From the very moment the news of her death became known the nation has been engaged in a passionate debate around the Thatcher legacy and, most specifically, how her passing should be marked.
The pomp and ceremony, not to mention the expense, of the tableaux played out on Wednesday have appalled some.
The behaviour of those who would dance on her grave has disgusted others.
In death as in life Margaret Thatcher divides. A bit like Marmite, there’s no room for “take it or leave it”.
Whether or not her send-off is appropriate, there are a couple points worth making.
It is a fact that when a former prime minister dies, the State picks up the tab for the funeral. Did Mrs Thatcher’s cost £10 million? We are told it was less than that but we don’t yet know how much less. And yes her family is chipping in.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=JTl4WD21Pys%3Frel%3D0
Ten million quid could employ 800 nurses in the NHS for a year. Wouldn’t it be better to spend the money on that?
Truth is that the government spends the thick end of £700 billion every year. How much of that could be “better spent” on other things?
The cost is a bit of a moot point.
But what about respect for the dead?
We like to think we live in a civilised country, one in which we don’t gloat over the dead.
Watching the last minutes of Saddam Hussein’s life I was struck by the lack of dignity he was shown. That he was a tyrant, a butcher but that his countrymen deemed he should die should not mean he should be humiliated at the very point of death.
Respect for the dead should mark us as different to others.
Simon Weston was doing the media rounds on Wednesday morning. There is a man who most visibly bears the scars of the Falklands War, a war prosecuted by Margaret Thatcher.
A proud Welshman, he also took to the picket lines to register his disapproval for the way in which Mrs Thatcher’s government prosecuted the war against mine workers.
That he was able to separate out those two events in his reflections, and his charity of spirit, is an example to us all.
The reason given for marking Mrs Thatcher’s passing in such a special way is that she was a “great” politician.
Undoubtedly she was the longest-serving PM and there can be no disputing that she was the only woman to hold that office.
But was she the greatest?
There have been polls. One in 2004 had her in second place behind Clement Attlee and a place ahead of Tony Blair.
Another for the BBC in 2009 put her in fifth place behind Churchill, Lloyd George, Attlee and Asquith. Indeed I can only find one survey that crowns Margaret Thatcher top of the Prime Ministers.
The greatest? Maybe. Worth a £10 million send-off? Arguably. The day of her funeral treated with some human decency? Certainly.
For whatever she was, she most certainly left her mark on this country and its place in the world.