Thatcher's Ironclad Funeral Plans Revealed

Baroness Thatcher left instructions that the current prime minister should give a reading at her funeral, it has been reported.

Britain's longest serving PM and the only woman so far to hold the role will be given a ceremonial funeral with full military honours at St Paul's Cathedral on Wednesday, which will be attended by the Queen.

It is the same status as that accorded to the Queen Mother and Diana, Princess of Wales, although some Tories want a full state ceremony.

Her friends and family indicated that Lady Thatcher said she did not want such treatment; she did not want to lie in state and thought a fly-past would be a waste of money.

But there were far more details left by Lady Thatcher on how she thought her memorial service should be carried out, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Mark Thatcher greets his sister Carol as she arrives at their mother's home

They were said to include the choice of hymns - among them the patriotic I Vow to Thee, My Country - and readings from the Bible.

She specified that the prime minister at the time of her death should read a lesson from the Gospels.

Her choice of reading was John 14.1, which says: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.

"I go to prepare a place for you."

The service will be held at St Paul's Cathedral on Wednesday

Another lesson will be read by Lady Thatcher's 19-year-old granddaughter Amanda, the Telegraph said.

The service will also include readings from the Book of Common Prayer, including the burial prayer that begins: "Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live and is full of misery. He cometh up and is cut down like a flower."

There will be the traditional reading for meeting the body arriving at a church, which begins: "I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord. He that believeth in me, yea, though he were dead, yet shall he live."

Among the other hymns selected by Lady Thatcher are John Bunyan's To Be A Pilgrim and Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.

The funeral plans were revealed as Downing Street released two collections of photographs on the Flickr website documenting Lady Thatcher's time in office and her lasting influence inside Number 10.

A painting of Lady Thatcher in the Downing Street study

The photos show renovations Lady Thatcher ordered during her time in power, while her third general election victory is featured by her giving a three-fingered salute outside Number 10.

Meanwhile, on Friday evening, Lady Thatcher's daughter Carol arrived at her mother's home ahead of the funeral.

Miss Thatcher flew in from overseas and was driven to the Belgravia townhouse in central London, where she was greeted outside by her brother Sir Mark.

Earlier Sir Mark said his family has been overwhelmed by the messages of support, as well-wishers continued to leave floral tributes throughout the day outside the Chester Square property.

The Queen will attend Lady Thatcher's funeral

He said his mother would have been very proud to know the Queen would attend her funeral.

She will be accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, and other heads of state and foreign dignitaries from around the world are attending.

The Queen also went to Sir Winston Churchill's state ceremony in 1965.

Lady Thatcher died at The Ritz in central London on Monday morning after suffering a stroke. She had battled ill health for a number of years.

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Floods: UK Insurers Avoid Covering Risky Homes

By Becky Johnson, North of England Correspondent

People whose homes have been devasted by flooding fear they will be unable to get insurance in future as talks between the Government and insurers have so far failed to reach an agreement.

At present insurers are required to provide cover at reasonable rates provided the Government continues to strengthen flood defences, but this agreement - known as the Statement of Principles - is due to expire in June this year.

In St Asaph in North Wales more than 400 homes were deluged when the River Elwy burst its banks last November. So far, the majority of people have still been unable to return to their houses.

James Alcock stands in his kitchen after flood water recedes

John Wynn Jones who is a local councillor and whose own home was flooded told Sky News: "What we are finding is that because people are so concerned about getting insurance, as well as clearing up after the floods themselves, people are actually considering not moving back into their homes.

"They don't want to get back into their properties and then find out they can't get insurance or the premiums are now so high they can't afford it.

"There's one lady who was insured and ... they've told her they won't be able to renew her policy. When she's questioned it, they've told her 'you no longer fulfil our criteria'. It hasn't been explained to her why but she says the only thing that's changed is she has now been flooded.

"Another resident has had to shop around. Her existing premium had been £200 a year and the best deal she can get now is £1,200 a year. Someone else was told they'd only get a policy with a £10,000 excess.

"People are desperate to have the cover but a lot of people are saying they don't have the money to pay so they'll end up living in uninsured properties."

A fireman helps a member of the public in Aberfoyle

Aidan Kerr, head of property at the Association of British Insurers (ABI), said: "We continue discussions with Government on the model we have developed to safeguard the availability and affordability of flood insurance for those at high risk.

"With flooding the biggest natural risk the UK faces, it is important we have consensus on managing the risk going forward, which includes sustained and targeted flood defence investment and sensible planning decisions."

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told Sky News: "We want to get an agreement on insurance that provides a lasting solution and secures affordability and availability of flood insurance for policy holders.

"Constructive negotiations are ongoing and Government is meeting with the ABI regularly."

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Baby P: Man Jailed Over Death Back In Prison

One of the three people jailed over the death of Baby Peter has been returned to prison two years after being released.

Jason Owen was sentenced to six years' jail for causing or allowing the death of 17-month-old Peter Connelly, but he was released halfway through his term in 2011.

The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that Owen has since been returned to custody, following reports he breached conditions of his parole.

A spokesperson told Sky News: "Public protection is our priority. Offenders released on licence are subject to a strict set of conditions and controls.

"If they fail to comply with their licence conditions, they are liable to be returned to custody."

Peter - known as Baby P during the trial over his death - died in 2007 after sustaining more than 50 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken back at his home in north London.

Owen, of Bromley, Kent, was jailed along with Peter's mother Tracey Connelly and her boyfriend Steven Barker over the abuse.

Tracey Connelly and Steven Barker were also jailed over Baby P's death

Connelly and Barker remain in prison for their role in the the toddler's death.

Owen - who is Barker's brother but changed his name after Peter died - had been staying at the boy's home with his 15-year-old girlfriend.

Peter suffered fatal injuries despite being on the at-risk register of Haringey Council and receiving 60 visits from social workers, police and health professionals during the final eight months of his life.

A series of reviews have identified missed opportunities when officials could have saved him if they had acted properly on the warning signs.

Owen was originally given an indeterminate punishment to protect the public, with a minimum term of three years, at the Old Bailey in May 2009.

But the Court of Appeal later ruled Owen should have an exact prison term and he was sentenced to six years.

In May 2009, Baby Peter's mother was also given an indefinite sentence with a minimum term of five years after pleading guilty to causing or allowing her son's death.

Barker, who Peter called "Dad", was sentenced to 12 years behind bars for playing what a judge described as a "major role" in the toddler's death.

He was also jailed for life with a minimum term of 10 years for raping a two-year-old girl.

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Leeds Hospital Victim's Mother Wants Answers

By Frazer Maude, North Of England Correspondent

The mother of a young girl who died following heart surgery at Leeds General Infirmary has said she wants to know how and why her daughter died.

Siobhan Casey, from Rossington near Doncaster, has written to the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust with a list of 27 issues that she wants them to address following the death of her four-year-old daughter Mylee.

Mylee had surgery to remove a build up of muscle on her heart that was restricting blood flow on March 15. Several hours after the four-hour operation, Mylee began to show stroke-like symptoms of stiffness down one side of her body.

Her mother said she wasn't informed straight away, and there was a gap of 13 hours between the symptoms being noticed and Mylee being given a CT scan.

The scan showed two areas of brain damage, prompting doctors to perform emergency surgery to remove blood clots. The next day an MRI scan showed more extensive brain damage, and on March 21, Mylee died.

"I want answers to why it happened," said Ms Casey. "Answers to why she wasn't treated more effectively and quicker than she was."

Four-year-old Mylee Casey died on March 21

She also claims that staff on the unit were discourteous, unsympathetic and not fully trained in treating head injuries.

The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust told Sky News it cannot discuss the clinical details of individual cases, but did issue a statement, saying: "We extend our deepest sympathy to Mylee's family and have been speaking to her mother about the family's concerns and have arranged a meeting with her next week to discuss these further. In such circumstances families understandably want to ask many questions and we will do everything possible to help."

Two weeks ago operations in the children's heart unit at LGI were suspended by NHS England when figures suggested the unit had an uncommonly high death rate.

That data was later found to be flawed, and surgery partially resumed earlier this week.

NHS England have apologised for any inconvenience the decision to suspend surgery may have caused, but not for making the decision.

Earlier this week, the deputy director of medical services for NHS England, Mike Bewick, said the unit had been investigated in detail during the 11-day period that surgery was suspended for.

Mylee's mother, Siobhan Casey, says she is still waiting for answers

He said that investigation had shown that "it was obvious that the unit is completely safe".

The unit is still under scrutiny by NHS England, which will now look into the hospital's handling of data, and into the way they deal with patient complaints. There will also be a review of patient case notes for the past three years.

Campaigners recently succeeded in their bid to have the High Court quash part of a review into children's cardiac surgeries in England that had initially earmarked the Leeds unit for closure. That would mean hundreds of patients would have to be treated in Newcastle, Birmingham or Liverpool.

The judge in the case ruled that the consultation process which led to the NHS deciding which units to close was legally flawed and unfair.

Some of the campaigners maintain that the suspension of surgery just 24 hours after the ruling was a political move deliberately aimed at undermining the credibility of the unit.

They are now calling for a full investigation into the NHS's decision.

Child surgery lawyer Laurence Vick told Sky News: "The families do need to know that their concerns are being addressed and so far their worries are that they haven't been and all the attention has been on the successful outcomes rather than the unsuccessful ones.

"They feel like they are the forgotten families in all of this."

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Prestatyn Fire: 'Accused Made Threats To Kill'

By Nick Martin, Sky News Correspondent

The woman accused of starting a fire that killed two adults and three small children had made death threats, a court has heard.

Melanie Smith, 42, denies five counts of murder following the fatal house fire in Prestatyn, north Wales, on October 19, last year.

On the first day of the trial at Mold Crown Court, the jury heard how Smith, who lived in the flat below the victims, had "demonstrated anger and hostility" towards her neighbour Lee-Anna Shiers, 20. 

Five died in the fire on October 19, 2012

Jurors were told she had threatened to set the house on fire following a series of rows with Ms Shiers.  

The court also heard that Smith had accused Ms Shiers of having an affair with her partner.

Prosecuting Stephen Murphy QC said: "The prosecution says that the fire was deliberately started by the defendant who had been drinking heavily on that day and who, over a period of about two months leading up to the 19th October, had demonstrated anger and hostility towards Lee-Anna and also jealousy.

"It is the prosecution's case that on a number of occasions... the defendant made threats to or about Lee-Anna that she would "set your house on fire with you and your kids inside."

Ms Shiers, her four-year-old nephew Bailey and two-year-old niece Skye died in the blaze at their home.

Firefighters managed to rescue Ms Shiers' 15-month-old son Charlie and his father, Liam Trimble, 23, from their first-floor flat, but they both died later in hospital.

A recording was played to the court of Mr Trimble's desperate call to the emergency services. 

Firefighters were unable to save the family

He was heard shouting: "Help, help. Someone has put it on purpose, we're inside the flat... Oh my god, oh my god, we're gonna die."

The prosecution said Ms Shiers, trapped in an upstairs bedroom with the children, called her father, saying: "Dad, there's a fire downstairs, I can't get out."

Some jurors wiped away tears as the tapes were played and some members of the public gallery wept. 

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Welfare Cuts 'Will Widen North-South Divide'

People living in northern England will be hardest hit by the Government's welfare reforms, which will take nearly £19bn out of the economy every year.

Researchers say adults in Blackpool will lose an average of £910 a year each - more than anywhere else in Britain - because of changes to Housing Benefit, Disability Living Allowance and Child Benefit, as well as Tax Credit and Council Tax Benefit.

Former industrial areas including Middlesbrough, Liverpool and Glasgow will also be disproportionately affected.

However, wealthier areas, such as Cambridge, parts of Surrey and the Cotswolds, are expected to see the smallest financial losses.

Cambridge will be among the places least affected, researchers say

Westminster, with its high cost of living, will be the worst-affected London borough, with the average adult losing £820 in annual benefits.

Professor Steve Fothergill, of Sheffield Hallam's Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, which led the study, said: "A key effect of the welfare reforms will be to widen the gaps in prosperity between the best and worst local economies across Britain.

"Our figures also show the coalition Government is presiding over national welfare reforms that will impact principally on individuals and communities outside its own political heartlands."

Professor Fothergill found that, on the whole, the more deprived the local authority, the greater the financial impact.

Former industrial towns such as Middlesbrough are likely to feel the pinch

Collectively, the North West, North East, Yorkshire and Humberside stand to lose £5.2bn a year in benefit income.

However, a spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: "Around nine out of 10 working households will be better off by, on average, almost £300 a year as a result of changes to the tax and welfare system this month.

"Raising the personal allowance to £10,000, we will have lifted 2.7 million people out of income tax since 2010.

"Our welfare reforms, including reassessing people on incapacity benefit, will help people back into work, which will benefit the economy more than simply abandoning them to claim benefits year after year.

"These changes are essential to keep the benefits bill sustainable, so that we can continue to support people when they need it most across the UK."

Changes to Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit and Disability Living Allowance have already been made.

A benefit cap of £500 per week for a family and £350 for a single person will be introduced on April 15, while Universal Credit, which replaces a number of means-tested benefits, will be rolled out from October.

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Horse Drug Found In Asda Corned Beef Products

Asda has recalled batches of its "Smart Price" corned beef after tests found low levels of veterinary medicine Bute in some of the products.

All batch codes of product affected - 340g tins of 'Smart Price' Corned Beef - have been recalled.

Customers who have bought the 340g tins, with any date code, have been urged not to eat the corned beef but to return it to the supermarket.

It comes just over a month after Asda withdrew the same product after tests found more than 1% equine DNA.

Further sampling and testing has revealed the presence of low levels of phenylbutazone - used in veterinary medicine as a pain-killer or anti-inflammatory.

Asda has recalled Smart Price Corned Beef

A statement from Asda said: "In March 2013 we withdrew tinned Smart Price Corned Beef (340g) after receiving a positive test for horse DNA above the 1% trace level set by the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

"Today, 9th April 2013, tests on further batches have shown a positive result for very low levels of horse medication called phenylbutazone, also known as bute, at four parts per billion.

"The FSA has reassured us that the quantities we've found pose a low risk to human health."

It added it was recalling tins of Chosen By You corned beef as a precaution because it was made in the same factory. The product had not tested positive for phenylbutazone.

The FSA said no other Asda products are thought to be affected and that customers who had bough the corned beef should contact the supermarket for a refund.

It added that while animals treated with bute should not enter the food chain, the risk of damage to the health of anyone who ate the meat was "very low".

Chief medical officer Professor Dame Sally Davies previously said the levels of bute found in horse carcasses meant a person would have to eat up to 600 burgers, containing 100% horsemeat, every day to come close to consuming a human's daily dose of the drug.

A Defra spokesperson said: "Consumers have a right to expect that food is exactly what it says on the label.

"While bute presents very low risk to human health, the Food Standards Agency is investigating this specific horsemeat contamination case and will take action as necessary." 

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Unicef: Austerity Risks Children's Prospects

British children's prospects trail behind many of their European neighbours and current Government policies are making it worse, a UN organisation has warned.

Unicef's report on child well-being placed the UK 16th out of 29 developed countries, but it ranked much lower on key indicators including involvement in further education (29th), teenage pregnancy (27th) and youth unemployment (24th).

The children's rights organisation warned that a generation of British teenagers is being "sidelined" by the Government's austerity agenda and called for more state investment in young people.

Anita Tiessen, deputy executive director of Unicef UK, said: "There is no doubt that the situation for children and young people has deteriorated in the last three years, with the Government making policy choices that risk setting children back in their most crucial stages of development.

"With the UK ranking at the bottom, or near the bottom, of the league table on teenage pregnancy and young people not in education, employment or training, we know that many are facing a bleaker future.

"While children and young people will be the first to bear the brunt if we fail to safeguard their well-being, over time society as a whole will pay the price."

The UK has actually crept up the child well-being tables since Unicef's last report in 2007, which branded Britain the worst place in the developed world to be a child.

But the organisation warned that the improvement seen under the previous Labour administration risks being reversed by the Coalition cuts programme.

It cited research by the Family and Parenting Institute and Institute for Fiscal Studies predicting that 400,000 more children will be in poverty by 2015/16 due to austerity measures.

The new report draws on statistics from 2010 and shows a general improvement in children's experiences over the first decade of this century, compared with the previous scorecard, which looked at data from 2001/2.

But the brighter picture for younger children is not matched among teenagers, who remain more likely than their peers in other developed countries to drop out of education and get involved in underage drinking and teenage pregnancy.

The table was topped by the Netherlands, then Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Romania was ranked last.

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Margaret Thatcher Dies At 87 After Stroke

How Thatcher Changed History

Updated: 8:45pm UK, Monday 08 April 2013

By Adam Boulton, Political Editor

Margaret Thatcher was Britain's first, and so far only, female Prime Minister. She was a transformative leader who reversed conventional wisdom that Great Britain's national decline was inevitable.

She will be remembered for curbing the trade unions, privatising state-owned industries, leading Britain to victory in the Falklands War, and as US President Ronald Reagan's staunch ally in confronting the Soviet Empire.

Mrs Thatcher is now ranked alongside Sir Winston Churchill (her hero) and Clement Attlee as one of Britain's most important 20th century prime ministers, but the "Iron Lady", as she was nicknamed, was a deeply divisive figure, openly hated by many, especially those from industrial heartlands, which she sent to the wall.

She ended her 11-year premiership quite literally in tears, thrown out not by the voters but by the very Conservative MPs she had led to three successive general election victories.

Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on October 13, 1925, the daughter of a grocer and alderman from Grantham in Lincolnshire. She idolised her father but seldom even mentioned her mother.

A clever and ambitious grammar school girl, she won a place at Oxford University to study chemistry, going on to work in industry as a research chemist - working in the team that invented Mr Whippy ice cream.

She had determined political ambitions as well, fighting Dartford for the Conservatives unsuccessfully in the 1950 and 1951 general elections.

Her consolation was to meet and marry Denis Thatcher, a prosperous businessman and Tory activist.

With typical efficiency, Mrs Thatcher gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, Mark and Carol. She did not enter parliament until 1959 as the member for Finchley, a North London constituency she held for 23 years until her retirement.

In 1967 Tory leader Edward Heath invited her to join his shadow cabinet and made her education secretary following his unexpected triumph over Harold Wilson in the 1970 general election.

The rising star told a television interviewer that she did not expect to see a woman prime minister in her lifetime but she attracted less favourable publicity when she cancelled free school milk, becoming known as Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher.

Ted Heath lost the two elections in 1974 and was forced out as leader after a protracted period of party infighting.

Margaret Thatcher only stood against him after her mentor Sir Keith Joseph declined to run. An outsider in many ways, she was nonetheless elected Conservative Party Leader in 1975.

Prime Minister Callaghan took over from Wilson, but Labour's left-right tensions spilt over into protracted industrial unrest.

Mrs Thatcher stormed into Downing Street on May 4, 1979, following a Conservative election campaign which focused on the economic paralysis of the nation during the so-called Winter of Discontent.

On the steps of Number 10 she quoted St Francis and promised to bring unity. But the British economy plunged still further, unemployment trebled to more than three million. London and Liverpool suffered inner city riots.

After two years in office, Margaret Thatcher was one of the most unpopular Prime Ministers ever. She was rescued by Argentina's military junta in 1982.

Against the advice of her ministers and most military commanders she ordered a task force 3,000 miles into the South Atlantic to recapture the Falkland Islands from Argentine invaders. 

The Conservatives returned to power in the 1983 general election with an increased majority.

Mrs Thatcher moved on to confront what she called the "enemy within", eventually defeating a bitter and confrontational year-long miners' strike over pit closures, unwisely called by NUM leader Arthur Scargill without a ballot of his members.

Irish Republican terrorists murdered two of Mrs Thatcher's closest political colleagues Airey Neave and Ian Gow. And in October 1984 five friends and colleagues were killed when the IRA blew up the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the Conservative Party Conference.

Margaret, the wife of her close political ally Norman Tebbit, was among those victims crippled for life.

Yet a year later Mrs Thatcher and her counterpart Garret Fitzgerald signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement, which would ultimately provide the diplomatic basis for the end of The Troubles.

Mrs Thatcher also became a prominent and pugnacious figure on the world stage. She secured the rebate on Britain's contribution to the European Community and pressed for an open market.

Her decision to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Britain led to the Greenham Common protest but it was also part of the arms build-up which ultimately broke the Soviet Union and brought down the Iron Curtain.

Mrs Thatcher was quick to spot the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as "a man I can do business with". But for his two terms as American President Ronald Reagan was Mrs Thatcher's closest ally - on foreign affairs and on economic and social policy.

Her economic ideology was unswerving. She believed in a smaller state, lower taxes, self-reliance and people being left to spend "their own money".

Her government sold or "privatised" state-owned "nationalised" assets - first council houses then shares in gas, electricity, water and telecommunications and "the big bang" de-regulating banking and the City of London.

She won a third election in 1987 with another huge majority but like many long-serving successful leaders, she began to believe her own publicity, epitomised in her most famous quotation: "The Lady is not for turning".

Domineering and unwilling to listen, she alienated many of her ministers and MPs.

By now Michael Heseltine had resigned from government and established himself as a leader-in-waiting. He exploited growing discontent over two issues: the proposed Community Charge or Poll Tax, and hostility to Europe.

Anti-poll tax demonstrations brought some of the worst street violence in living memory.

Her stubborn opposition to further European integration provoked first the resignation of her chancellor Nigel Lawson, then, fatally, of her deputy prime minister Sir Geoffrey Howe.

She stood down in November 1990, after failing to secure the overwhelming support of MPs in yet another Heseltine-inspired leadership contest on the very night European leaders were celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall.

One of Prime Minister Thatcher's last achievements was persuading the new US President George Bush senior not to "go wobbly" following Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.

Mr Heseltine failed to seize the crown and instead the Conservative party united around John Major, Thatcher's relatively obscure preferred successor.

In 1992, Mr Major led the Tories to victory over Neil Kinnock's Labour yet again.

In her retirement, the Queen made Mrs Thatcher a member of the Order of the Garter and appointed her Baroness in the House of Lords. Her husband Denis received a hereditary knighthood.

Sir John Major sometimes complained of "back seat driving" as the former PM relished the movie title "The Mummy Returns".

The next Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair never bothered to hide his admiration for her decisive style of leadership but there was widespread astonishment when the newly-elected Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown invited her back to Downing Street for tea in her honour.

More recently, Meryl Streep won an Oscar for a portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in the Hollywood movie 'The Iron Lady'. But the film also depicted unflinchingly the politician's descent into senile dementia, hastened by the death of her beloved husband, Denis.

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Margaret Thatcher: Obituary Of 'Iron Lady'

Margaret Thatcher was Britain's first, and so far only, female Prime Minister. She was a transformative leader who reversed conventional wisdom that Great Britain's national decline was inevitable.

She will be remembered for curbing the trade unions, privatising state-owned industries, leading Britain to victory in the Falklands War, and as US President Ronald Reagan's staunch ally in confronting the Soviet Empire.

Mrs Thatcher is now ranked alongside Sir Winston Churchill (her hero) and Clement Attlee as one of Britain's most important 20th century prime ministers, but the "Iron Lady", as she was nicknamed, was a deeply divisive figure, openly hated by many, especially those from industrial heartlands, which she sent to the wall.

She ended her 11-year premiership quite literally in tears, thrown out not by the voters but by the very Conservative MPs she had led to three successive general election victories.

She became Conservative Party leader in 1975 and won the election in 1979

Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on October 13, 1925, the daughter of a grocer and alderman from Grantham in Lincolnshire. She idolised her father but seldom even mentioned her mother.

A clever and ambitious grammar school girl, she won a place at Oxford University to study chemistry, going on to work in industry as a research chemist - working in the team that invented Mr Whippy ice cream.

She had determined political ambitions as well, fighting Dartford for the Conservatives unsuccessfully in the 1950 and 1951 general elections.

Her consolation was to meet and marry Denis Thatcher, a prosperous businessman and Tory activist.

With typical efficiency, Mrs Thatcher gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, Mark and Carol. She did not enter parliament until 1959 as the member for Finchley, a North London constituency she held for 23 years until her retirement.

Lady Thatcher at a British camp near Hamburg, Germany, in 1986

In 1967 Tory leader Edward Heath invited her to join his shadow cabinet and made her education secretary following his unexpected triumph over Harold Wilson in the 1970 general election.

The rising star told a television interviewer that she did not expect to see a woman prime minister in her lifetime but she attracted less favourable publicity when she cancelled free school milk, becoming known as Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher.

Ted Heath lost the two elections in 1974 and was forced out as leader after a protracted period of party infighting.

Margaret Thatcher only stood against him after her mentor Sir Keith Joseph declined to run. An outsider in many ways, she was nonetheless elected Conservative Party Leader in 1975.

Lady Thatcher with the Queen and former PMs in 1985

Prime Minister Callaghan took over from Wilson, but Labour's left-right tensions spilt over into protracted industrial unrest.

Mrs Thatcher stormed into Downing Street on May 4, 1979, following a Conservative election campaign which focused on the economic paralysis of the nation during the so-called Winter of Discontent.

On the steps of Number 10 she quoted St Francis and promised to bring unity. But the British economy plunged still further, unemployment trebled to more than three million. London and Liverpool suffered inner city riots.

After two years in office, Margaret Thatcher was one of the most unpopular Prime Ministers ever. She was rescued by Argentina's military junta in 1982.

Against the advice of her ministers and most military commanders she ordered a task force 3,000 miles into the South Atlantic to recapture the Falkland Islands from Argentine invaders. 

The Conservatives returned to power in the 1983 general election with an increased majority.

Mrs Thatcher moved on to confront what she called the "enemy within", eventually defeating a bitter and confrontational year-long miners' strike over pit closures, unwisely called by NUM leader Arthur Scargill without a ballot of his members.

Lady Thatcher with US President Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1987

Irish Republican terrorists murdered two of Mrs Thatcher's closest political colleagues Airey Neave and Ian Gow. And in October 1984 five friends and colleagues were killed when the IRA blew up the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the Conservative Party Conference.

Margaret, the wife of her close political ally Norman Tebbit, was among those victims crippled for life.

Yet a year later Mrs Thatcher and her counterpart Garret Fitzgerald signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement, which would ultimately provide the diplomatic basis for the end of The Troubles.

Mrs Thatcher also became a prominent and pugnacious figure on the world stage. She secured the rebate on Britain's contribution to the European Community and pressed for an open market.

Her decision to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Britain led to the Greenham Common protest but it was also part of the arms build-up which ultimately broke the Soviet Union and brought down the Iron Curtain.

She set BT on the road to privatisation

Mrs Thatcher was quick to spot the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as "a man I can do business with". But for his two terms as American President Ronald Reagan was Mrs Thatcher's closest ally - on foreign affairs and on economic and social policy.

Her economic ideology was unswerving. She believed in a smaller state, lower taxes, self-reliance and people being left to spend "their own money".

Her government sold or "privatised" state-owned "nationalised" assets - first council houses then shares in gas, electricity, water and telecommunications and "the big bang" de-regulating banking and the City of London.

She won a third election in 1987 with another huge majority but like many long-serving successful leaders, she began to believe her own publicity, epitomised in her most famous quotation: "The Lady is not for turning".

Domineering and unwilling to listen, she alienated many of her ministers and MPs.

Leaving Number 10 for the last time in 1990

By now Michael Heseltine had resigned from government and established himself as a leader-in-waiting. He exploited growing discontent over two issues: the proposed Community Charge or Poll Tax, and hostility to Europe.

Anti-poll tax demonstrations brought some of the worst street violence in living memory.

Her stubborn opposition to further European integration provoked first the resignation of her chancellor Nigel Lawson, then, fatally, of her deputy prime minister Sir Geoffrey Howe.

She stood down in November 1990, after failing to secure the overwhelming support of MPs in yet another Heseltine-inspired leadership contest on the very night European leaders were celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall.

One of Prime Minister Thatcher's last achievements was persuading the new US President George Bush senior not to "go wobbly" following Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.

Mr Heseltine failed to seize the crown and instead the Conservative party united around John Major, Thatcher's relatively obscure preferred successor.

In 1992, Mr Major led the Tories to victory over Neil Kinnock's Labour yet again.

In her retirement, the Queen made Mrs Thatcher a member of the Order of the Garter and appointed her Baroness in the House of Lords. Her husband Denis received a hereditary knighthood.

Sir John Major sometimes complained of "back seat driving" as the former PM relished the movie title "The Mummy Returns".

The next Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair never bothered to hide his admiration for her decisive style of leadership but there was widespread astonishment when the newly-elected Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown invited her back to Downing Street for tea in her honour.

More recently, Meryl Streep won an Oscar for a portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in the Hollywood movie 'The Iron Lady'. But the film also depicted unflinchingly the politician's descent into senile dementia, hastened by the death of her beloved husband, Denis.

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Four Teenagers Arrested Over Man's Death

Four teenagers arrested in connection with the death of a 40-year-old man who was attacked in a town centre will be kept in custody overnight, police have said.

The death of Glen Kitchens in Worksop is being treated as murder, Nottinghamshire Police said today.

Mr Kitchens, from the Sunnyside area of the town, was taken to hospital after reports of an assault at around 7.30pm in Bridge Street, near its junction with Central Avenue and Ryton Street, police said.

He was taken to Bassetlaw District Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The officers said they have arrested three 15-year-olds and a 16-year-old who continue to be questioned.

A Nottinghamshire Police spokesman said: "Mr Kitchens' relatives are being supported by specially-trained detectives at this difficult time."

He added: "As part of the murder inquiry, detectives are scouring CCTV from the town centre and speaking to witnesses in a bid to establish what happened."

Earlier, speaking outside Worksop Police Station, Superintendent Paul Anderson said: "We would ask for members of the public who were in Worksop, specifically Bridge Street, at that time if they have seen a group of youths - a mixture of males and females - or are in receipt of any information, if they would contact Nottinghamshire Police."

The senior officer said: "It's a very serious inquiry where a man had died.

"We are treating it at this time as a murder inquiry."

Mr Anderson added: "I can reassure the community of Worksop and the wider community that we are taking this very seriously.

"Additional patrols and additional officers have placed in the town centre tonight.

"We do not believe there is any risk to the residents of this town."

He said a postmortem examination will take place in the next couple of days.

Mr Anderson said he still needed members of the public to come forward despite the arrests that have been made.

An area of the main shopping centre of Worksop was cordoned off today but the force said "officers are hoping to enable those shops affected by today's disruption to open as normal tomorrow".

Flowers have also been left near the cordon to mark the man's death.

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Benefits Petition To Be Sent To Duncan Smith

A petition, signed by nearly half a million people, calling for Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith to live off £53 a week is to be delivered to his office.

Welfare reform protesters will take the petition, already dismissed as a "complete stunt" by Mr Duncan Smith, to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).

Musician and part-time shop worker Dominic Aversano, who started the petition on campaigning website Change.org, said: "When I started this petition I never imagined the level of support it would get, and the amount of encouragement people would give me.

"It has sent a powerful message to this Government, showing the level of opposition to their vicious welfare cuts.

"Iain Duncan Smith started the week dismissing the suffering of the poor, then he called this petition a 'stunt'.

"It's now nearly half a million strong and it's telling that he continues to ignore such an enormous outpouring of anger and disapproval."

George Osborne has defended the changes

Mr Duncan Smith was challenged to live on £53 a week after a market trader on a radio show said that was all he had to live on despite working 50 to 70 hours a week.

During the interview, Mr Duncan Smith, whose ministerial salary is equivalent to around £1,600 a week after tax, stressed he did not know David Bennett's individual circumstances.

But asked whether he could live on £53 a week, the former army officer, who married into a wealthy family, replied: "If I had to I would."

Chancellor George Osborne insisted on Sunday that the public was behind his changes to the benefits system.

In an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live's Pienaar's Politics, he said: "I think a lot of the things that I've been saying, that Iain Duncan Smith and others in the Government have been saying, are in tune with what the great majority of the country think and experience in their everyday lives.

"I think where there's been division is when you get pressure groups, er, and you get, you know, um, sensationalist media reports ..."

Mr Osborne also said he felt "angry" that too much money was being "spent in the wrong way in our welfare system".

However, disability rights campaigners, who will accompany Mr Aversano as he delivers the 450,000 signatures to the DWP, believe many of the changes are unfair.

Heather Simpson, 46, from Battersea, said: "My husband is a nursery worker but his low salary means we are forced to claim housing benefit.

"As a wheelchair user the housing association provided me with a three bedroom house, and now we're going to be hit by the bedroom tax.

"I signed the petition because I want Iain Duncan Smith to live on £53 per week so that in future he might not be so quick to dismiss the challenges faced by the people living in poverty."

The reforms, including a below inflation 1% cap on working-age benefits and tax credit rises for three years, came into force on April 1.

Around 660,000 social housing tenants deemed to have a spare room will lose an average of £14 a week in what critics have dubbed a "bedroom tax".

Trials are also due to begin in four London boroughs of a £500-a-week cap on household benefits.

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Boy, 3, Is Third To Die In Devon House Fire

A three-year-old boy has died of his injuries following a house fire which also killed two teenagers, police have said.

The child was being treated at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol following Friday's blaze in the Honiton area of Devon but was pronounced dead this afternoon.

Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed the deaths of a 17-year-old girl and an 18-year-old man earlier today.

A spokesman said: "It is with great sadness that police can now report that the three-year-old boy, who was taken to the specialist burns unit at Frenchay hospital, has today been pronounced deceased.

"Our thoughts are with the family at this time and the investigation to establish the cause of the fire is ongoing."

Officers were alerted to the fire in Lee Close shortly before 8am and a total of five people were taken to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital with the three-year-old later transferred to hospital in Bristol.

A six-year-old boy and a man in his 30s were also treated for smoke inhalation.

Seven members of one family and another person were in the property when the blaze broke out.

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Magic Mushroom Depression Trials Stalled

A trial that could lead to the use of magic mushroom treatments for depression has been stalled because of "absurd" regulations restricting the use of illegal drugs in research, it has been claimed.

Study leader Professor David Nutt, who was controversially sacked from his role as the Government's chief drug adviser in 2009, says "archaic" rules obstructing scientific progress should be abolished.

His team at Imperial College London has uncovered evidence that the hallucinogen psilocybin may combat severe depression which resists conventional treatment.

The problem is that psilocybin is the psychoactive ingredient in so-called "magic mushrooms" and is banned as a Class A drug.

Although the Medical Research Council has awarded a £550,000 grant for the trial, Professor Nutt said it has not yet been able to proceed.

Speaking ahead of the British Neuroscience Association's Festival of Neuroscience in London, he said: "We're not allowed to go and pick the mushrooms anymore and finding a company to provide this illegal drug in a way that can be prepared for trial use as yet has proved impossible.

Professor Nutt was the Government's chief drug adviser

"We are between a rock and a hard place, and that's very unfortunate because if this is an effective treatment, as it may well be for some people, then they are obviously being denied that possibility."

Under the law, academic researchers are not allowed to manufacture their own Class A drugs and must obtain them from external sources.

Companies that could supply the drugs have to go through "regulatory hoops" to obtain the necessary Home Office licence, Professor Nutt said.

This can take up to a year and triple the cost, he maintained.

Other major hurdles were the EU guidelines on Good Manufacturing Practice, which sets daunting standards for potential suppliers, and rules on storage.

Only four hospitals in the UK currently have a licence to hold psilocybin, making it difficult to roll the drug out as a prospective treatment.

Professor Nutt added: "We are the first people ever to have done a psilocybin study in the UK, but we are still hunting for a company that can manufacture the drug to GMP standards for the clinical trial, even though we've been trying for a year to find one.

"We live in a world of insanity in terms of regulating drugs at present. The whole field is so bogged down by these intransigent regulations, so that even if you have a good idea, you may never get it into the clinic."

Researchers discovered that when healthy volunteers are injected with the drug it shuts down a region of the brain known to be over-active in depression.

Professor Nutt was asked to step down from his role as chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs in 2009 after claiming that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than LSD, ecstasy and cannabis.

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