No respectability for murderous regimes

The State funeral for former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is a major secular ritual designed to bestow the highest form of respectability upon her.

It goes without saying that this is a ritual of a modern nation-state.

The relationship between Margaret Thatcher and the Chilean Dictator Pinochet is merely one argument as to why such a State funeral is inappropriate. There are many other reasons, all well vented.

We must pause to remember the many everyday people, like you and me, who were brutally and savagely killed by the regime embodied in the man Margaret Thatcher publicly embraced.

These brutal killers only succeed when we, the living, remain silent - especially when they seek to cloak themselves in that very important social good - respectability.

They are never respectable.

We must never be silent.

When bells chime for such State sanctioned rituals, it is not surprising that there is a spontaneous peoples chorus of another kind.

In the spirit of the Chilean people whose lives were taken by Pinochet, and with respect for their families, we say that the State funeral for Margaret Thatcher is also another nail in the coffin for the form of nation-state which is hosting it.

There can be no respectability for such a system.

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Post-script.

It appears that the Thatcher funeral is not technically a State funeral, but a notch down as a Ceremonial funeral, which is approved by the Queen and not by Parliament.

A chorus of  that other BBC banned song "God Save the Queen and ..."  from the Sex Pistols may be appropriate at this juncture.

Interesting to note that someone who used Parliament to promote a particularly divisive agenda had to by-pass Parliament in order to continue to privilege that agenda posthumously.

A Ceremonial funeral - still a State ritual -  bestows enormous respectability on Thatcher and her methods.

Good account of the difference at

 http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2013/0416/State-funerals-ceremonial-funerals-and-Margaret-Thatcher