Eloise HorsfieldYOU might not expect a film about a UK prime minister to be all that popular in Spain.
But The Iron Lady has already taken an impressive €1.3 million in box offices across the country.
The film is an intimate portrait of Margaret Thatcher, the first and only female PM in the UK, who ruled the country from 1979 to 1990.
And it’s currently number two at the box office, behind Sherlock Holmes 2 – another British institution.
The interest of Spain in the film about Thatcher, however, is probably less to do with a deep interest in British politics and more down to the popularity of actress Meryl Streep, who plays the part of the ex-PM.
Streep has long been a celebrated star in Spain.
“‘Iron Lady’ is seen in Spain as a Meryl Streep film, not a movie about Margaret Thatcher,” said a cinema analyst.
It had to make money somewhere for whatever reason. The day it opened in Scotland the evening news reported that it was screened to audiences that averaged 5 persons.
Well Lindsay
That just shows how ignorasnt the Scots are.
I have enjoyed Streep’s work in the past and I am certain she will receive great critical acclaim for this piece. However, the subject of the film was not held in high regard by all UK citizens, so it is in this context that I ask you to expand on your statement.
Lindsay: Love your understatement – “not held in high regard” Millions detested the woman. The Scots had even more reason to “hold her in low regard” For a start the Poll Tax experiment was thrust on them first. The list is long. She is one of the reasons there are more pandas in Scotland than Tory M.P.s. This film is an attempt to rehabilitate the old trouts legacy. It’s on a par with “Springtime for Hitler”.
¡Buenas tardes! Stefanjo. I attempted to be firm but neutral in my return comment to Chris who obviously did not guess that I am Scottish. I well remember the ‘Old Trout’ desimating mining, steel, shipbuilding and all other forms of heavy industry in the Central Belt of Scotland along with other similar areas in both England and Wales, leaving generations of families jobless and without hope. The new lighter industries which eventually found their way to Scotland with the assistance of Government grants are now fleeing east to set up shop where labour costs are cheaper and who is overseeing this exodus, yet another Conservative government voted into power by middle England who turn out on polling day to support their policies. The current administration appear to be both incapable of and unwilling to listen to the wishes of the Scottish people, however our day will come. I think it would be a safe bet that the next Westminster Parliament will not have a single Conservative or Liberal MP returned by a Scottish constituency with the posible exception of one scarsely populated rural area of the country located close to the border with England. Muchos gracias por sus comentarios.
Lindsay : “I think it would be a safe bet that the next Westminster Parliament will not have a single Conservative or Liberal MP returned by a Scottish constituency”, which is why the rest of the UK cannot wait for Scottish independence. Without those MPs from Scotland, socialists will never again hold power.
PM,
where on earth did you get the idea that the Labour party was Socialist. They let Tony the Liar into the Labour party and it has been dominated by self serving public school uni/grads for well over 35 years.
Does it not strike you as strange that it has never been known as – the Socialist party?
I have seen Socialst MPs in the Netherlands being physically assaulted because they did’nt keep to the promises in their manifesto, with the police standing by letting the people exercise democratic rights. but then the Dutch don’t stand for nonense from their MPs.
It is’nt strange at all that that nasty woman had/has all her support in south east England which is totally parasitic and lived off the wealth created in the rest of the not united kingdom.
This woman decided to destroy the miners and waste north sea oil on unemployment benefit.
Contrast this with her Aryan kin in Germany – yes you English are Germans. They subsidised their German coal by 500% – why because it made perfect economic sense to keep Deutch Marks in Germany rather than buy in foreign coal.
When they decided to finally close down the coal industry in west Germany they invested lots of money in re-training all those miners and the result is – ex mining communities that are not full of broken men drinking themselves to death,their families have not disintegrated and surprise surprise they are contributing to Germany’s economis success.
You see your brothers and sisters in Germany have something that has long been gone from the UK (if it was ever here) – the long view. German industry re-invests it’s profits – it does’nt pay big dividends to investers.
Also does’nt it seem strange that they have respect for an engineer and contempt for bankers et al, don’t have a huge financial services industry and every year they have a huge surplus – strange that is’nt it?
Dear PM, it would appear that you and our current Prime Minister (PM) are not in accord as David Cameron has been widely quoted this past week as being “passionate” about the 300-year-old Union. Perhaps you would like to inform him of the true opinion held by the English franchise as he would appear to be at odds with those who voted his party into their current position, ie a coalition government that nobody truely wanted. One that has seen the Liberal Party become ‘Tory Lapdogs’. My heart goes out to true Statesmen, the likes of which we are unlikely to see again in the UK for a very long time and by this I mean persons of honour such as Lord David Steel.
Dear Stuart, I think it is fair to say that the present day Labour Party has long left behind its founding principles. If statesmen of a previous era were in a position to return to the land of the living then gentlemen such as Aneurin Bevan and Hugh Gaitskill (examples of both left and right of the party) and Tom Johnston (Secretary State for Scotland in Churchill’s wartime government, 1941-45) would find it difficult, nae impossible, to find any likeness between the ideals of their time and what is now known as ‘socialism’. Socialism in the true sense of the word does not exist within the United Kingdom. In fact it could be said that it died with John Smith MP on 12th May 1994, the best Prime Minister the country never had.
Lindsay,
well said. If you held a gun to my head (and that happened to me once) I could’nt vote for these present day self seeking newspeak scum.
PFI or how to really rip-off the ordinary taxpayer. I saw a news item about a UK hospital that will cost the taxpayer well over 1 billion – well guess what, the particular health authority simply can’t pay this kind of money.
What moron would sell gold @ $250 per ounce in the middle of a cheap credit inspired boom, knowing full well how all booms end – no need to repeat what that twat said about boom and bust.