Remember Thatcher! graffiti. Photograph by R_SH
Police are closely monitoring social networking sites and instant messaging networks in the expectation that the ceremonial funeral of Lady Thatcher will be targeted by protesters.
This possibility of demonstrations by a wide variety of groups opposed to Thatcherism from student bodies, to far left groups, to dissident Irish republican terrorists at a time when the eyes of the world are on London has raised fears that the police may use the controversial tactic of “pre-emptive arrests”. A number of groups are also rumoured to be planning “Thatcher’s Dead” parties around the country in the coming days, with a large scale protest at Trafalgar Square on Saturday, a place synonymous with the poll tax protests that caused the Thatcher government to crumble.
The Metropolitan Police have said that security planning for Thatcher’s funeral has been under way for the last three years, but it is always difficult to predict how the country would react on news of her passing. More people may be inclined to protest at the funeral due to the unpopular austerity cuts to benefits that came into force on the same day that Lady Thatcher died.
A Met spokesman said:
“London’s police, the MPS, City of London and British Transport Police are working together to deliver a security operation for Baroness Thatcher’s funeral. Given the nature of the event, our operation will use of a range of appropriate tactics.”
Pre-emptive arrests were most notably used during the celebrations of the Royal Wedding in 2011, where the MET used a variety of intelligence-gathering techniques to great success to target and arrest people planning to disrupt the occasion. Some of those arrests took their cases to the High Court which found them lawful with the police claiming they were attempting to protect minority protesters from angry crowds, with further appeals due this summer. The narrow scope of the legislation allowing for these controversial pre-emptive arrests, however, has resulted in human rights lawyers warning against the police making a wide-net security sweep before the funeral next week.