They hand state funerals out to anyone these days…

Apparently there are plans being put in place for a State Funeral for when Margaret Thatcher dies. A state funeral is usually only handed to Monarch’s or outstanding political leaders.

Thatcher is neither.

I’m sure there are lots of sycophants who will disagree with me, that they will say she turned the country around, got rid of Unions and blah, blah, blah, Well I wouldn’t expect anything different from you, your pockets have been lined.

Thatcher surrounded herself with weak ministers, who gave in to her every whim. And since Thatcher we have been surrounded by Weak Governments who have continued her policies, who have never once said while change was necessary, the manner in which Thatcher executed those policies was WRONG.

And even though she’s not dead, her ghost hangs over UK politics and no one seems willing to exorcise it yet.

The last state Funeral was Winston Churchill’s in 1965. He wasn’t a very good politician, but he was a great war leader. He led the country during its darkest hour and united all its people for a common cause.

Thatcher created such division within this country, that a state funeral would be an insult.

Can you tell what it is yet?

As the title says, what does this monument represent? This year marks the 60th Anniversary of the Berlin airlift. What piqued my interest in this was that I spoke to someone who had no idea this had happened. I thought to myself either we aren’t teaching history very well anymore or I spend too much time watching the History channel on Cable TV. Go figure.

A little history:

The airlift started on June 24th 1948 and the soviet blockade finished on May 11th 1949, with the airlift officially ending on 30th September 1949.

The amount of Supplies shifted: 2,326,406 tons of food and supplies on 278,228 total flights to Berlin to supply over two million people in the Western allied sectors of Berlin.

The Reasons?

Simply put, the Russians blocked all road, rail and canal routes into Berlin in an attempt to force the US, UK and France to relinquish west Berlin. This was in response to the Marshall plan; which was to revitalise the economy in the Allied sectors of Germany, while the Russians preferred that Germany remain as economically depressed as it was, however it was realised how important the German economy was to the rest of Europe which was suffering decline and so the Marshall plan replaced the Morgenthau plan. It really was the start of the cold war.

More information can be found here.

The monument? It is the Berlin Airlift Monument in Berlin-Tempelhof, displaying the names of the 39 British and 31 American pilots who lost their lives during the operation. Similar monuments can be found at the military airfield Wietzenbruch near the former RAF Celle and at Rhein-Main Air Base.