To celebrate the 30th April release of THE IRON LADY on DVD and Blu-ray, a huge debate was staged at Wimbledon Studios, where the House of Commons was replicated for the film itself. Check out the images and official press release below.
The Iron Lady is out on Blu-ray and DVD on 30 April from Pathé Productions Ltd
Yesterday, 150 young people from all over Great Britain flocked to London for a lively debate on the iconic green benches of the House of Commons, deliberating the role of women in politics.
Only this debate was not staged in the historical Palace of Westminster, but an exact replica down the road in Wimbledon Studios. The House of Commons movie set, graced by Meryl Streep and her co-stars in this year’s Oscar-winning film THE IRON LADY, will house a unique event in association with the British Youth Council and the Youth Parliament.
To coincide with the Blu-ray and DVD release of THE IRON LADY (30 April), the moving film about the life and career of Margaret Thatcher, the nation’s most politically active youngsters came together to argue issues raised in the film and the legacy of the Iron Lady herself, joined by some special guests.
With no female Prime Minister in Great Britain since Thatcher was sworn into power on 4 May 1979, and few current woman MPs threatening to change this, the members of the Youth Council and Youth Parliament, aged between 11 and 18, discussed a number of motions comparing the past, the present and the future, and asking why females have been so poorly represented in parliament, despite the tremendous impact of Thatcher.
Recently dubbed a “kaleidoscope of modern society” by speaker John Bercow, 47% of the Youth Parliament’s current members are female – proof that the tide is finally turning. This is compared to barely 1 in 5 (22%) current MPs being female, whilst in 1979 when Thatcher took to power there were just 19 woman members of the House of Commons (3%). Illustrating the changing of the guard further, of around 300 to apply for this event, over 60% were female.
Rosina St James, 21, Vice-Chair of Participation and Development at the British Youth Council said: “I’m really proud to say that nearly half of the Members of the UK Youth Parliament (MYPs) are female, 20% are from black and ethnic minority communities and 10% have some form of disability – making the Youth Parliament much more representative of modern society than the current elected House of Commons which still has only has 22% women. I want to see this figure grow to match ours, so that politics becomes more and more inclusive, and everyone, regardless of their background, gender or ethnicity, gets to have their say.”
