ANTI-THATCHER protesters have taken to the streets to express anger at the cost of the former prime minister's funeral.

Patricia Welsh, a 69-year-old retired youth worker, joined the Facebook-organised demonstration at the junction of Ludgate Hill and Ludgate Circus in central London.

She said: "I am absolutely furious that Prime Minister David Cameron has decided to spend £10 million on a funeral when normal people are having to face cutbacks, libraries are closing and the NHS is being cut - for the funeral of a Conservative woman.


"Like anyone else she deserves a decent funeral, but not at the expense of the taxpayer."

Others took a stance against the "glorifying" of Lady Thatcher's funeral and cuts to the welfare state.

Dave Winslow, 22, an anthropology student from Durham, was joined by three others at Ludgate Circus, next to St Paul's Cathedral, where the funeral service was taking place.

"We plan to turn our backs," he said. "We want to maintain a dignified protest, it's counter-productive to cat-call and sing Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead.

"The message is that spending £10 million on such a divisive figure in times of austerity, especially when austerity is being imposed on the poor, is wrong, especially when harm is being caused to the disabled and the NHS."


Rebecca Lush Blum, 41, has set up a Facebook event encouraging protesters to turn their backs as the cortege passes.

Outside St Paul's, she told Sky News: "Margaret Thatcher brought division. She made the rich richer and the poor poorer. We had one of the highest levels of unemployment under Margaret Thatcher. I don't want to celebrate her legacy in this way. I decided to pull people together and stage the most appropriate protest in the circumstances."