GEORGE Galloway has insisted the "canonisation" of Baroness Thatcher was impossible because there was no national consensus about the former prime minister.
During a Commons debate, the Respect MP attacked the proposal to postpone Prime Minister's Questions today to enable MPs to attend her funeral, saying "real war leaders" like Sir Winston Churchill "understood the whole point of us being here, the whole point of democracy, the whole point of elections, is we do not suspend normal political activity".
The Scot described Lady Thatcher's funeral as "too expensive, too elaborate and too regal".
Given the UK Government and Labour were in favour of cancelling PMQs this week, Mr Galloway's attempt to reinstate it failed. The vote was 245 to 13.
Earlier in Perth at the STUC annual congress, Alex Salmond appeared to criticise Lady Thatcher's legacy. Defending universal benefits and services in Scotland, he said: "In the face of the social and economic bedlam of the 1980s, there was a need, an overwhelming urgency, to establish a parliament for Scotland that could express a different concept of society – one based on a sense of public good and the common weal."
In contrast, William Hague, speaking at the Lord Mayor's Easter Banquet in the City of London, urged Britain to emulate Lady Thatcher's "firmness of purpose" to deal with economic uncertainty and international crises such as the stand-off with North Korea.
The Foreign Secretary hailed the late premier's "moral clarity", insisting governments around the world could learn from her example.
In a separate development, a debate on Lady Thatcher's legacy due to take place today at Holyrood was postponed until tomorrow following a meeting of the Scottish Parliament's business bureau. The Scottish Conservatives had branded the timing "provocative and insensitive".
Today, Big Ben will fall silent as thousands are expected to line the funeral route to St Paul's Cathedral.
The Queen will head the guest list, which will include Prime Minister David Cameron, Labour leader Ed Miliband and Mr Salmond as well as members of Lady Thatcher's Cabinet, foreign dignitaries and a raft of actors, singers and broadcasters.
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