Anti-Thatcher rallies in Glasgow, Ayrshire as miners recall 'hate' figure

Some of those who opposed her, including trade unionists and representatives of the steel industry, were joined by members of the public to mark the occasion.

Demonstrators carried banners and placards bearing slogans including “Thatcher is buried now bury the bedroom tax”.

Music including “Ding Dong The Witch is dead” blared from a bus which has also been set up to broadcast speeches.

One of the demonstrators, Cathy Pederson, 67, from East Kilbride, said: "I fought against Thatcher all my life and I watched her destroy jobs in Scotland.

"She introduced everything up here first and in Scotland we don't forget and we don't forgive. I am delighted that I have outlived her."

Around 100 people, including Tommy Sheridan, gathered for a "party" hosted by a former miner who was arrested during the strike, hours after Baroness Thatcher's funeral.

The gathering was held at Glenmuir Arms pub in the village of Logan, East Ayrshire near the ex-mining town of Cumnock.

The pub, which used to be a working men's club, was decked-out with bunting.

Pub owner Jim McMahon, 52, who used to be a miner, said he was arrested during the strike in 1984 outside Hunterston power station near Largs, North Ayrshire and later convicted of breach of the peace.

He said he has been planning a party in "celebration" of Lady Thatcher's death for almost 30 years.

"It's not a knee-jerk decision. I said I would have this party for 30 years. I didn't plan to have it on this grand a scale because I didn't have a pub then," he said.

"I was a miner from when I was 15-years-old and I went on strike in 1984 for one reason: to make sure community spirit and jobs survived. We lost that. We now live in and around these communities that have been devastated.

"Deprivation is there for everybody to see, jobs are few and far between. Last year there was a job advertised for a shop assistant and 345 people applied for that post. That just speaks volumes about what's happened here. You can't take 6,500 jobs out of a community and not re-invest in it."

A white van owned by Steven Gribben, 40, was parked on the street outside with the words "The Witch is Burning!!!" taped on to it. Union flags also flew outside houses nearby.

People here blame the then Mrs Thatcher's policies for the demise of their communities. They say she left them and the generations after them with no job prospects and forced many people on to welfare.

Jim Muir, 61, wore a t-shirt with the slogan: "Iron Lady Rust in Hell".

He said: "She ruined our communities.

"I've got brothers who were miners and I was one myself. That's the only job I ever knew: as soon as you left school that's what you did.

"There was nothing left after Thatcher."

At the gathering, Tommy Sheridan led a rally from a stage decorated with a broomstick and papier mache legs.

"I think it's important that we stand against the attempt to rewrite modern history," he said.

"(David) Cameron and the other political lackeys are trying to convince us that she was acting in Britain's interests, put Britain first. We know the truth is she put the rich and the privileged first.

"She brought devastation, destruction and division throughout her whole political life, to communities like this here in Cumnock.

"She castigated the good men and women of pit villages like Cumnock as 'the enemy within': people who worked all their life to keep Britain going.

"This women should not be eulogised and celebrated as some form of saint, she should be represented as the very divisive political figure that she was."

He told the crowd: "Some people will say it's wrong to celebrate the death and demise of an old woman. Well, I've got to say to you, in order to have respect for the dead you first of all have to have respect for the living. And quite frankly Mrs Thatcher had absolutely no respect for the living and therefore doesn't deserve our respect in her death."

A hush fell over the crowd as Mr McMahon asked for a moment's silence "for every miner that died, for every pit she closed and for every job she took out of this area".

A group gathered outside to pop open champagne, cheering as they posed for pictures with Mr Sheridan.

In Newtongrange, Midlothian,  other former miners branded the funeral a waste of taxpayers' money as they reflected on the "hated" figure's legacy locally.

At the Dean Tavern John Falconer, 79, a retired former miner, said: "She was a hated woman in Scotland for some of her policies.

"She closed all our mines, she caused disruption, just about killed the village by closing the pits.

"A lot of people lost their houses because they couldn't pay their mortgage when she closed the collieries."

Another former miner, 52-year-old Alan Kierzkowski, of Newtongrange, said emotions still run high in mining towns, many years after Mrs Thatcher was in power.

"She was a hated figure then and she still is a hated figure even in death," he said.

Addressing the STUC annual conference in Perth, general secretary Grahame Smith spoke about the plight of "those who suffered at the hands of the Conservative governments of the 80s and 90s".

Workers lost their jobs and communities were "devastated", he said.

Mr Smith said the trade union movement has had its "values of unity, solidarity and community denigrated and dismissed by those without compassion, who value greed and self, who promote division and discord, who hold the poor in contempt and worship the free market".

He said: "Reflection on the past is no bad thing if it helps determine how past mistakes can be avoided and progress can be made.

"The demise of one right-wing ideologue, however iconic, is of less importance to us than confronting and overcoming the policies of the current breed and debunking the myth that weak unions, minimal employment right, privatisation and deregulation are the prerequisites of economic success.

"The real legacy of the 80s and 90s is the UK Government of today.

"Our task is to look forward, to move forward. Despite all their efforts to destroy us, to marginalise us, to cast us as irrelevant, we are still here and we are still fighting and we will prevail."

MSPs at Holyrood were due to discuss Baroness Thatcher's legacy this afternoon but the timing of the debate was changed to avoid a clash with her funeral.

Brought forward by the group of Green and Independent MSPs at the Scottish Parliament, the debate has been rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

After the death of Baroness Thatcher last week, First Minister Alex Salmond said she was a strong leader, despite routinely calling into question the impact of her policies.

"Margaret Thatcher was a truly formidable prime minister whose policies defined a political generation,'' he said in a statement.

Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont offered her "deepest condolences" to the former prime minister's family and friends.

But she also said: "I came into politics to fight the ideology and values of Margaret Thatcher, which I believe damaged our country."

Scottish Conservative chairman David Mundell, the only Tory MP in Scotland, described her as "a truly transformational figure who rescued an ailing Britain and set our nation on the path to an economic prosperity and social mobility that we had never previously enjoyed".

He said: "Margaret Thatcher changed Britain for the better but she helped change the world for the better too.''