Actually Mr John Howard has been asked by the
Prime Minister to represent Australia at the
funeral. The Prime Minister felt that it was
appropriate for him to represent the Nation as
Mr Howard had the "deepest connection" to the
former British Prime Minister.

The long essay by Michael Hudson available on Alternet is worth a read. It puts everything about Thatcherism into historical perspective. It is titled Margaret Thatcher Was a Privatization Pioneer.
Not a pretty picture.

The Aussie representative will be John Howard, to this financially obscene "shindig".
Why is the Queen of Australia QEII attending, as she never attends former UK prime ministers funerals; other than that of Winston Churchill.

Thatcher will be remembered for two things:

1 She was part of a team of conviction politicians and leaders who were instrumental in causing the final collapse of the Soviet Union and western communism. Not only did this free the west from the threat of that expansionist ideology but it gave millions of people in the captive nations of eastern Europe their freedom back.

2. She breathed new life into the decaying carcass that was the British state. In 1979 Britain and its welfare state were in such a mess that most politicians saw their job as merely finding ways to manage the inevitable decline. Thatcher didn't buy that and, almost single-handedly, salvaged hope and prosperity from despair.

For these reasons alone she deserves all the accolades in death that Britain and the world can muster. We will not see her like again, I fear.

Sure there are the naysayers but these are mere hyenas yapping around the lioness.

Thanks Lexi & Kipp for the information regarding John Howard's attendance, same difference though, I am sure many Australians will be blown out of their minds to think of the expense of these shindigs, do we really care what Margaret Thatcher meant to the world,
she managed to kill indirectly many people in the Falklands war, that I presume will give her instant entry to the "Kingdom of Heaven"

As much as I hate to see myself writing this - as a youth of the 70s - we need a Thatcher here in Australia today.

Unfortunately, all we have is a Gillard and a growing sense of foreboding to go with our mounting debt and the sense of entitlement that has created it. A pygmy when we need a titan: a "feisty woman" when we need a thinking person with convictions built on reason and ethics and with the courage to carry them through when the rent-seekers are screaming imprecations and demanding special treatment.

I guess we get the government we deserve.