Thatcher dies

[emordnilap]

Is it the additional cost over what the people and facilities involved would cost anyway if it wasn't happening?

Interesting. I assume you're saying, "The police/army/clandestine cost £X amount anyway, today and every day, so it can't be included in the cost of the funeral". Is that right?

Which begs the question, wtf are they doing when there's no such event?

[biffvernon]

Dick Cheney is there, so it must be all wrong.

[JohnB]

Is it the additional cost over what the people and facilities involved would cost anyway if it wasn't happening?

Interesting. I assume you're saying, "The police/army/clandestine cost £X amount anyway, today and every day, so it can't be included in the cost of the funeral". Is that right?

Which begs the question, wtf are they doing when there's no such event?

Presumably they're not all sitting around waiting for someone famous to snuff it. So they would otherwise be costing us money doing something, even if we don't like what they're doing. So if the £10m includes those costs, it wouldn't all be available to spend on something good anyway.

Here's an interesting view on it

Mrs Thatcher was not 'evil' - she did what was necessary for Britain to succeed in a game that is utterly wrong

http://www.lowimpact.org/blog/2013/Apr/ ... t_evil.htm

[PS_RalphW]

The police who are on duty today and in the lead-up security preparations will alsmost certainly being paid overtime at a very generous rate. They would not have, to a large extent, been pulled from normal policing activity.

The provision of a state funeral in all but name for a peace-time PM is unprecedented. It is a huge free publiciity stunt for the Tory party.

Socialism for the rich.

[Blue Peter]

Mrs Thatcher was not 'evil' - she did what was necessary for Britain to succeed in a game that is utterly wrong

http://www.lowimpact.org/blog/2013/Apr/ ... t_evil.htm

Take a look at the oil data provided by Jonathan Callahan at TOD:

Very good at the game, or just extremely lucky?


Peter.

[JohnB]

If TPTB are sneaking out any announcements today please post them here. Radio 4 is off, and I'm working through my CD collection today, so I might miss them!

[frank_begbie]

Mrs Thatcher was not 'evil' - she did what was necessary for Britain to succeed in a game that is utterly wrong

http://www.lowimpact.org/blog/2013/Apr/ ... t_evil.htm

Take a look at the oil data provided by Jonathan Callahan at TOD:

Very good at the game, or just extremely lucky?


Peter.

North Sea Oil has a lot to answer for

[JohnB]

North Sea Oil has a lot to answer for

North Sea oil is (or largely was!) an inanimate object with no intellect. It's what people have done with it that needs answering for .

[Blue Peter]

Here's another piece recognizing the crucial role played by North Sea oil,


Peter.

[emordnilap]

Here's another piece recognizing the crucial role played by North Sea oil,


Peter.

And another quite interesting one from a NZ writer (sorry, it's over a month old ) here.

Major and Blair both also had the good fortune to preside over the North Sea oil bubble. And Blair, like Thatcher, took his country to war and failed to plan for the decline of this energy windfall. Neither of these following PMs deviated from Thatcher’s line; taking the short term opportunity offered by this finite resource with no attempt to either husband it nor use it to invest in its replacement

[nexus]

Flag-waving former PM Margaret Thatcher may have avoided millions in inheritance tax by keeping a chunk of her fortune offshore.

A copy of Tory Baroness Thatcher’s will shows she left a £4.7million estate to be shared among family members.

But the £12million Central London mansion where the Iron Lady spent the last years of her life is owned by an anonymous trust registered in the British Virgin Islands – a ­notorious tax haven.

Through this arrangement she could have avoided up to £5million in inheritance tax – the 40% that would have been due if it was owned by a UK individual.

In the will, made in 1997, Thatcher intended to leave £1million to husband Sir Denis, but he died in 2003 – 10 years before her. Instead, her estate is split between her family, with a third each going to her twins Mark and Carol, and the remaining third shared by her grandchildren when they reach 25.

Expert Richard Murphy, of Tax Research, said: “It has always been strange that Margaret Thatcher, that most British of prime ministers, enjoyed the benefits of a property registered in the British Virgin Islands.

"It is possible that Denis Thatcher set up the trust or other offshore arrangements in order to save tax.”

Ex-Tory leader Thatcher died in April aged 87 following a stroke and had her ­ceremonial funeral funded by the taxpayer.

Papers linked to her will state “the gross value of the estate in the United Kingdom amounts to £4,768,795”. But it does not appear to include the Belgravia mansion, valued at £12.4million by Zoopla.

The house was bought in 1991 by Bakeland Property Limited, an anonymous offshore trust in Jersey, on a 64-year lease. It was sub-leased to a firm of the same name based in the British Virgin Islands.

It is not known who the beneficiaries of Bakeland are. If Thatcher had owned shares in it when she died, inheritance tax would have been due on their value.

Lawyer Andrew Kidd, of Clintons, said: “The shares in the BVI company would be included in Baroness Thatcher’s estate, and subject to UK inheritance tax, in so far as they were in her ownership.”

Thatcher’s financial advisors refused in 2002 to explain why she did not appear to own her own house, and stated: “No one’s going to tell you about that.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ma ... 2m-2866929