Thatcher funeral costs equally tasteless as novelty death song

The BBC's new director general Tony Hall may consider the song tasteless and inappropriate but, as you point out, many people have chosen to spend their money on it. There are plenty of us who consider the lavish funeral planned for Margaret Thatcher to be tasteless and inappropriate, and it was not our decision that our money should be spent on that.

Baroness Thatcher received a high salary throughout her political life and was married to a very wealthy man. She was honoured with a title, as was her husband, and her son, a controversial figure in his own right, inherited that title. An exasperated public, worn down with financial gloom, austerity and benefit cuts, may well feel that the Thatcher family has not been short changed and enough is enough. What has stood out over the past week is that in death, as in life, Lady Thatcher continues to ignite strong passions, divide public opinion and expose the ever-widening gulf that exists between ordinary people and out-of-touch politicians.

Ruth Marr,

99 Grampian Road,

Stirling.

There is no doubt that Margaret Thatcher's policies were at times unpopular and divisive.

Introducing the poll tax to Scotland first was not her finest idea, but Baroness Thatcher did not destroy the miners – Arthur Scargill did by not holding the second ballot, which he would have won.

Lady Thatcher did send an armada to the South Atlantic to protect British sovereign territory; she stood up to the Europeans and won rebates, saving us many billions of pounds over the years. She did not lead us into an illegal war with Iraq. And what would she have said about the MPs' expenses scandal ?

What would the Iron Lady have said about Theresa May's handling of Abu Qatada and Abu Hamza's human rights ? I can envisage her at the despatch box in front of a packed chamber, stating that, yes, they are entitled to their human rights and to appeal against deportation, but not at the British taxpayers' expense. Mrs May would have been sent packing like so many others who did not meet her expectations.

As for Ding-dong! The Witch Is Dead, it is up to individuals to decide whether it is appropriate. The fact is that people will remember Lady Thatcher, unlike the mediocre prime ministers who have followed. To use a Glaswegian phrase, "The wummin hud the bottle."

Robert McCaw,

6 Hamilton Crescent,

Renfrew.

Could the louts who spent Saturday loudly celebrating Margaret Thatcher's death confirm that they are dismayed not to be working down mines, in steelworks or in shipyards; that they (or their parents) bought neither shares nor their council house; that they would have preferred a fascist junta to have taken the Falkland Islands, the IRA to have been victorious, the Cold War to have been lost; inflation and tax rates to be what they were in 1979; and striking unions still to be holding this country to ransom?

Can we further assume that these people have in no way benefited from the successful, deregulated, free-market economy and entrepreneurial revolution bequeathed to us by Baroness Thatcher?

Keith Gilmour,

0/1, 18 Netherton Gardens,

Netherton Gate,

Glasgow.

As Margaret Thatcher's funeral arrangements polarise people into the hagiography and hatred camps, the first group seems driven to echo the perceived glories of the Olympics, the royal wedding and the Queen's diamond jubilee, which in turn intimidates the second group in a proposed piece of state theatre in which the sensibilities of a family funeral are lost.

Perhaps in true Thatcherite style privatisation of the event would help defuse a conflict created by a serious misreading of public opinion by government; another element of the Thatcherite legacy, later taken up by Tony Blair.

George Devlin,

6 Falcon Terrace Lane,

Glasgow.

Bob Ballantine (Letters, April 12) is perfectly correct to state that the communist regimes of central and eastern Europe were swept away by massive street demonstrations. However, he appears to use this to join the chorus of your correspondents and columnists who seek to minimise Baroness Thatcher's achievements in a variety of spheres.

Popular uprisings had previously occurred in the Iron Curtain countries, eg Poland and Hungary in 1956 and the Prague Spring of 1968, but had been vigourously suppressed by the authorities, so the courageous individuals and organisations mentioned by Mr Ballantine who led the late 1980s protests must have felt they were placing themselves and their families at great risk.

The West did not intervene in Hungary in 1956 for fear of provoking a war. In the intervening time, perhaps the communist dictators had mellowed, but there was no need for us to meddle in the internal politics of eastern Europe in the late 1980s because of the changes in the political environment that had been produced by the combination of Ronald Reagan and Baroness Thatcher.

Christopher W Ide

25 Riverside Road,

Waterfoot,

East Renfrewshire.

My congratulations to Bill Brown (Letters, April 13) who describes reality as I recall it, despite facing the love of the Scottish people for fantasy and scapegoats.

I recall iron ore for Ravenscraig being imported by little boats into the heart of Glasgow – an interesting spectacle but ridiculous notion. The proposal to move steelmaking and shipbuilding adjacent to deep water at Hunterston was acceptable to the main political parties and the TUC, but was torpedoed by local trade union activists. Will those responsible now stand up and take responsibility? Not likely.

Margaret Thatcher was a member of the group most despised by those who consider themselves working class – she was a working class upstart. I empathise as a member of that group, being the grandson of an Ayrshire miner.

William Durward,

20 South Erskine Park,

Bearsden.

Keith Bruce would be well advised to keep to the narrow boundaries of writing on matters musical. His contribution to the debate on Margaret Thatcher ("Thatcher protest songs would be welcome vinyl gems", The Herald, April 13) revealed his inability to engage in independent thought and his tendency to follow the crowd in vilifying Baroness Thatcher without considering the context in which her policies were developed and implemented.

Mr Bruce has the distinction of being the first contributor I have read who appears to contest the claim that the UK in the 1970s was an economic basket case.

John Kelly,

65 Hunter Road, Milngavie.