The Guardian. Margaret Thatcher will have £5million funeral

The funeral of Margaret Thatcher will cost UK budget up to £5million (almost $8 million) and can be compared to Princess Diana’s, the Queen Mother’s and Sir Winston Churchill’s, reports the British newspaper Daily Record.

Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, died at the age 87, would receive a ceremonial funeral - one step below a state funeral - with military honours, gun carriage, military procession and a service at St Paul's Cathedral on Thursday next week.

Costs are to be borne by the government, Thatcher's estate and the taxpayers. A No 10 spokesman said the payments from the public purse would be published after the event. They will undoubtedly include the costs of the planned military procession, involving hundreds of members of the armed services, and of the major policing and security operation expected to be mounted.

Thatcher's coffin will be moved to the chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster on the night before the funeral. On the day, the streets will be cleared of traffic and the coffin will be taken by hearse to the church of St Clement Danes, the RAF chapel in the Strand. From there it will be transferred to a gun carriage drawn by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery and borne in procession to St Paul's, along a route lined by tri-service military personnel and members of the public who wish to pay tribute.

After the service there will be a private cremation. It is understood Thatcher wished to be laid to rest beside her husband, Denis, who died in 2003, in the cemetery of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.