Have a heart

You either loved her or hated her. The 'iron lady' tended to produce strong reactions pro and against when she was prime minister, and in her death she has done the same.

I won't add to the millions of words already in print assessing her life, but in a week when I have taken one funeral, and made a preparatory visit for another, I will share with blog readers a concern I feel about the events of the last few days.

Somewhere along the line, a simple truth has been lost: a woman has died who was both a mother and grandmother and a family is grieving.

Each week in Southwark News there are moving tributes to deceased family members. Clergy and funeral directors alike work with families to give the best possible send-off to thiose who have died, bearing in mind the human pain and grief that lies behind every death.

To my mind some of the responses to Baroness Thatcher's death have lost sight of this. They go beyond bad taste. They seem unfeeling and heartless.


By contrast some of the best contributions to this week's debate in Parliament came from those who disagreed with many of Mrs Thatcher's policies. They spoke about her life in a way that respected her memory and took into account the feelings of a grieving family. Ed Milliband's speech was an outstanding example of this.