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Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 7 August.

Five Liberal MPs have released an unprecedented joint statement in support of Dean Smiths marriage equality bill, attracting overwhelming support from advocates as the Liberal party prepares for a bruising debate in a special party-room meeting today. The outcome remains in play, as Malcolm Turnbull is under pressure from supporters of Smiths bill to allow a free vote and its opponents urge him to stick to the policy of of a plebiscite.

Smiths bill would redefine marriage as a union of two people, to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life and include all lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people and relationships. The MP Trent Zimmerman said delivering marriage equality would strengthen family life. We believe marriage to be a fundamental institution in Australian life and ensuring all couples have access to it will be beneficial to individuals, couples, families and the community.

An apparent military uprising has been quashed in Venezuela after a small group of men dressed as soldiers were reported to have attacked an army base, declaring themselves in rebellion against the government of President Nicols Maduro. The leader of Venezuelas ruling party, Diosdado Cabello, said the armed forces had quickly repelled the terrorist, criminal and paramilitary attack. But Phil Gunson, Venezuela analyst for the International Crisis Group, said observers were unsure whether the uprising was genuine. There is considerable doubt as to whether this is promoted somehow by the government as an excuse for a crackdown, he said.

Water regulations due to be reviewed and updated on 1 September have been postponed for another year by the New South Wales government after the controversy over allegations of water theft in the Barwon-Darling region of the Murray-Darling basin. The Greens MLC Jeremy Buckingham has accused the NSW Coalition of running scared over the scrutiny of state water management in the wake of last weeks Four Corners program.

The British historian Mary Beard has faced a torrent of aggressive insults on social media after posting messages asserting the ethnic diversity of Roman Britain. Beard, a classicist at Cambridge University, entered the increasingly acrimonious debate that was sparked by a BBC schools video that featured a high-ranking black Roman soldier. Beard said the tone of the arguments had left her dispirited. It feels very sad to me that we cannot have a reasonable discussion on such a topic as the cultural, ethnic composition of Roman Britain without resorting to unnecessary insult, abuse, misogyny and language of war, not debate.

A leaked Google software engineers polemic against diversity has left female staff shaking in anger and forced the tech giant to defend its patchy record on racial and gender equality. The manifesto argues that the lack of women in tech and leadership is the result of innate biological differences between the sexes. After a number of female staff described their disgust at the document on social media, Google sent out a company-wide memo saying it did not represent the companys views.

Arsenal have beaten Chelsea on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the Community Shield, the traditional opener to the UK season. After a sluggish start, the champions looked all set for a fifth Community Shield win when Victor Moses put them ahead, but Arsenals summer signing Sead Kolasinac equalised with eight minutes to go after Pedro was sent off.

Its that time of the AFL season when the repercussions of jumper punches, tummy taps and harsh tackles can have consequences well beyond a weeks suspension, writes Craig Little, after a weekend of indiscipline in key games.

The Football Federation Australia chairman, Steven Lowy, launched a withering attack on the self-interest of A-League club owners at the weekend, marking the conclusion of a phoney war that has been raging behind the scenes for months. With the arrival this week of a Fifa delegation to resolve longstanding governance issues, hostilities have been brought out into the open, writes Jonathan Howcroft.

The Guardian series No Fixed Address, launched to coincide with Homelessness Week, continues with Drew Rogers photo essay and affecting stories of how people in the Byron Bay region of northern New South Wales came to be without a roof over their head. Our datablog assesses the numbers on homelessness in Australia.

As dark clouds gather over the White House, Donald Trump has retreated to the safe space he knows best the campaign trail, where the cheers and adoration of a frenzied crowd soothe his battered ego. The Guardians David Smith joined Trump in West Virginia, where, despite the election ending nine months ago, Trump is still on the road and still bashing Hillary Clinton. Smith investigates why Trump has reverted to raucous, crowded rallies in his electoral heartlands when so many problems in Washington are crying out for his attention.

Pat McGrath is the worlds most influential makeup artist, regularly working on the faces of Rihanna and Kim Kardashian. Surprisingly, she doesnt wear much of the stuff herself, and is unafraid to tackle the thorny issues of modern-day beauty including race, wealth and the power of social media to promote unrealistic beauty ideals to the masses. The Guardians Sali Hughes sits down with McGrath to discuss beauty in the age of Instagram, and finds her smart, prone to outbursts of laughter and lavish use of the word darling. She has also just launched a makeup line with many products for women of colour, something she has struggled her whole life to find.

The Canberra Times splashes with fresh allegations about abuse in aged-care homes, revealing that the federal government has serious conccerns about alleged abuse and mistreatment at a number of ACT centres. The West Australian leads with the desert rescue of Briton Anthony Collis, who dug holes in the dirt to survive for three days after becoming stranded on the Canning stock route. The Australian says public servants could be disiplined for liking anti-government posts on Facebook, while the ABC has a quirky read on the practical difficulties of filling Canberras Lake Burley Griffin with water.

The Garma festival wraps up in Arnhem Land today, after a weekend of debate and cultural celebration.

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Morning mail: Liberals prepare for marriage equality showdown - The Guardian

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Posted: Aug 07, 2017 12:00 PM

Liberals across the state of Illinois now have a holiday to honor the birth of their Lord and Savior -- President Barack Obama.

Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law legislation that would designate August 4th as "Barack Obama Day."

NBC News Chicago reports the holiday will be "observed throughout the State as a day set apart to honor the 44th President of the United States of America who began his career serving the People of Illinois in both the Illinois State Senate and the United States Senate, and dedicated his life to protecting the rights of Americans and building bridges across communities," Senate Bill 55 reads.

There is a similar holiday honoring President Ronald Reagan.

However, Democrats were hoping for a much grander celebration for the man once called "Chicago Jesus."

They wanted a holiday on par with the one commemorating the birth of Christ. They wanted schools to close and government offices to shut down.

"It's incredibly proud for Illinois that the president came from Illinois. I think it's awesome, and I think we should celebrate it," the Republican governor told NBC in February. "I don't think it should be a formal holiday with paid, forced time off, but I think it should be a day of acknowledgment and celebration."

Lawmakers subsequently rejected attempts to close schools and state offices on Barack Obama Day -- pointing out schools are not closed on Reagan's holiday.

The first Obama holiday is scheduled to be celebrated in 2018.

I can only imagine how festive and culturally inclusive that first celebration will be -- church bells ringing, homes decked out in rainbow colors and stockings filled with taxpayer-funded cell phones.

And do not be surprised if you come across Windy City carolers singing with great gusto, "We wish you a merry Barack-mas" or "Joy to the World, Barack has Come."

More here:
Illinois Liberals Get a Holiday to Celebrate Their Messiah - Barack Obama - Townhall

Toronto Sun

Liberals don't care about small business Toronto Sun It's callous due to the Liberals' disregard for the impact their policies will have on business and the way they ignore experts business owners themselves when they tell us the only impact of their higher labour costs and other changes will be a ... and more »

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Liberals don't care about small business - Toronto Sun

Everyone knows that Republicans have political problems, from their failure to repeal Obamacare to President Trumps erratic tweets to his sputtering efforts to make populism a governing philosophy. But what about Democrats? While their problems dont get as much media attention, Democrats are now both the minority party and a toxic brand to much of middle-class America.

Take last Friday, when Governor Jim Justice of West Virginia announced he was becoming a Republican. The Democrats walked away from me, he told a Trump rally in Huntington. Today I tell you as West Virginians, I cant help you any more being a Democrat governor.

I think its a sign of the times, Jose Gonzalez, a 37-year-old project manager at a local steel plant, told the Washington Post at the rally. The Democratic Party used to look out for the downtrodden, but more and more working people are going for Republicans.

Trump certainly broke the mold in 2016. He did better among low-income whites than among upper-income whites the first time a Republican has done that at the presidential level. He won 62 percent of the vote among white voters without a college degree who make less than $30,000 a year. In 2012, Mitt Romney had only won 52 percent of votes in that group. They made the difference in key working-class states that Trump won, carrying them for the GOP for the first time since the 1980s Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Republicans now control the White House and both houses of Congress and have complete executive and legislative control in 26 states.

Since the November election, Trumps popularity has largely held with those voters. Concerns about his lack of focus have been assuaged by the recent growth in jobs and wages. Democrats have not improved their position in part because of their obsession with leading the resistance against Trump. A Washington Post/Abc News poll published July 19 found that 52 percent of Americans dont believe the Democratic party stands for anything beyond opposing Trump. Even 42 percent of nonwhite voters agree that Trump-bashing is all the party is focused on.

The Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic party is convinced it has a solution: have the party move left. People are looking for a populism, but a multi-racial populism, Heather McGhee, of the leftist voting-rights group Demos, said on Meet the Press this morning. Theyre looking for candidates who say, Im willing to take on the wealthy and powerful, and also Im not willing to let the wealthy and powerful divide us from each other so that they can have the spoils of our great nation.

But thats not what the polls taken by Democrats themselves are showing. The House Majority PAC last month released an exhaustive survey. McClatchys Alex Roarty summarized the findings as white voters without a college degree still view Trump relatively favorably, their opinion of Democrats is in the dumps, and they reject some of the partys favored economic initiatives.

Asked which party will improve the economy and create jobs, Republicans have a 35-point edge among white working-class Democrats. They have a 19-point edge when it comes to ensuring people are rewarded for their hard work, and a 15-point edge on middle-class tax cuts. Democrats have only a four-point edge on health care, a surprise given the unpopularity of the GOPs failed Senate plan.

The poll and its accompanying focus group found that Democrats are hurt by the perception that they care mostly about upper-income concerns such as free or reduced college tuition, and they look down with thinly veiled contempt on working-class voters. Many of those voters dont think college is a ticket to prosperity, and many prefer blue-collar jobs. In short, when these voters hear people tell them that the answer to their concerns is college, their reaction is to essentially say dont force your version of the American Dream on me, the House Majority PAC concluded.

Indeed, the biggest challenge that liberals will face in trying to win back the voters who have drifted to the GOP is finding a way to conceal their agenda which is now geared toward identity politics, job-killing environmentalism, and expanding the welfare state. We are seeing an ongoing class war by liberal elites against the middle and working classes, Joel Kotkin, a demographer and executive director of the Houston-based Center for Opportunity Urbanism, told me in an interview.

Donald Trump won because he recognized the nature of that class war and appealed to those who were being hurt by it. Democrats arent likely to win back the voters theyve lost until they realize that many of those voters wont even listen to them if there isnt a truce in the class war they see being waged against them.

READ MORE: Whats the Matter with Democrats? The Lefts Hamburger Problem Is Not Going Away The Fusion Party: Democrats and the Progressive Media

John Fund is NROs national-affairs correspondent.

Read more:
Liberals' Class Warfare on the Working Class Keeps Trump Afloat - National Review

Knocking on doors in a doomed bid to win the riding of Vancouver-Fairview ahead of the May election, BC Liberal candidate Gabe Garfinkel says he was confronted with failings that foreshadowed the hurdles ahead for his party, now ousted from power for the first time in 16years.

The riding has swung between Liberals and the NDP in recent elections. This time, it did not swing Mr. Garfinkels way. Despite knocking on more than 8,000 doors over three months, the former aide to ex-premier Christy Clark ended up with only 32 per cent of the vote compared with 54 per cent for the NDP incumbent George Heyman, who is now the environmentminister.

I knocked on the door of a family of doctors who were unable to find affordable housing or access child care. We knew we had a problem, says Mr. Garfinkel, concluding that the party failed to appreciate or acknowledge challenges people in urban areas were facing, such as housing affordability, child care andtransit.

Until last month, the BC Liberals a coalition of federal Liberals and Tories had governed British Columbia for five consecutive majority governments since 2001, one secured in a come-from-behind, unexpected win in the 2013election.

What happened? Beats me, says Mr. Garfinkel. I am not toosure.

Senior Liberals interviewed by The Globe and Mail remain upbeat about the journey ahead, saying the party will emerge in better shape. And observers say that, despite the political drama of the past three months, the party has a strong chance of recovery as a result of some importantfundamentals.

But first, BC Liberals now headed to the opposition benches say they are beginning to grapple with the question that bedevils Mr. Garfinkel and others as the process begins of grinding out an answer aimed at allowing the party to change course for the next electionbegins.

We allowed ourselves to be characterized as a party that doesnt care; that doesnt have a heart, says Jas Johal, a former TV reporter first elected in Richmond in May who served in cabinet for about three weeks before the Liberals were ousted in a confidence vote by the NDP and the BCGreens.

Journalist-turned-MLA JasJohal

Asked how the party was outmanoeuvred, Mr. Johal said, I wasnt there for those 16 years, explaining part of it as the challenges of governing for the party he is now a part of. He is considering a leadershipbid.

Former education minister Mike Bernier, also considering a run for the leadership, said the Liberals did well on economic issues. But at the dinner table, what were people talking about and were welistening?

The MLA from Peace River South thinks they were musing about taking surpluses accumulated on the BC Liberal watch and seeking to allot some of that money to different sectors of society. In this last election, did we try to sit back on our great record? he said in an interview. Maybe we didnt listen to all of the points that people were trying tomake.

After five decades of observing British Columbia politics, political scientist Norman Ruff has seen all kinds of electoral defeat, and says the Liberals are not actually in bad shape. The party won 43 seats compared to 41 for the NDP, and three for the BC Greens. It was hardly a debacle. They faltered in a major way, but it wasnt a major defeat, said the professor emeritus at the University ofVictoria.

Its a party thats going to recover. Its a matter of finding a process by which torecover.

Mike McDonald, campaign director for the Liberals election win in 2013 and a senior adviser in this years election, said the party needs to appeal, anew, to moderate voters in the Lower Mainland who drifted away from the party, allowing the NDP to make gains in the region that is occupied by the most populous cities in theprovince.

The party has got to consider how its message is being heard in the suburbs and address those issues and come up with a refreshed offering forvoters.

Theres a necessary battle plan ahead, says Mr. McDonald. Hold onto the base in the Interior. Hold onto seats it has in the Lower Mainland and Parksville. Win back the seats that it has held traditionally, but lost in thiselection.

Christy Clark, who has had a notable national profile as B.C. premier for the past six years, wont be part of theequation.

A week ago, she told caucus members at a meeting in the Okanagan city of Penticton that she was quitting as leader and giving up her Kelowna West seat. It was a shock for Liberals, who expected she would, at least initially, lead them inopposition.

B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong attends a funding announcement at Covenant House in Vancouver in March of2017.

DARRYL DYCK/For The Globe andMail

No one went to Penticton thinking, by the end of the meetings, we would be having the conversation about finding a new leader, says Mike de Jong, the former financeminister.

Ms. Clark said she wanted to get out of the way so the party could adapt to its role in oppositon, and felt it was time to go because there is no likelihood of an imminentelection.

On Friday, the Abbotsford News reported that Abbotsford South MLA Darryl Plecas threatened, in Pencticton, to quit if Ms. Clark did not step down as leader. Mr. Plecas told the paper he felt Ms. Clark and her staff did not listen enough, did not let politicians speak their mind, and should have diverted B.C. surpluses to deal with socialconcerns.

Still, senior Liberals declared that, in the end, Ms. Clark left of her own accord. She wasnt pushed; she jumped, said Ralph Sultan, elected MLA for West Vancouver-Capilano in 2001. Until she announced her exit, conversation among Liberals in Penticton had been about figuring out how to work inopposition.

Many hope the process of finding a new leader to replace Ms. Clark will position the party to make a new case to voters for support. Mr. de Jong says the party has to earn its way back to government with new ideas on key issues. If were serving two minutes in the penalty box, lets put that time to good use, hesaid.

No one has committed to running, but a number of MLAs, including Mr. Johal, former advanced education minister Andrew Wilkinson, former transportation minister Todd Stone, Mr. Bernier and ex-Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan, a Liberal MLA in central Vancouver, are considering bids. Outside the caucus, former Surrey mayor Dianne Watts, now a Conservative MP, says shes received indications of support, but has made no decision onrunning.

Mr. Sultan says he drafted a list of credible prospects, and came up with a total of 15 names. He declined to release thelist.

BC Liberals say the leadership prize is worth fighting for because the Liberals, or their free-enterprise forerunners Social Credit, have, more often than not, tended to govern the province. The winner has a reasonable shot of governing British Columbia if NDP Premier John Horgan and his team falter, or their governing agreement with the BC Greensbreaks.

Seize the opportunity to refresh, to rebuild, to have conversations around the entire province, and engage as many people aspossible.

Mr. McDonald says a new leader will articulate some approach to dealing with these issues. He sees a fluid leadership race ahead in which the winner will offer a vision that revs up Liberals, and also unites federal Liberals and Conservatives that add up to the BC Liberalcoalition.

He cites the federal Tory leadership race, which took shape over time, as candidates rose and fell in party members esteem. Maxime Bernier, he observes, didnt win, but ended with a much higher profile than he startedwith.

Will there be a candidate like that who is discounted, but has a message that really resonates with people? Thats why we have a leadership race. We test peopleout.

Mr. McDonald says the new leader will start fresh, with an opening to get a new look after such past difficulties as the last throne speech, presided over by Ms. Clark, that reversed campaign policies and made promises the Liberals didnt runon.

A new leader has a chance for first impressions and to get off on the right foot and engage people, hesaid.

In the meantime, there is the challenge of opposition. Only three of 43 elected Liberals, including Mr. de Jong, have any experience on that side of the legislature. Ironically, there was a fourth Ms. Clark, nowdeparted.

I spent seven years in opposition, but I had to learn it and so many of my colleagues will have to do that, and a couple of us who were there previously will have to relearn it, said Mr. de Jong. Is it like riding a bike? Ill tell you in a month orso.

The curriculum includes critiquing the policies and decisions made by the new government. That will be one of many adjustments, says Mr. de Jong. We are a group that has spent 16 years making the decisions. There is a critical role of critiquing as opposed tocreating.

Mr. Sultan is bemused by the challenge ahead. For many who have been used to the large offices with eight or nine people following them around writing speeches for them, and telling them what papers to sign, its a wrenching change and a difficult one psychologically, hesaid.

There has been some speculation that veteran Liberals wont survive the transition to opposition, but instead quit politicsaltogether.

Mr. de Jong says he is sticking around. Former jobs minister Shirley Bond, who had been in cabinet since she was elected 16 years ago, says she too isstaying.

Mr. Johal said his 23 years of journalism experience has prepared him foropposition.

Earlier this week, interim BC Liberal Leader Rich Coleman, a former deputy premier, released a list of critics roles for the team. Mr. de Jong will be house leader. Ms. Bond will share finance duties with another MLA. Mr. Johal will share critics responsibilities on jobs with another MLA. Mr. Bernier will share critics duties on health with anotherMLA.

Brad Bennett, the grandson of former premier W.A.C. Bennett and son of former premier Bill Bennett, says the time out the Liberals are now facing will allow the party to figure out where to go from here. Throughout the elections in 2013 and 2017, Mr. Bennett travelled at Ms. Clarks side, offering political counsel during thecampaign.

He acknowledges parallels between the current situation and that of his late father, Bill, who became leader of Social Credit in 1973 while the NDP was in power. Bill Bennett positioned his party to win the next election in1975.

Asked what the BC Liberals can learn, he said, Seize the opportunity to refresh, to rebuild, to have conversations around the entire province, and engage as many people aspossible.

He added, When it works, it really works. Those discussions need to take place. It is an opportunity to really solidify a strong free-enterprisecoalition.

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