If there is one day in all our lives on which we are
entitled to expect unqualified praise, then surely it is the day of our
funeral.
Who amongst us would anticipate, on that day, people to say
‘he was a nice chap, but made some stupid decisions and not many people liked
him’ or ‘nice woman, but she was really rude and screwed up badly at work’?
So let it be for Baroness Thatcher. This is not the day to
examine her record as Prime Minister, about which anyone who lived through the
era will have strong views, either for or against. That’s not to say I won’t
return to this at a later date.
No; what I want to consider is the appropriateness of her
ceremonial funeral, with military honours, largely funded by the nation (us). I
have read, but failed to grasp, the distinction between what happened this
morning and a state funeral. It was
certainly the only funeral of a former Prime Minister attended by the Queen
since that of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965, and few would begrudge Sir Winston
the unique honour of his state funeral.
However, I believe that the decision taken by the Queen upon the advice, we are led to believe, of Gordon Brown, to grant Lady Thatcher
a funeral of the same status as that of the Queen Mother and the Princess of
Wales, raises a serious constitutional issue.
There have always been great Prime Ministers, average Prime
Ministers and some who frankly will scarcely trouble the computer keyboards of
future historians, and hopefully, as long as we have a democracy, there always
will be. We, the voters, will decide which is which.
And that’s the point. The voters, not the monarch, are
empowered to discern the wheat from the chaff. As soon as the sovereign head of
state starts to decide that one Prime Minister is greater than another – in
this case greater than all but one – we are on a slippery slope. One of the
principal justifications of a constitutional monarch is her/his political
neutrality, their ability to deal with Labour and Conservative leaders and to
‘treat those two imposters just the same’. I felt the same unease at the
wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, when Tony Blair – Prime Minister
for a decade – was disgracefully omitted from the guest list when all other serving
Prime Ministers were invited.
Once the Queen gives the appearance of being politically
biased, it must fundamentally change the relationship between her and future
Prime Ministers of all hues. And that would be bad for the country.
Now that the pomp and circumstance – immaculately executed
as always –is over, a protocol needs to
be drawn up on how the deaths of current or former Prime Ministers should be
handled in future. I don’t mind particularly what send-off is decided upon by
those democratically elected to make such judgments, but what is essential is
that they all get the same treatment. That’s what democracy is about.
