Politics

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died yesterday at the age of 87. She was the first (and still only) female PM and ruled Britain for 11 years during the turbulent 1980's. She divided opinion more so than almost any other public figure, and the reaction to her death reflects this.

On the one hand, she is to be given a ceremonial funeral at St Paul's Cathedral, taking the same status as Princess Diana and the Queen Mother, whilst on the other, there is still a lot of anger towards her for many of her policies during her time in power. There is the contrast of hundreds of bunches of flowers left in condolence at her London home, and crowds gathering to celebrate her death in Brixton (an area that saw fierce riots during Thatcher's time in charge).

We've gathered together some of the reaction to her death from world leaders, newspapers and celebrities on Twitter.

British & World Leaders

After hearing of Lady Thatcher's death, current and former leaders from Britain and around the world led a chorus of condolences.

Malala Yousafzai attended her first day at school in Birmingham, yesterday. She described this day as: "the most important of my life", and I believe it should represent an achievement for all of us and a reminder of the struggles of people in other countries.

The braveness of a Pakistani adolescent, who was shot in the head by Taliban for asking education to be granted to girls in Pakistan, has to remind us that what we have is still denied in other places.
However, the irony is that while in some parts of the world people risk their lives to gain access to education, somewhere else the importance of a hard-won historical right is denied.

I often happen to hear youths lamenting because they have to study: it is too boring and useless.
I see so many teenagers, forgotten by their parents, wandering around the city smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and ‘acting cool'. None of them has a dream, a purpose, a motivation and the more I witness this, the more I think about Malala and how differently education is conceived today in modern societies.

As the famous home of the British prime minister and chancellor, Downing Street is used to seeing its fair share of disagreements. However, this week has seen one slightly different to your regular political scrap.

Photos have emerged of chancellor George Osborne's cat Freya, attacking David Cameron's Larry (pictured above). Downing Street have even released a statement on it, with the prime minister's spokeswoman claiming the two animals are able to co-exist, but she would not "get into commenting on the adventures of our feline friends".

It is tradition for the prime minister to own a cat at 10, Downing Street, whose main duties are to keep any mice away. Indeed, Larry was ‘hired' last year after a rat was seen scurrying past 10, Downing Street during a live TV broadcast. However, after shirking his duties- preferring a long sleep, George Osborne's Freya has been brought in to help out.

Boris Johnson retained his position as Mayor of London after the results of last Thursday's election were revealed over the weekend. The contest was far closer than many predicted, with Boris beating his Labour party rival Ken Livingstone by just 3%.

It is the second time that the two candidates had faced each other in the London mayoral election, and between them they have shared the post ever since its creation in 2000. Overall, Boris Johnson took 44% of the votes, versus Ken Livingtsone's 40.3%, with the various other candidates taking less than 16% between them (see all the candidate profiles).

In reaction to the final count, Boris vowed to "continue to fight for a good deal for Londoners, a good deal from government", whilst Ken announced his retirement from frontline politics, revealing "this will be my last election".