The Unpleasantness in England

by Kenneth D. Roberts, FPS

For some time now, some members of government have attempted to implicate Freemasonry in 3 criminal justice "corruption scandals." On May 25th, the Commons home affairs committee found that the United Grand Lodge was not a primary cause of the difficulties in the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad, and played no significant part in the Birmingham pub bombings inquiry or the Stalker affair. Even so, the Labour dominated group of MP's urged the government to speed up existing moves to force police, prosecutors, probation officials, and members of the judiciary to disclose their memberships in Masonic societies. Additionally, they want the ministers to extend these disclosures to local officials and Parliament itself.

On another front, Chris Mullein, Labor chairman of the Ministry of Defense, raised the question of Freemasonry in the services. Now preparations are being made to ban Freemasons from recruiting members from the Armed Forces or holding meetings on military property. Oh me.

The unpleasantness in England brings to mind a post on our e-mail listserver from Dave Duncan, MPS. In response to a discussion of how and why the media ignores Masonry's good works brother Duncan had this to say. "...to a large extent this is a monster we have created by not talking to the media over the years. And, during this time, well-funded anti-Masonic groups -- one very active in Massachusetts -- have been flooding editors with information that contains half-truths, innuendo, and out and out lies. They have been very successful.

©This article, appearing in the August 1999 edition of "The Philalethes", was copied in its entirety with the express permission of The Philalethes Society.