Baroness Thatcher's funeral – codenamed Operation True Blue – is expected to be attended by an array of political heavyweights, past and present and from home and abroad.
Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office Minister, who is co-ordinating the event at St Paul's Cathedral a week today, said: "There is already a huge amount of interest; there's a guest list. People will be invited over the coming days."
Heading the list will be the Queen and Prince Philip; it will be the first time the monarch has been at the funeral of a prime minister since that of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965.
Mr Maude said: "It's very significant that her majesty and the duke wish to attend. Baroness Thatcher was transformational for Britain and also made a huge difference for the world."
The minister chaired a meeting to organise the funeral arrangements. It included members of the Thatcher family, officials from Buckingham Palace and the Foreign Office, and representatives from the Armed Forces and the Metropolitan Police.
Former prime ministers Sir John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are expected to attend as will many of Lady Thatcher's former Cabinet colleagues from the 1980s. Alex Salmond, the First Minister, will also be there.
The foreign dignitaries could include many who the late premier knew during her time in office – such as Ronald Reagan's widow Nancy; ex-US presidents George Bush and his son George W Bush; Henry Kissinger, a former US secretary of state; Mikhail Gorbachev, former leader of the Soviet Union; Helmut Kohl, the ex-German chancellor, Lech Walesa, the Polish Solidarity leader; and Shimon Peres, the Israeli President.
Mark Thatcher, the late PM's son, was due to return to the UK last night. His sister, Carol, will return before the funeral.
It will take place with full military honours – the same status accorded the Queen Mother and Princess Diana.
The streets will be cleared for a procession taking Lady Thatcher's body from Westminster to St Paul's. Members of the armed services will line the route and flags will be flown at half-mast.
Lady Thatcher will be cremated at a private service.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article