoning all her pals and away to get champagne already hahaha,” was among the posts. Another said: “Goodbye Maggie, and good riddance. Along with Thatcher, Reagan destroyed the safety net and the social contract in the West.” |
| Another read: “party time!!!!!! Thatcher’s dead!! The witch has snuffed it.” Still another, apparently posted by an American, declared: “Seeing people in the UK reacting to Margaret Thatcher’s death makes me jealous Cheney hasn’t died yet.” | Another read: “party time!!!!!! Thatcher’s dead!! The witch has snuffed it.” Still another, apparently posted by an American, declared: “Seeing people in the UK reacting to Margaret Thatcher’s death makes me jealous Cheney hasn’t died yet.” |
| Geri Halliwell, a member of the band the Spice Girls that had a sweeping success on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1990s, bucked the trend with a Twitter message that saluted Mrs. Thatcher as “our first lady of girl power ... a green grocer’s daughter who taught me anything is possible.” But after a rush of admonishing Twitter posts, including one from a woman who rebuked the singer by saying that “Margaret Thatcher did not possess an ounce of ‘girl power’. Legendary and divisive she was, feminist she was not,” Ms. Halliwell staged an abject retreat. Deleting her posting, she wrote a new one apologizing. “I’m sorry if I offended u,” she told her followers. | Geri Halliwell, a member of the band the Spice Girls that had a sweeping success on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1990s, bucked the trend with a Twitter message that saluted Mrs. Thatcher as “our first lady of girl power ... a green grocer’s daughter who taught me anything is possible.” But after a rush of admonishing Twitter posts, including one from a woman who rebuked the singer by saying that “Margaret Thatcher did not possess an ounce of ‘girl power’. Legendary and divisive she was, feminist she was not,” Ms. Halliwell staged an abject retreat. Deleting her posting, she wrote a new one apologizing. “I’m sorry if I offended u,” she told her followers. |
| It was left to Wednesday’s twin debates in the two houses of Parliament to convey a more moderated sense of the place in history that Mrs. Thatcher may eventually earn. | It was left to Wednesday’s twin debates in the two houses of Parliament to convey a more moderated sense of the place in history that Mrs. Thatcher may eventually earn. |
| Mr. Cameron set the tone for the Conservatives, saying, “She made the political weather, she made history, and — let this be her epitaph — she made our country great again.” | Mr. Cameron set the tone for the Conservatives, saying, “She made the political weather, she made history, and — let this be her epitaph — she made our country great again.” |
| Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour Party, which saw Mrs. Thatcher as a contemptible figure during her years in power, sought to find a middle ground. “Whatever your view of her, Margaret Thatcher was a unique, towering figure,” he said. | Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour Party, which saw Mrs. Thatcher as a contemptible figure during her years in power, sought to find a middle ground. “Whatever your view of her, Margaret Thatcher was a unique, towering figure,” he said. |
| Others, like a Labour militant from the 1980s, Michael Meacher, were less generous, accusing the former prime minister of having pursued a “scorched earth policy” to subdue opponents. But the jarring moments were offset by a wealth of affectionate anecdotes about a leader who treated all who dealt with her with the same withering impatience. | Others, like a Labour militant from the 1980s, Michael Meacher, were less generous, accusing the former prime minister of having pursued a “scorched earth policy” to subdue opponents. But the jarring moments were offset by a wealth of affectionate anecdotes about a leader who treated all who dealt with her with the same withering impatience. |
| Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a senior Thatcher cabinet minister, brought rolling laughter with an account of a telephone conversation between an incensed Mrs. Thatcher and President Reagan in 1983 after United States troops occupied Grenada, a Caribbean island that recognized Queen Elizabeth as its head of state in the same year, without notifying Britain in advance. | Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a senior Thatcher cabinet minister, brought rolling laughter with an account of a telephone conversation between an incensed Mrs. Thatcher and President Reagan in 1983 after United States troops occupied Grenada, a Caribbean island that recognized Queen Elizabeth as its head of state in the same year, without notifying Britain in advance. |
| “When she was in full flight, Reagan put his hand over the receiver, so she couldn’t hear, turned to his aides and said, ‘Gee, isn’t she marvelous?’ ” Sir Malcolm recalled. | |
John F. Burns reported from London, and Alan Cowell from Paris. | John F. Burns reported from London, and Alan Cowell from Paris. |