Government aiming to avoid ‘Thatcher legacy’

The government must learn from Margaret Thatcher’s “mistakes” in the 1980s but chief secretary Danny Alexander refused yesterday to be drawn on whether the former prime minister should have a state funeral.

The senior Liberal Democrat said the government was trying to make sure there was no repeat of errors which left a legacy of unemployment.

Speaking on Sky News programme Murnaghan, he said: “Margaret Thatcher’s legacy is one which looms large over politics today. It very much looms in Scottish politics too.

“[A state funeral] will be a matter to be considered in due course, I know it is a debate that has been going on.

“I think the important thing is in these debates we are having about executive pay, about the situation in Scotland, about the economic situation for young unemployed people particularly, is that we don’t repeat the mistakes that were made in the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister.

“Many good things were done for this country during this time.

“I’m not going to get into that issue [of a state funeral]. That’s something that will no doubt be properly debated in due course.”