Interesting. It wasn’t in the online edition, but MLC David Clarke and
his fellow holy warriors in the NSW Liberal Party warranted a very
prominent run in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph . Even more interestingly, the piece wasn’t by a state politics reporter but came from Canberra correspondent Malcolm Farr.

When a newspaper with the popular – and populist – instincts of Sydney’s Daily Telegraph picks up a story, something’s brewing. TheTele
reported “Moderate NSW Liberals are warning of an ‘almighty war’
against what they see as a takeover of the state party by the religious
Right:

The Liberal Right is set to get overwhelming control of the party state
executive at coming elections, and it has been backed by a push into
some branches. ‘It’s got a real threat of spilling over,’ a senior NSW
Liberal said yesterday of the takeover. ‘We’re on the threshold of an
almighty war [no pun intended, we presume] in NSW because of the very
aggressive tactics. We’re not going to sit back and watch the party
take a massive leap to the religious Right. This merger of religion and
politics is unprecedented in Australia. And that’s the game they’re
playing.’

Clarke and his crusaders have been the subject of stories in both The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian over the last ten days. That’s natural. They must offend so many of both papers’ readers. TheTele’s a different matter. A Canberra report and all. Stand by for action.