UK High Commissioner Jones shocked by Thatcher’s death

I was shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Lady Margaret Thatcher. For my generation she was a defining figure in the British political landscape.

She was Prime Minister when I left school, when I was at University and when I started my diplomatic career. This is a moment of sadness for the United Kingdom. A remarkable figure in British history has passed on. My thoughts and prayers join with those of many others in paying tribute to Lady Thatcher’s memory and in thinking of her family at this sad time.

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron in an interview also described today as “a sad day for the UK”. He said “We’ve lost a great Prime Minister, a great leader, a great Briton. As our first woman Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher succeeded against all the odds, and the real thing about Margaret Thatcher is that she didn’t just lead our country, she saved our country. I believe she’ll go down as the greatest British peacetime Prime Minister.”

“Today most of all we should think of her family. We’ve lost somebody great in our public life but they’ve lost a much loved mother and grandmother and we should think of them today. Her legacy will be the fact that she served her country so well and that she saved our country, and that she showed immense courage in doing so, and people will be learning about what she did and her achievements in decades, probably centuries to come. That’s her legacy, but today we must also think of her family.”

Flags at both the High Commission and residence will fly at half-mast. Details of funeral arrangements will be communicated later by the High Commission.

Lady Thatcher was the UK’s first female prime minister. She died at the age of 87.

By Peter Jones
British High Commissioner to Ghana