The Iron Lady

Margaret Thatcher was nowhere near the Palace of Westminster when Airey Neave was assassinated by an INLA car bomb.

In the '1980s' there is a shot from Westminster Bridge of the Houses of Parliament.

In the right of the shot we see a National Express coach on Westminster Bridge in the livery of 2011.

The coach brake also puts on its brake lights.

Clearly shown are 'high level' brake stop lights which were not introduced on coaches until the late 1990s.

On several occasions when Mrs Thatcher is speaking in the House of Commons the camera pans the house.

No other women MPs are shown.

There were 19 women MPs in 1979 when she became PM and 66 in 1992 just after she retired.

However, director Phyllida Lloyd directly addressed this in an article in England's Daily Mail newspaper, January 9th, stating "I've deliberately put no other women in the shots.

There were, in fact, 19 female MPs by the time she became Prime Minister but we are trying to show not how it was to the objective eye but how it felt from her point of view.

Ours is a collection of very selective memories, of a life of a woman formed by the Second World War and permanently at war, her life played out as a series of battles.

" Rite Aid Bandages were not sold in the UK in the 1980s.

However, Margaret Thatcher was traveling to the US and could have brought some back with her.

The composer of "Norma", the opera that Margaret and Denis watch in the theatre and whose aria "Casta Diva" is widely used in the movie score, is 'Vincenzo Bellini' (qv) not Francesco Bellini as it is shown on the framed booklet.

In the scene just before the car bombing assassination of MP Airey Neave in the parking garage (car park in British parlance), a CCTV camera is briefly visible.

Cameras of such a design did not exist in 1979.

It is clearly a 21st century design.

After the dinner party, when Margeret is speaking to her daughter, her pearl necklace is above her dress.

In the following close up it is hidden under the dress, only to reappear in the next shot Airey Neave's Vauxhall Cavalier was blue, not red.

In her final year as Prime Minister (1990), Thatcher refers to the European Union.

At that time it was known as the European Community (or, more formally, the EEC - European Economic Community).

The European Community became the European Union in 1993 when all member countries ratified the Maastricht Treaty.

Airey Neave was assassinated in 1979 by car bomb, but the car he was shown to be driving was a 1981 model Vauxhall Cavalier, not a 1979 or earlier model.

In the closing scene where Thatcher walks down the stairs of Number 10 Downing Street, a lighting rig is visible on the landing above her.

Thatcher is captured wearing a hat in the House of Commons, something she never did (or is even encouraged among Parliamentarians) during her tenure as the UK's Prime Minister.

Wasted a talented actress to misrepresent Thatcher who infamously cut subsidies which provided milk to school children (which got her the nickname "Maggie Thatcher Milk Snatcher"), declared "There's no such thing as society" as justification for slashing the social safety net.

Yes, Meryl Streep plays very well ... no doubt about it she herself deserves 8 stars for her performance.

Is it really surprising? Is it really news?

I read some review of The Iron Lady stating that it didn't take a stand. That's horse rubbish.

If you were expecting this movie to be a biography on the late Margaret Thatcher, prepare to be disappointed. What you will see is her as a senile old lady having a lot of flashbacks, mentally interacting with her deceased husband, and really interacting with her surviving relatives.

Even with Meryl Streep playing the lead role as Margaret Thatcher it was a pretty decent movie. Streep actually did OK considering she had to play a respectable conservative icon.

This film's strength lies in the acting by Meryl Streep. She breathes life into the persona of Margaret Thatcher and makes her feel like an authentic person rather than a caricature (whether positive or negative).

Maybe this film is better if you're British, but I found The Iron Lady to be quite the bore. This movie felt like nothing more than a vehicle for Meryl Streep to monologue, put on prosthetics, and win an Oscar.

Say what you like about England or the United Kingdom, for a small island they had the greatest empire the world has ever seen surpassing all others (Roman, Persian, Ottoman, Mongol...)....