British police on alert for Thatcher mass 'party'
April 13, 2013 19:14
Hundreds of Scotland Yard officers are on stand-by in London today as protesters plan to converge on Trafalgar Square for what has been described as a mass "party" to mark Margaret Thatcher's death.
The former Conservative Prime Minister died of a stroke here on Monday aged 87.
In the backdrop of preparations for her ceremonial funeral at St Paul's Cathedral next Wednesday, former miners who say the 'Iron Lady' decimated their communities will join socialists, students and anti-capitalist protesters at a demonstration against her legacy in Trafalgar Square on Saturday evening.
Scotland Yard has launched a major operation to counter threats of disorder and all further leave for officers has been cancelled and operations are being run from a special command and control operations room in Lambeth, south London.
The city's mayor, Boris Johnson, issued a warning to the protesters to keep things peaceful.
"We live in a democracy where people are entitled to protest... What they can't do is use the death of an elderly person to begin riot or affray or that sort of thing. The police are obviously going to be making sure that if people do break the law they will be properly dealt with," he told LBC Radio.
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