6pm: Here are extracts from some of the blog-posts and articles written this afternoon. Click on the links, of course, to read the full versions…
Channel 4's Gary Gibbon describes the view from inside:
“As Elgar’s
Nimrod played on the organ and the coffin departed from inside the cathedral
you could hear ‘hip-hip-hooray’ cheers and clapping from outside, a spontaneous
moment at the end of a minutely planned and polished ceremony.Without a word or
acknowledgement the Blairs and Browns, who’d been sitting next to each other
through the service, got up and left through different doors.”
The Spectator's James Forsyth says that Margaret Thatcher's funeral was the right funeral:
“Watching the coffin
move down to St Paul’s and the service itself, I was struck by how right it was
that it was a ceremonial funeral. A private affair would not have done justice
to the legacy of our first, and only, female Prime Minister……Margaret Thatcher
now passes into history. I suspect that her name will live on in the way that
Gladstone or Disraeli has.”
The Guardian's Jonathan Freedland says that this was a funeral designed to elevate Margaret Thatcher above politics:
“…future generations will gaze on this archive footage much
the way we look at pictures from the 1965 funeral of Winston Churchill now:
they will assume this was an uncomplicated tribute to a woman who had served as
little short of a national saviour.Which is why an all-but-state funeral was controversial, why
some opposed granting such a rare, once-a-century honour to the former prime
minister. For they knew, and feared, the power of such a ceremony – how it can
transform and elevate a onetime partisan politician into something larger, a
figure that towers above politics, apparently uniting a nation.”
The Telegraph's Janet Daley notes that, in the end, the protestors faded away:
“Maybe the
protesters had second thoughts – or were simply cowed by the ignominy that
their early efforts had attracted, but we must offer thanks that they did not
emerge to embarrass the country while the world watched.”
And Con Coughlin, also of the Telegraph, pays tribute to the military:
“From
the carefully selected members of all three Services who were selected to act
as pall-bearers, to the guard of honour outside St Paul's Cathedral, the sense
of pageantry they have brought to an otherwise solemn event provides a fitting
and uplifting tribute to one of our greatest prime ministers.”
2.30pm: A selection of comments made during and after the funeral service:
11am: As with our post collecting reaction from Conservative parliamentarians, we shall update this post throughout the day. Here's a selection of tweets made before the funeral service started: