Thatcher Paris street rejected

PARIS city officials have voted to name a street after William Shakespeare - but have rejected a proposal for Margaret Thatcher to be given the same honour.

Rue Shakespeare will be in the eighth arrondissement, near the Champs-Elysées, following a council vote earlier this week.

A UMP councillor for the 17th arrondissement, Jérôme Dubus, had suggested the creation of a Square Margaret Thatcher in recognition of her role in modernising Britain's economy, having come from a modest background.

Far-left councillors said that, if Thatcher were to have a Paris road named after her, then the Irish volunteer Bobby Sands, who died on hunger strike in 1981, should also be honoured.

Both proposals were turned down. Socialist Pierre Schapira, who is one of Bertrand Delanoë's deputies at the Mairie de Paris, said Thatcher was perhaps not the best "incarnation of success".