UK unmasks freemasons

http://www.theage.com.au/daily/980219/news/news21.html

By RACHEL SYLVESTER,
London, Wednesday 

British judges, magistrates and police officers in future would have to declare whether they were freemasons, the Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, said yesterday.

Mr Straw said the Government wanted to put an end to allegations that a network of freemasons operating in the police and judiciary was undermining justice.

"Membership of secret societies, such as freemasonry, can raise suspicions of a lack of impartiality or objectivity," he said. "It is, therefore, important that the public knows the facts."

He said he would ask the United Grand Lodge to publish regional lists of freemasons working in the criminal justice system. If it refused to cooperate, a register would be set up in which masons would have to declare that they belonged to lodges.

Although the register would be voluntary at first, Mr Straw said the Government was prepared to change the law to force employees to declare their membership.

The rules will also apply to Crown prosecutors, probation officers and prison staff.

The announcement represents a victory for the Home Secretary over Lord Irvine, the Lord Chancellor, who argued that the judiciary should be exempt.

Judges reacted furiously to the decision. Lord Justice Millet, who is a freemason, told the BBC: "It questions the integrity of judges for no good reason. We're not going to be required to disclose which golf club we're members of. There is no difference between a golf club and a masonic lodge.

"I have never known whether anybody who has appeared in front of me was a mason and none of them has ever known whether I was one."

The register, which will be published, will concentrate on new employees, who will have to declare if they are freemasons on job application forms. This information will help to build a database of recruits.

Mr Straw said he was determined to extend the register to existing employees. Under existing legislation, the Government is unable to force masons to declare that they belong to lodges. Ministers are drawing up plans to change the law.

Freemasons "say they are not a secret society but a society with secrets," Mr Straw told the Commons home affairs select committee.

- Telegraph