2,000 notables invited to Thatcher funeral
Source: Agencies |
April 12, 2013, Friday
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INVITATIONS to Margaret Thatcher's funeral are going out to more than 2,000 celebrities, dignitaries, colleagues and friends of the late British leader - from former US presidents to composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Invitations were being printed yesterday and will be mailed out today, the government said.
Thatcher, who died on Monday at the age of 87, will be given a funeral with military honors at St Paul's Cathedral on April 17.
Though not officially a state funeral, it is the grandest such service seen in Britain since the death in 2002 of the Queen Mother.
Queen Elizabeth II will be among the mourners - the first time the monarch has attended a prime minister's funeral since the death of Winston Churchill in 1965.
The invitation list includes all surviving US presidents, British politicians past and present, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. Prime Minister David Cameron's office said the list - drawn up by Thatcher's family, her Conservative Party and the government - includes representatives of 200 states and groups with which Britain has diplomatic relations, as well as current and former world leaders with a "close connection to Baroness Thatcher."
But Argentine President Cristina Kirchner has not been invited, Downing Street confirmed, reflecting continuing tensions over the Falkland Islands, also known as the Malvinas in Argentina. "It's about adhering to her family's wishes," a government source said. A government spokesman said Argentina's ambassador to Britain would be invited, and that was in keeping with protocol.
Some of those figures most closely associated with her 1979-1990 tenure have said they will not attend. Nancy Reagan, widow of US President Ronald Reagan, will send a representative, and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev says poor health prevents him from coming to London. A representative of Nelson Mandela - whom Thatcher once called a terrorist - has also been invited.
The scale of the funeral - and the multimillion-pound expense - has drawn criticism. Thatcher divides opinion in death, as her free-market economic policies did in life. But Cameron said "it is right to have a ceremonial funeral, with key elements of a state funeral, with the troops lining the route."
"I think people would find us a pretty extraordinary country if we didn't properly commemorate with dignity, with seriousness, but with also some fanfare ... the passing of this extraordinary woman," he said.
Invitations were being printed yesterday and will be mailed out today, the government said.
Thatcher, who died on Monday at the age of 87, will be given a funeral with military honors at St Paul's Cathedral on April 17.
Though not officially a state funeral, it is the grandest such service seen in Britain since the death in 2002 of the Queen Mother.
Queen Elizabeth II will be among the mourners - the first time the monarch has attended a prime minister's funeral since the death of Winston Churchill in 1965.
The invitation list includes all surviving US presidents, British politicians past and present, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. Prime Minister David Cameron's office said the list - drawn up by Thatcher's family, her Conservative Party and the government - includes representatives of 200 states and groups with which Britain has diplomatic relations, as well as current and former world leaders with a "close connection to Baroness Thatcher."
But Argentine President Cristina Kirchner has not been invited, Downing Street confirmed, reflecting continuing tensions over the Falkland Islands, also known as the Malvinas in Argentina. "It's about adhering to her family's wishes," a government source said. A government spokesman said Argentina's ambassador to Britain would be invited, and that was in keeping with protocol.
Some of those figures most closely associated with her 1979-1990 tenure have said they will not attend. Nancy Reagan, widow of US President Ronald Reagan, will send a representative, and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev says poor health prevents him from coming to London. A representative of Nelson Mandela - whom Thatcher once called a terrorist - has also been invited.
The scale of the funeral - and the multimillion-pound expense - has drawn criticism. Thatcher divides opinion in death, as her free-market economic policies did in life. But Cameron said "it is right to have a ceremonial funeral, with key elements of a state funeral, with the troops lining the route."
"I think people would find us a pretty extraordinary country if we didn't properly commemorate with dignity, with seriousness, but with also some fanfare ... the passing of this extraordinary woman," he said.
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