Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
We need more female leaders...we think we’ve got somewhere, a crisis hits & we see the cracks
Suffragette’s descendant speaks out
THE descendant of a suffragette icon today calls for more women in power – and says the pandemic has only deepened gender inequality.
Dr Helen Pankhurst – whose great gran Emmeline led the battle to win women the vote – attacks Britain’s bungling male leadership over the Covid-19 response.
And among stars backing her, Bianca Jagger claims the crisis can’t be tackled by leaving “half the population out” of decisions.
Dr Pankhurst, 56, spoke ahead of International Women’s Day tomorrow as figures show 77% of frontline workers are women – yet only 25% make up the Government’s coronavirus taskforce.
The activist, whose grandmother Sylvia was also a leading suffragette, told us: “We need more women in leadership otherwise they are marginalised.
“You must have that lens of someone in policy-making who understands. It doesn’t work if you only have the male perspective.
SKEWED
Today, as we highlight success stories of powerful women, just 34% of MPs are female – with numbers down in the last 15 years.
“This means we have skewed policy which means women’s issues aren’t looked at,” says Dr Pankhurst. “The idea that slowly things will get better… they don’t.”
Dr Pankhurst – invited by London store Harvey Nichols to smash its window on the centenary of women’s right to vote in 2018 – is backing charity CARE International’s Stop Telling Half the Story campaign.
It aims to prevent women being shortchanged by governments in the wake of Covid. A study by the London School of Economics has revealed women make up 69% of workers in low-paid jobs and do 60% more unpaid care work than men. And almost 20% work in sectors that have suffered Covid job losses and pay cuts, compared to 13% of men.
CARE’s March4Women has been cancelled this year, but celebrity supporters will be taking part on social media today. Bianca, 75, said: “We need gender equality, and we need it now. We cannot face down the unprecedented crises facing humanity with half the population left out.”
Actress Helena Bonham Carter added: “If we want a fairer, more equal world, we need women at the decision-making table.”
POPE Francis talks to a senior Shia cleric in an historic meeting in Iraq yesterday to unite the Christian and Muslim worlds.
The Catholic leader was received by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, spiritual leader of millions of Shia Muslims, in the holy city of Najaf.
White doves were released as Pope Francis, 84, arrived in a bullet-proof vehicle, before the pair discussed the safety of Iraq’s Christian minority. The Pope said he felt “duty bound” to make the four-day trip, said to be his most dangerous ever due to Covid-19 and security fears. The Ayatollah’s office said the 50-minute talks emphasised peace.
Pope Francis thanked him for affirming “the sacredness of human life and importance of unity of the Iraqi people”.
At an inter-faith prayer service, Pope Francis said: “Hostility, extremism and violence are not born of a religious heart. They are betrayals of religion.”
THE man convicted 23 years ago of the hammer murder of a mum and her six-year-old daughter has vowed to refuse early release until his name has been cleared.
Michael Stone was 37 when he was jailed for bludgeoning Dr Lin Russell and her daughters Megan and nineyear-old Josie – who survived.
Stone, who could go free as early as July next year, says he will not seek parole until his conviction is quashed.
He believes Levi Bellfield, 52 – who murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler – carried out the attack.
In an exclusive interview, Stone’s sister Barbara, 58, said: “He’ll only come out if he’s proven innocent.
“He won’t apply for parole. He wants to clear his name. He has fought since day one. He’s not going to give in now.”
Stone was given three life sentences after Lin, 45, and her daughters were tied up and beaten with a hammer in Chillenden, Kent, in July 1996 walking home from a school swimming gala.
Josie survived with appalling injuries. They were reported missing by dad Professor Shaun Russell.
Stone, who had a history of violence and drug abuse, was arrested a year later. DNA at the scene did not match his, but he was found guilty in 1998 based on evidence from three other prisoners, including pal Damian Daley.
Daley told police Stone had confessed while awaiting trial at Canterbury jail.
Stone was found guilty again at a 2001 retrial, held after one of the three admitted fabricating his account. The retrial judge ordered he should serve a minimum of 25 years.
Stone, now 60 and held at HMP Frankland in County Durham is laying his hopes on a dossier of new evidence his solicitors submitted to the Criminal Cases Review Commission in 2017.
Bellfield, also at HMP Frankland, is serving life for killing Milly Dowler, 13, Marsha McDonnell, 19, and Amelie Delagrange, 22, in South West London between 2002 and 2004. He denies he carried out the Chillenden attack.
Stone’s sister Barbara said: “I’ve been reserved about it but I now think there’s every possibility Bellfield did it.
“He’s always hanging on to our case. Why else would he have an interest?”
Stone’s family say Bellfield’s height and face match descriptions of the killer and an e-fit, and he owned a car similar to one seen in the area.
Barbara said: “His job had taken him across numerous counties. He did go to the area. A man like Bellfield will have undoubtedly committed other crimes.”
She said of her brother: “I’ve never thought he was guilty. From the word go I was seeing things that were wrong.
“I think he retains just a little bit of faith in the justice system.”
Barbara is certain of her brother’s innocence
BOUND AND BEATEN Lin Russell with Megan, six
MODELLING sensation Rob Rea got his break after a banking career went belly-up.
Rob worked for RBS during the credit crunch and says he saw “the ugly side of banking”.
He said: “I was dealing with guys under huge stress who had borrowed millions from the bank and were close to completely breaking down.”
When it all got too much, Belfast-raised Rob, 37, quit.
His girlfriend Jude, 34, who was a model, suggested a prolonged break in Cape Town, where she had been offered work. The move to South
Africa was a life changer.
Rob explains: “I got approached out of nowhere to do this advert for Nivea face cream. It was a one-off and my girlfriend encouraged me to do it. All the guys back home did take the mickey when they saw me advertising face cream.”
But the money was great, the job was fun and Rob stuck at it.
Soon after, he and
Jude landed a North
Face ad campaign together in London, haven’t looked back since – and have wed.
Since then he’s modelled for Nespresso, Gillette, Land Rover,
Ferrari, Bentley and
Samsung – often, ironically, in adverts aimed at the kind of guys he used to work with in banking.
THE boss of Britain’s biggest modelling agency wants fellas to try out for the Britain’s Most Handsome Man contest, calling it the “chance of a lifetime”.
Sarah Doukas, founder of the Storm agency, says: “It’s always the ones who have no idea they’d be right for modelling who end up making the better models.
“So if there are Sunday Mirror readers – parents or grandparents, uncles or aunts, brothers or sisters, or daughters or sons of a handsome man – be sure to enter them today. “The majority of our great models have not just walked in the agency door. “Look at Kate Moss, Lily Cole, Jourdan Dunn, Poppy and Cara Delevingne. We had to find them. “I found Poppy and Cara at my daughter’s school. My point is, people just don’t know they have what it takes. That’s why competitions like this are so important.” Storm is the Sunday Mirror’s partner in the contest, which has got the modelling world buzzing. Sarah’s male models travel around the world for the most amazing jobs, which can open doors into showbiz.
And Sarah says a career in modelling does wonders for feelings of self-worth too, saying of recruits: “We see them blossom – the confidence just takes off.”