More on secret public spending...
"...Unhappily, however, the planned "ceremonial" funeral is also controversial. In the past, these ceremonial funerals have only been held for royal family members. But Lady Thatcher is not royal. In the past, the funding for such funerals has been opaque. But if public money is being spent on Lady Thatcher's funeral, it should be transparently debated and democratically authorised, especially in current circumstances and given Lady Thatcher's lifetime of care for such matters. Why, moreover, is the funeral in St Paul's and not Westminster Abbey, for which the policing costs would be much less? And why all the military honours for someone who was not primarily, unlike Churchill, a war leader? When WE Gladstone had his state funeral in 1898, at the height of empire, there was not a soldier or a uniform in sight. When Lord Attlee died, his funeral was conducted with characteristic lack of fuss..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/09/margaret-thatcher-ceremony