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No arrests during procession as funeral passes off peacefully



Despite heated threats from anti-Thatcher protestors, the demonstrators at the Iron Lady's funeral were drowned out by her supporters today.


As Baroness Thatcher's coffin was carried through the capital, a few jeers from protestors were lost in the spontaneous applause, cheers and whistles of support that rang around the streets of London.

Despite concerns about protests potentially disrupting the solemn event, only a small number of anti-Thatcher demonstrators made their feelings known by turning away from her coffin.


Outside of the capital 'celebrations' were less muted - in South Yorkshire some former miners reacted to the pageantry by carrying out a fake funeral in their streets.


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Making a stand: Demonstrators hold placards and turn their backs in protest as the Union Jack draped coffin holding the body of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is carried by gun carriage








Anger: A protester holds a banner during at the side of the road in preparation for Lady Thatcher's funeral



Message: A protestor holds a sign up at the side of the road reading to show her anger at the funeral cost




A protest sign is held up as the coffin is carried on a horse drawn gun carriage through the streets of London








Anger: A protester holds a sign at Trafalgar Square - although it had been the scene of celebrations previously, it was a relatively quiet scene at the landmark




More than 4,000 officers were on duty today in a joint operation between the Met, City of London Police and British Transport Police.

Police officers moved in to cover a point on the funeral procession route near Ludgate Circus after a barrier near a group of protesters was pushed as the cortege passed, but no arrests were made.

Commander Christine Jones who helped run the security operation for Baroness Thatcher’s funeral said it is 'testament to the public' that the event passed off smoothly.

This evening, five hours after the funeral finished, police officers arrested a 40-year-old man in Trafalgar Square.




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He was arrested for a public order offence on suspicion of gaining unlawful entry to a cordon and being verbally abusive. He is now in custody at a central London police station.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed the arrest was not made under Operation True Blue, the codename for Lady Thatcher's funeral.


Protester Charmain Kenner, 58, was one of those that had their back turned as Lady Thatcher’s coffin went past Trafalgar Square in the hearse earlier today.


She said: 'Thatcher’s policies were all about individualistic materialism. She created a much greater divide between rich and poor, she ruined many communities and many industries.



Held: This man was arrested in Trafalger Square this evening for a public order offence, five hours after the funeral service ended


Making a stand: Demonstrators turn their backs in protest as the coffin goes past



Indignant: Protester Mary MacMillan holds a sign of protest at Trafalgar Square ahead of the funeral procession


Standing aside: Protestors holding signs stand at the back of the crowd as the procession goes past



It was reported that Scotland Yard said protesters could be arrested under the Public Order Act for 'alarming or distressing' mourners



The horse looked spooked as an item - was thrown in its direction



Crowds throng the route before former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's ceremonial funeral procession

As the gun carriage made its way along the Strand towards Fleet Street, applause and boos competed, growing in volume.


In the busy crowds people rowed among themselves. A fight nearly broke out between one group of supporters of Lady Thatcher and demonstrators, with insults exchanged and threats made.

Rows broke out between supporters of Lady Thatcher and demonstrators outside the Royal Courts of Justice.


A pensioner, dressed in a suit and black tie, called Phil Williams, was holding a banner saying 'Rest in Shame', a 'piece of s***', to loud cheers.


'Sorry, but it needs saying, they’re burying an old woman,' he said.


The pensioner was led along the pavement by police but released as he was heckled in turn by demonstrators.

A protester who gave her name only as Helen stood outside St Paul’s during the funeral service, wearing a mask of Lady Thatcher’s face.


'It would be lovely if other pensioners could spend their last days in luxury at the Ritz,' she said.

VIDEO: Horse spooked





Horse spooked as protestors throw items on funeral procession





Jennifer Gallacher and Bernadette Kavanagh became the focus of heated debate between people outside St Paul’s.


The protesting pair brought a splash of colour to the occasion, dressed head to toe in bright red, wearing miner-style hats and carrying small buckets filled with coal.


They carried placards with the words: 'Never forgive never forget.'


Ms Gallacher, from Orpington, Kent, said: 'I marched for the miners at the time. I feel passionate about the fact that towns were completely torn apart by her.'


She added: 'We’ve been waiting 30 years for this.'


Trouble flared at Trafalgar Square after protestors waved an anti-Thatcher banner on the steps of the National Gallery.


Four men unveiled a huge white sign which read: 'Our thoughts rest with the victims of Thatcher. No mourning here'.


But the group from the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union and the Communist Party of Britain were confronted by a staunch Thatcherite.


The elderly man, wearing several military medals, said: 'It was better when Thatcher was PM. She was my Prime Minister, she wasn't your Prime Minister.


'If you're worried about the Tory party now, then why don't you say so? There's no use blaming a ghost for your troubles now.




Morbid: An effigy of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher is placed in a 'coffin' as people gather to celebrate the death of Margaret Thatcher in Goldthorpe






Goldthorpe residents in South Yorkshire hold mock funeral and burn Margaret Thatcher effigy







At 1pm, a horse and cart pulled up to the club bearing a replica coffin containing another effigy of the late Tory leader. It was manned by someone in a Margaret Thatcher mask drinking milk



Several hundred people were thought to have attended the fake funeral in the village




A piper played as the horsedrawn 'hearse' led a parade up the street

One of the group, Darren Ireland, of Liverpool, is a senior member of the RMT Union. The 42-year-old said: 'We're staging a peaceful protest today, because we want to bring to light the suffering Thatcher caused to many millions of people.


'We want to show the havoc she wreaked on the working classes - there are areas of the country that are still suffering because of her.


Demonstrators pretending to be mourners had planned to blow whistles and sound horns to disrupt Baroness Thatcher's funeral cortege this morning.

The plan had been arranged through a Facebook group, 'Maggie's Good Riddance Party', which attracted more than 3,000 members.

Dominic Francis, 25, the ringleader of the group, who is a student at Oxford's Ruskin College, told members to carry noise-making equipment in their pockets such as whistles, bicycle bells and horns to whip out and blast as the cortege passes.

Ken Clarke took a swipe at 'childish' protests against Margaret Thatcher today, dismissing those celebrating her death as 'adolescents making silly points'.


He said it was 'entirely suitable' that such a high-profile funeral should be held to send off a 'huge national personality'.


The veteran MP, who was first promoted to the ex-premier's cabinet in 1985 and held a series of senior roles, said he looked back 'very fondly' on her.





A man dressed as the devil during the fake funeral in the former mining village of Goldthorpe in Barnsley



A man dressed as a coal miner drinks a pint of beer during a 'party' to celebrate in South Yorkshire

Residents of Goldthorpe drink to Lady Thatcher's death as they hold a sign reading 'Thatcher the scab'





Songs including Rod Stewart's Maggie May, which includes the line Wake up Maggie, I think I've got something to say to you, and Going Underground by The Jam were played as crowds spilled out of the club







Anger: Protesters set fire to a coffin containing an effigy of Margaret Thatcher after the protest march





'Celebrations': A bonfire burns in Goldthorpe as a crowd watches




Funeral protestors burn Thatcher effigy in Goldthorpe



Turned out: Anne Scargill, wife of Arthur Scargill, at the celebrations in Goldthorpe, south Yorkshire

Scotland Yard said today that three men were arrested last night on suspicion of criminal damage in London.


The trio, aged 55, 48 and 26, were held around 9.20pm in Threadneedle Street after police spotted fresh graffiti on a wall.

They searched a car nearby and found articles that could be used for alleged criminal damage. The men remain in custody.

A small group of protesters arrived this morning to demonstrate against the 'glorifying' of Lady Thatcher’s funeral and cuts to the welfare state.


Dave Winslow, 22, an anthropology student from Durham, was joined by three others at Ludgate Circus, next to St Paul’s.

Holding an acrylic placard reading 'Rest of us in Poverty' and wearing a T-shirt with the messages 'power to the people' and 'society does exist', he said up to 200 demonstrators were expected.


'We plan to turn our backs,' he said.

'We want to maintain a dignified protest, it’s counter-productive to cat call and sing Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead.

'The message is that spending £10 million 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.






Patricia Welsh, a 69-year-old retired youth worker, joined the Facebook-organised protest at the junction of Ludgate Hill and Ludgate Circus.



She said: 'I am absolutely furious that Prime Minister David Cameron has decided to spend £10 million on a funeral when normal people are having to face cutbacks, libraries are closing and the NHS is being cut - for the funeral of a Conservative woman.'


Bitter: Residents from mining communities near Barnsley put out banners this morning





A sign reading: 'The Lady's not for turning but tonight she will be burning' was also put up in the town



Mary MacMillan, 79, said she had come to Trafalgar Square to voice her disdain over Lady Thatcher.

Bearing a poster of the Spitting Image depiction of the former leader, she said: 'I’m not going to let all this guff we’ve heard on the TV and radio this morning and every minute since she died get David Cameron more votes for the Tory Party.

'I remember when she was elected. She sold out our workers, our social housing. What about the Irish, what about the steel workers?”

Councils shut down BBC Big Screens in shopping districts amid fears the funeral of Margaret Thatcher could spark riots.


Town hall officials in Liverpool and Edinburgh flicked the switch on the 25 metre high TV screens because of concerns about anti-Thatcher demonstrations.


There are 22 Big Screens jointly operated by the BBC and local authorities in the UK showing news, sports and music events like the Glastonbury festival.




Members of the Easington community on their way to the Easington Colliery Club where a Margaret Thatcher is Dead Party' was held





Anger: Men hold a sign called 'Thatcher's prayer' as they travel to Easington Colliery Club


Damp squib: Easington village residents arrive at Easington Colliery Social Club

A spokesperson from Liverpool City Council said: 'We did make the decision not to show the funeral on the big screen.'

Thatcher was seen as a particularly divisive politician by many in Merseyside due to her attack on the unions which affected thousands of dockers and her perceived lack of interest in the city’s problems in the wake of the 1981 Toxteth riots.

News from Nowhere, a radical and community bookshop in Liverpool, has sold party packs to celebrate Thatcher’s funeral.


The packs contained black balloons and party poppers with the politician’s face on and bearing the logo: 'Still Hate Thatcher'.


Bookseller Julie Callaghan, 53, said they only bought a few of the packs as their online retailer had sold out, and that they had also sold out.

One lone protester stood outside the shop where Baroness Thatcher grew up in Grantham, Lincolnshire.


Blank: In Liverpool, the city council made the decision not to show the funeral on the big screen in the town centre in Clayton Square



A Republican took place in Derry's Bogside on today at the time of Margaret Thatchers funeral in London





Strike: The vigil/protest was in memory of the ten Republican hunger strikers who died in 1981 - the strike was a showdown between the prisoners and Thatcher

It had once been her father’s grocer’s shop and is now a chiropractic clinic and holistic retreat.


John Morgan, secretary of the Grantham Labour Party, who held a placard that said 'Grantham resident against Maggie', said he was there to protest against the cost of the funeral.


'If Margaret Thatcher had had a private funeral for family and friends I would not be here,' he said.

Hours after her funeral around 100 people gathered for a 'party' hosted by a former miner who was arrested during the strike.


The gathering was held at Glenmuir Arms pub in the village of Logan, East Ayrshire near the ex-mining town of Cumnock.


Pub owner Jim McMahon, 52, who used to be a miner, said he was arrested during the strike in 1984 outside Hunterston power station near Largs, North Ayrshire and later convicted of breach of the peace.



Spread out: The advice being posted by the demonstration group on Facebook today



Disruptive: Dominic Francis, the ringleader, has instructed members of the group to dress as mourners and assemble between St Clement Danes and St Pauls




He said he has been planning a party in 'celebration' of Lady Thatcher's death for almost 30 years.


Dozens of ex-miners arrived at a club in Easington Colliery, County Durham, with many of them saying they were there to celebrate Baroness Thatcher’s death.


Durham Miners Association general secretary David Hopper said they were there for a party and to have a 'good knees-up'.


Wearing a T-shirt with 'A generation of trade unionists will dance on Thatcher’s grave' written on it, he said she made an incessant attack on mining communities.


Hundreds gathered outside the Union Jack Memorial Club in Goldthorpe, where the late prime minister’s effigy hung, with several men dressed in National Coal Board clothing and hard hats.


Songs including Rod Stewart’s Maggie May, which includes the line 'Wake up Maggie, I think I’ve got something to say to you', and Going Underground by The Jam were played as crowds spilled out of the club and lined the street.


Several National Union of Mineworkers pit banners were paraded past, prompting cheers and applause from bystanders.


At 1pm, a horse and cart pulled up to the club bearing a replica coffin containing another effigy of the late Tory leader. It was manned by someone in a Margaret Thatcher mask drinking milk.


A piper played as the horsedrawn 'hearse' led a parade up the street.

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