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The Guardian
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Rambling rubbish': inside the battle for the soul of the Liberal party in NSW
Intense discussions are under way within the Liberal party about an alternative to the three-person administrative committee now in control of its NSW branch, with a growing consensus that it must be replaced when the federal executive meets next week. Younger members of the party have had enough after a scandal triggered by comments by one member of the trio, former Victorian MP Alan Stockdale. Stockdale, in his 80s, last week told the NSW Liberal Women's Council that Liberal women were 'sufficiently assertive ' and men might need a leg up. Although meant as a joke, the remarks appalled many in the party and raised questions about why two octogenarians from Victoria – Stockdale and ex-senator Richard Alston – and another retired politician, former NSW MP Peta Seaton, were tasked with reforming the Liberals' biggest branch. Stockdale further stoked outrage when he couldn't tell the women's council meeting whether the committee would retain Menzies-era rules that guarantee Liberal women members significant roles in the party's governance structure. 'It was just rambling rubbish,' one former member of the NSW executive, a moderate, said. A prominent member of the right said of the three-person committee's address to the women's council: 'Doing a meeting by Zoom meant it was always bound to be recorded and become public.' More concerning for members than off-target jokes is the lack of progress made by the troika installed to run the NSW branch by the federal Liberals after the 2024 council elections farce. Stockdale, Alston and Seaton were charged with reviewing the NSW branch's lumbering 279-page constitution, overhauling the NSW administrative machinery and helping conduct the federal campaign in May. The administration of the NSW division was sparked by its failure to nominate 140 candidates for 16 local council elections last August, a mistake that exposed long-held worries about the state branch's professionalism. 'The big picture here is that party membership is collapsing,' said one former member of the state executive. 'If we have another three years like the last six years, the party will disappear.' Liberals who spoke to Guardian Australia on the condition of anonymity, because they are not permitted to comment publicly, said there had been little engagement by the trio with the NSW party over the past eight months. The meeting with the women's council last week came just weeks before their commission is due to run out on 30 June. Members also criticised the committee's stewardship during the federal election. The Liberals had hoped to pick up two or three seats in NSW – instead, they lost three, including the heartland seat of Bradfield by just a handful of votes. Despite it being clear months before the election that the seat of North Sydney was to be abolished, funds raised by the North Sydney conference were only partially allocated to the surrounding seats, with the result that tens of thousands of dollars sat in a bank account, according to one member close to the federal campaign. Head office Liberals said this was not due to the committee, but to the conference itself, which distributed some funds to the seat of Warringah and held onto other funds. The federal opposition leader, Sussan Ley, will be highly influential in deciding what happens next to the NSW division. One close observer of the process said: 'I have yet to see the federal executive make a decision that goes against the federal leader's wishes.' Ley said last week: 'The Liberal party must reflect, respect and represent modern Australia and that means recognising the strength, merit and leadership of the women in our ranks.' Former prime minister Tony Abbott and then Liberal leader Peter Dutton pushed for the October 2024 intervention. Abbott remains a strong advocate for continuing the three-person panel's brief beyond 30 June. Two weeks ago, he publicly warned Ley not to be swayed by the factions, particularly her own centre right faction which is helmed by federal MP Alex Hawke. The leader of the right faction, Anthony Roberts, weighed in on Monday, telling the Daily Telegraph the administration of the NSW Liberals should continue and that those opposing the intervention were 'cockroaches' trying to sabotage reform. But increasingly, moderates, centre right and some right faction members are favouring either letting it lapse, which would result in the old state executive taking over, or coming up with third path – such as a streamlined committee made up of NSW figures who could complete the overhaul quickly and return the party to its members. Sign up to Morning Mail Our Australian morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Simply restoring the state executive could be problematic as the president, Don Harwin, has indicated he is not willing to return to the role. 'It's a poison chalice, particularly as the party is facing a class action from the failed local government candidates,' said one former member of the state executive. 'We're telling the state reps on federal executive that if they extend the intervention in NSW, then South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia will be next … because they are in even worse shape,' said another Liberal. 'We are just over 18 months away from a state election, we need to focus on that, because we already have a minority Labor government and we could actually win.' The most likely result is a compromise where a small committee of NSW Liberals takes over, with each of the factions represented. So what's at the heart of the problems with the NSW branch? Aside from an unwieldy 29-strong state executive, which acts as the equivalent of a board for the NSW Liberal party, the other problem is the rules surrounding branches. In the interests of stopping branch stacking and to ensure members are ideologically aligned with Liberal values, branches can reject members – and frequently do. Internal analysis showed that up to 75% of applications to join the Liberal party in some branches were rejected in recent years, Guardian Australia was told. There are limits on how many members can be admitted each month – another safeguard to stop the mass signing-up of members. In some heartland Liberal-held areas – known as conferences within the Liberal party – there can be many branches, so a person who wants to join can usually find one to accept them. But in Labor-held and marginal seats, there might only be two branches, which are often tightly controlled by a few families. 'This means they turn into fiefdoms, and it's really unhealthy for the party,' said one Liberal who has studied branch structures. Yet these are precisely the seats the party needs to win. Some Liberals, including the NSW leader, Mark Speakman, have floated the idea of abolishing branches altogether and returning to much larger party units based on conferences. Others want to relax the sign-up rules and the power of branches to reject members. Whatever solution is adopted will have implications for the factions – and the future of the Liberal party in NSW which has, for the last 40 years, been dominated by the moderates. 'This is a battle for the soul of the Liberal party: whether we become a far-right rump run by octogenarians or whether we become a centrist election-winning party again,' the former state treasurer and leading moderate Matt Kean told Guardian Australia last week. Stockdale, Alston and Seaton were contacted for comment.
New York Times
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The 6 Mitford Sisters, Their Jewelry and a New TV Series
The Mitford sisters, known for their 20th-century aristocratic glamour and political scandal, were not among England's most gem-laden women. But jewelry did play a role in their outsize public profiles. 'Diana the fascist, Jessica the communist, Unity the Hitler-lover, Nancy the novelist, Deborah the duchess and Pamela the unobtrusive poultry connoisseur' is how Ben Macintyre, a writer for The Times of London, once described the six women. Now they are the subjects of 'Outrageous,' a six-part series scheduled to debut June 18 on BritBox in the United States and Canada and June 19 on U and U&Drama in Britain. The series is set in the 1930s, the era in which they became famous — and infamous — and arrives on the heels of the discovery of a diary kept by Unity, who was obsessed with Hitler and, by her own account, was his lover. Excerpts were published this year by The Daily Mail. A childish prank involving Unity and Jessica was most likely one of the sisters' earliest jewelry episodes. 'A diamond ring was used to etch both the image of a hammer and sickle and swastika on a window in their childhood home,' Sarah Williams, the writer of 'Outrageous,' said in a recent video interview. 'They had such a young bond as kids, but they were both rebels, and that bond of rebellion was stronger than their political beliefs. They were absolute extremes.' The sisters — there also was one brother, Thomas, who was killed in World War II — were the children of David Freeman-Mitford, the second Baron Redesdale, and his wife, Sydney Bowles. While the family was not particularly wealthy, the sisters were schooled at home and then entered society. 'As part of our research, we specifically collected images of jewelry pieces worn by the Mitford girls,' Claire Collins, the costume designer for 'Outrageous,' said by email, 'and although we couldn't replicate certain pieces, we were able to use them as a guide.' She added: 'For example, we decided to incorporate more bohemian pieces for Nancy as we were keen to express her ties with the creative types of the time, such as the Bloomsbury group.' Ms. Williams said she found dozens of references to jewelry in her research, which included Jessica's 1960 memoir, 'Hons and Rebels,' and 'The Mitford Girls' by Mary S. Lovell, the 2001 biography that was the basis for 'Outrageous.' Diana, for example, wore a tiara of diamonds and rubies at her 1929 wedding to Bryan Guinness, heir to the brewery fortune. She reportedly returned the tiara to him when they divorced four years later, but kept several other pieces. (Later she married Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British fascist movement.) 'The Mitford sisters came from impeccably aristocratic stock, but growing up, money was tight,' Ms. Williams said. 'Nevertheless, I think jewelry was highly significant in their lives, as it often came in the form of gifts from the men they loved, but it could also be exchanged for hard cash and might help them out of a tight spot.' That idea plays out in 'Outrageous,' in a sequence portraying Nancy as a celebrated but not always financially secure novelist. 'Nancy is forced to sell all her jewelry to pay her rent, but we retained one small pinkie ring that was our nod to her connection with her family,' Ms. Collins wrote. 'It's small and unnoticeable to most, but it grounds her character and gives her heart.' One anecdote from 'The Mitford Girls' describes Nancy seeing Pamela's 17th-century enamel and gold wedding ring — from a suitor who ended the engagement shortly before the ceremony — and commenting that it looked like 'a chicken's mess.' The scenario was fictionalized in Nancy's novel 'The Pursuit of Love,' and the real ring was said to be given to Unity, who reportedly regifted it to Hitler. Of the sisters, the youngest, Deborah, also known as Debo, probably had the most jewelry. She married Andrew Cavendish, who was later the 11th Duke of Devonshire, and eventually became the chatelaine of the Devonshire stately home, Chatsworth. Much of her personal jewelry — including a heart-shape brooch pavéd with brilliant-cut diamonds and a curb link chain bracelet with white sapphires forming the letters to spell Teapot Row, the name of one of the duke's racehorses — along with paintings, furniture and household goods were auctioned in 2016 by Sotheby's. The auction also listed several brooches, such as a citrine, onyx and diamond caterpillar, that were gifts from her husband. 'It was rumored that every time he had a fling, he would feel guilty and would buy her an insect or animal brooch,' said Adrian Dickens, a jeweler in Australia and a recognized expert on the Mitfords. 'There is one photo of the duchess wearing 30 to 40 of them.' The Devonshire jewels belonged to the family, although Deborah wore them as duchess. 'She had nine major pieces,' Mr. Dickens said, 'including the Devonshire parure, a collection of seven matching items — bandeau, bracelet, coronet, diadem, necklace, stomacher and comb — commissioned by the sixth Duke of Devonshire for his nephew's wife to wear to Czar Alexander II's coronation in 1856.' The collection also included two diamond tiaras: the Devonshire tiara, sometimes referred to as the Palmette tiara, with 1,881 diamonds in palm leaf and lotus motifs, which, like many tiaras, could be divided into several brooches; and the honeysuckle tiara, which could be dismantled into as many as seven brooches, Mr. Dickens said. 'Deborah wore the Devonshire parure but not often because it must have been very heavy and uncomfortable,' he said. 'A portrait of her in front of her Lucian Freud portrait does show at least three of the pieces being worn quite casually.' Her jewelry could be seen as the final, glamorous chapter in the saga of the Mitford sisters. 'The family was torn apart by politics, but the sisterhood remained intact,' Ms. Williams said. 'They had a yearning for diamonds and fine jewelry as the era of aristocracy was ending. There was a lot of good breeding, but not much cash.'
The Sun
06-05-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Downing Street risks fresh row with claims rape gang tragedy has been ‘weaponized' – but won't say by who
DOWNING Street risked a major row today after claiming the grooming gangs scandal has been "weaponised" for political gain. A spokesperson for Sir Keir Starmer declared it was "obviously disappointing" to witness "political point scoring" on such a grave issue. However, No. 10 refused to identify who they believed was guilty of exploiting the scandal. It comes after Cabinet Minister Lucy Powell provoked outrage by dismissing discussions surrounding grooming gangs as 'dog whistle' politics. Her remarks, which likened the discourse to "blowing a little trumpet," sparked calls for her resignation. Despite the backlash, Downing Street today reaffirmed Sir Keir's full confidence in Ms Powell. When pressed on whether the PM shared Ms Powell's view that the scandal was being "weaponised," his spokesperson said: "It's obviously disappointing for people to engage in this kind of behaviour. "But the Prime Minister remains focused on taking the necessary action to deliver justice for victims, rather than becoming embroiled in political point scoring." When further questioned on who exactly was guilty of such tactics, the spokesperson added: "Any attempt at political point scoring on an issue as serious as this is disappointing. "The government's priority is ensuring justice for victims." Dr Lawrence Newport, a prominent campaigner for a national inquiry into grooming gangs, lambasted the government's stance, accusing it of failing victims. He said: "The government's attitude that this is political point scoring is just ignoring that people are severely disappointed that the government has done NOTHING to help victims. "There has been a cover-up. "This does nothing more than help those that covered it up for decades." Earlier today, Health Secretary Wes Streeting also weighed in, branding Ms Powell's remarks "indefensible."
