People have protested loud and fast about not wishing to pay for Margaret Thatcher's funeral. In less than six days a petition achieved more than 10,000 signatures and was gaining impetus. A few hours ago the site encountered what CAUSES calls 'turbulence'. This is disturbing because the way the petition was going it could have easily reached 20,000 though 10,000 was a realistic objective over such a short period. As I write it is 2 p.m. on Tuesday 16th April. The petition-page has been down for two hours with a message:
CAUSES itself is not down because at the same time as I dumped the above screenshot I also dropped down this box where a search on the word Thatcher' brought up the following.
Who took it down? It shows that 10,124 signatures had been attained with lots of time left for this exponentially-increasing petition, which I only got to know about yesterday. Another one I would have signed had I known about it was an Epetition created before Mrs Thatcher had died called 'No State Funeral for Margaret Thatcher'. That reached a huge 38,043 signatures. Though Lady Thatcher can rest in peace this funeral business should not be allowed to rest in peace.
And indeed it is not doing. Another epetition has just been started.
In her blatant attack on trade unionism one way Mrs Thatcher drove a wedge through the crotch of the union movement was to enable union members opposed to the political levy to opt out of paying it. So now as a taxpayer who does not want to pay for this pompous affair I should be entitled to opt out of funding her procession. The general public has not been consulted about whether those who make up its body wish to pay for a person's funeral who they may, or may not, have liked. What is more, each of us has to fund our own family funerals, out of our own pockets. If this show is not paid for by private donation I shall be asking for my funeral to come out of public funds. So should you. Most of us are much better people than Thatcher ever was
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