Thatcher Funeral: Security Tight After Boston

Guests are arriving for Baroness Thatcher's funeral as crowds line the streets, some to show their respects and others in protest.

Four thousands police officers are on duty in central London for the procession and ceremony amid heightened security after the Boston bombings on Monday.

Big Ben has now fallen silent as a mark of respect for one of Britain's most famous prime ministers, and the first woman to hold the role.

Her coffin will shortly be taken from the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in Westminster, where it spent the night, to another church on The Strand.

Transferred to a gun carriage, a procession will then go to St Paul's Cathedral for a service at 11am, before a private cremation later this afternoon.

In the last 24 hours, hundreds of officers have been patrolling the streets of the capital with sniffer dogs trained to detect explosives.

Scotland Yard arrested three men, aged 26, 48 and 55, last night near the Bank of England, as they swept the capital for any troublemakers.

Lady Thatcher, who died on April 8 after suffering a stroke, is having a ceremonial funeral - but the Queen's presence effectively raises it to a state event.

The former politician's family, friends, one-time colleagues and Cabinet foes, as well as dignitaries and figures from around the world will be at the ceremony.

Amid anger at taxpayers picking up most of the funeral bill, David Cameron insisted it would be a "fitting tribute" and urged Lady Thatcher's critics to show respect during the event.

The Prime Minister said that by winning the big arguments, his predecessor had actually settled divisions and declared: "In a way, we are all Thatcherites now."

He added: "She was the first woman prime minister, she served for longer in the job that anyone for 150 years, she achieved some extraordinary things in her life."

The security operation for the funeral and procession will be a mix of plain clothes and high visibility policing, according to former Scotland Yard Specialist Commander Roy Ramm.

He told Sky News: "There will be a lot of activity checking bins and receptacles. There will be spotters on rooftops.

"Uniformed officers on the ground will also be briefed on what to look for: the person who wants to disrupt, shout obscenities, maybe throw something.

"But they'll also be looking for people who perhaps are exhibiting signs that they want to do something much more serious. That will be intelligence driven as well."

One protest group has been granted permission to turn their backs on the coffin as it passes, but officers will also be sensitive to the distress that protests could cause to mourners.

Mr Ramm added: "The police have a duty to facilitate legitimate protest, but where that protest starts to ferment disorder they also have a duty to keep the peace."

Protesters say that because the funeral is a public event, paid for by taxpayers, it is a legitimate platform.

Lawyer Simon Natas, who represents arrested protesters, says the guidance from police has not been clear.

"It's deeply confusing for people who want to protest to be told they may be arrested for being insulting. Political opinion and legitimate peaceful protest cannot be criminalised just because it may upset people. It is protected free speech."

Most of the crowds gathered outside St Paul's, some of whom had been in place since Tuesday, seemed supportive of the late Tory leader.

However, a small group of protesters demonstrated against what they called the "glorifying" of the funeral and cuts to the welfare state.

David Winslow, 22, a student from Durham, held a placard saying "Rest of us in Poverty" and wore a T-shirt with the slogans "power to the people" and "society does exist".

"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 £10m 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."

He added: "The Government wants to glorify this. It is a massive propaganda campaign to idolise Margaret Thatcher."

At a Facebook-organised protest in Ludgate Hill, retired social worker Patricia Welsh, 69, expressed her anger at the taxpayer having to foot the funeral bill.

"I am absolutely furious that Prime Minister David Cameron has decided to spend £10m 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."

The pensioner said 2013 reminds her of living in the 1980s. "If you're on benefits you're made to feel like a scrounger and evil," she claimed.

In stark contrast, Margaret Kittle, 79, flew in from Canada to pay her respects.

She said: "My family came to Churchill's and I wanted to come to Maggie's because they are the two greats of history. We will never see the likes of Mrs Thatcher again."

John Loughrey, from Wandsworth, added: "She saved Britain. She gave my father the opportunity to buy his council house. We had all sorts of problems and Mrs Thatcher put it all back together again. We needed the Iron Lady."