From the Sunday Telegraph
Leading police officers have set up a national Masonic lodge where they can meet in secret in defiance of fears about the influence of the secret society on the criminal justice system.
The founding members include senior officials from the Police Federation, the police staff association, which is currently fighting the Government over its plans to cut budgets.
The new Masonic lodge is led by John Tully, a Metropolitan Police officer The new Masonic lodge is led by John Tully, a Metropolitan Police officer, who has given numerous interviews in recent days accusing the Prime Minister of "fighting violence, arson and looting on our city streets with sound-bites".
Other founder members include officers from the Metropolitan Police, Essex Police, Thames Valley Police and from other forces including Northumbria, Dyfed Powys, South Wales, South Yorkshire and even a high ranking officer from the Royal Gibraltar Police.
The "Sine Favore" Lodge was opened despite the conclusions of a Parliamentary inquiry which warned of public fears that "Freemasonry can have an unhealthy influence on the criminal justice system".
The inquiry followed questions about masonic involvement in the abandonment of an investigation into a shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland and with the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad, which was disbanded after evidence of police malpractice.
The idea for the new police Masonic lodge grew out of a series unofficial get-togethers in hotel bars during Police Federation annual conferences.
Masonic rules require members to do all they can to support each other, to look after each other and to keep each others' lawful secrets.
New members of the so-called Brotherhood are blindfolded, a hangman's noose placed around their necks and they are warned their throat will be slit and their tongue torn out if they break their oath. Critics argue this could put them at odds with discharging their duty to serve the public.
The inquiry by the Home Affairs Select Committee in 1998 called for a public register of police officers who joined the Freemasons, although in the end the then Labour government proposed that officers could make voluntary disclosures about their membership. Few did.
The new "Sine Favore" lodge, is named after the Latin motto of the Police Federation, "Without Fear, Without Favour".
The founders include Police Federation Treasurer Martyn Mordecai, John Giblin, chairman of the Federation's Sergeants Central Committee, and Steve Williams, general secretary of the Federation's Inspectors Central Committee.
Earlier this year Mr Giblin told the Federation's annual conference that government ministers "hate the police service" and wanted to "destroy" it.
Other founding members include solicitor Tristan Hallam, a personal injury lawyer who specialises, according to his firm Russell Jones and Walker, in "road traffic accidents and public liability cases for both private clients and associations including the Police Federation".
Mr Hallam said: "Membership of any organisation is a personal choice. Russell Jones & Walker are aware of my membership."
Stewart Imbimbo, an ex-Thames Valley police officer and now a senior official at Milton Keynes council, Robert Taylor, a financial adviser, Eric Misselke, director of a police credit union which provides cheap loans, savings accounts and insurance, and the Metropolitan Police's resident criminologist Dr Attilio Grandani.
Dr Grandani sits on the Metropolitan Police Authority's equality and diversity sub-committee and is behind the Met's new controversial statistical-led policing model, which aims to combat areas of high crime as opposed to more thinly spread bobbies-on-the-beat territorial policing.
Lodge number 9856 was officially opened by a senior Masonic official, Russell Race. He is the Metropolitan Grand Master, head of the Grand Lodge of London, a corporate financier and chairman of a construction firm behind the huge Westfield shopping centre in west London and The Pinnacle office development, which, when complete, will be the tallest building in the City of London.
The lodge is based at 10 Duke Street in central London, which is also the headquarters of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree, one of the most important and mysterious bodies in international Masonic circles, which has an elite membership of only 75 people.
The building, known as Grand East by Masons, contains the "Black Room", the "Red Room" and a "Chamber of Death", used for Masonic rituals.
The Police Federation last night refused to discuss whether any of its officials had disclosed their involvement with Freemasonry.
A spokesman said: "Being a member of any organisation is a matter for the individual, so long as membership of that organisation does not compromise their duties and responsibilities as a police officer."
Lodge Secretary Mr Tully, vice chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation refused to comment.
Monday 22 August 2011
Wednesday 10 August 2011
More humour
Another picture from the well-known comic series. This is being sold by Trevor Vennett-Smith in Nottingham. It has an estimate of £20. It dates from 1924.
Thursday 4 August 2011
A Catholic curiosity
This piece is from the Catholic Herald and is an interesting story of a man's curiosity about Freemasonry prompted by mass killer Anders Breivik.
It is a positive story, although the odd canard is repeated. A lively debate follows in the comments.
"The Masons in Britain are, apparently, open to anyone who believes in a God and donate huge sums to charity. So what did Breivik see in it?
Among the bizarre photographs that the Norwegian mass killer, Anders Breivik, displayed of himself on the internet, posing in different uniforms, was one in which he was wearing the characteristic Masonic apron. It appears that sometime during his twisted career he had become a Freemason. Was this because it made him feel important, he liked the idea of a secret society, or because Masonic views about Muslim immigration accorded with his own racist views?
These questions came into my mind as I was accompanying my very elderly mother to an event on Saturday that she loves (but which I find irresistibly dull): the Oxfordshire County Show. To sneak a book along with me, to read as she watched prize cattle parading past, would have been a social solecism of the highest order in my mother’s eyes. There was momentary relief when I was ordered to go and find her a glass of wine from somewhere. It meant I could do a quick trawl of the stalls. And among the leatherwork, farm equipment and suchlike, I caught sight of a stall advertising the local Masonic lodge.
Slipping in behind the backs of the officials manning it, I grabbed all the literature I could find: free pamphlets with the titles: “All about Freemasons: interested?”, “Freemasons: a partner’s guide”, “Our History” and “Charities”. At least it was printed matter. I duly scanned these offerings surreptitiously while my mother sipped her wine and watched the show jumping.
All I knew about Freemasonry I had gleaned from a book I had read at my convent boarding school – egged on by a school friend who spoke of its fearful rituals and oaths – called Darkness Visible: A Christian Appraisal of Freemasonry, by Walter Hannah, published in 1952. If I remember, these oaths included agreeing to have your tongue torn out and being buried up to your neck in sand at low tide if you gave away Masonic secrets. This might have appealed to a person like Breivik – but what was this stall doing at a quintessential rural English occasion like a country show?
It seems I was quite wrong in my prejudices and assumptions: the pamphlet called “Interested” talked about the clubbiness and conviviality of the Lodge meetings; “Freemasonry is not a secret society”, it declared. OK, there are a few secret signs and passwords used by Masons to identify one another, but these are simply ceremonial. The “Charities” leaflet showed the enormous sums donated by the Freemasons to the victims of hurricanes and tsunamis, local hospices and other worthy causes.
The Partners’ Guide (a very PC phrase) showed pictures of wives and children and again reassured readers that it was not a secret society with secret rituals, but open to men of all religions “who share a concern for human values and moral standards” and who “strive to live by the fundamental principles of integrity, good will and charity.” It also declares that “While every Freemason must hold a personal belief in a God as a Supreme Being, there is no separate theology. Any man who believes in a God, from whatever Faith, will be comfortable with all that Freemasonry is, does and teaches.”
The last pamphlet, “Our History”, puzzled me slightly. I had thought the Masons were sure they could trace back their lineage to King Solomon’s temple and a chap called Hiram Abiff, apparently King Solomon’s chief architect; here I read that “it is generally accepted to be connected with the Stone Masons who built the great medieval cathedrals and castles”. So deeply Catholic origins, then? There seems to have then been a gap until the 18th century when it flourished mightily in Protestant England. Yes, there are funny handshakes but these are only used at Lodge meetings.
It’s amazing how interesting an agricultural show becomes with literature like this on hand. But I still have questions. Why was someone like Breivik attracted to Freemasonry when “it admits all men regardless of race, creed, colour, faith or nationality”? Why are Catholics forbidden to join? What happened to the horrible oaths used in the degree ceremonies and why were they allowed in the first place? What links can there possibly be between the devout Catholic masons and craftsmen of, eg Chartres or Durham cathedral and modern Freemasonry? Oh – and why does the Masonic Hall in Brecon not have any windows on the ground floor?"
It is a positive story, although the odd canard is repeated. A lively debate follows in the comments.
"The Masons in Britain are, apparently, open to anyone who believes in a God and donate huge sums to charity. So what did Breivik see in it?
Among the bizarre photographs that the Norwegian mass killer, Anders Breivik, displayed of himself on the internet, posing in different uniforms, was one in which he was wearing the characteristic Masonic apron. It appears that sometime during his twisted career he had become a Freemason. Was this because it made him feel important, he liked the idea of a secret society, or because Masonic views about Muslim immigration accorded with his own racist views?
These questions came into my mind as I was accompanying my very elderly mother to an event on Saturday that she loves (but which I find irresistibly dull): the Oxfordshire County Show. To sneak a book along with me, to read as she watched prize cattle parading past, would have been a social solecism of the highest order in my mother’s eyes. There was momentary relief when I was ordered to go and find her a glass of wine from somewhere. It meant I could do a quick trawl of the stalls. And among the leatherwork, farm equipment and suchlike, I caught sight of a stall advertising the local Masonic lodge.
Slipping in behind the backs of the officials manning it, I grabbed all the literature I could find: free pamphlets with the titles: “All about Freemasons: interested?”, “Freemasons: a partner’s guide”, “Our History” and “Charities”. At least it was printed matter. I duly scanned these offerings surreptitiously while my mother sipped her wine and watched the show jumping.
All I knew about Freemasonry I had gleaned from a book I had read at my convent boarding school – egged on by a school friend who spoke of its fearful rituals and oaths – called Darkness Visible: A Christian Appraisal of Freemasonry, by Walter Hannah, published in 1952. If I remember, these oaths included agreeing to have your tongue torn out and being buried up to your neck in sand at low tide if you gave away Masonic secrets. This might have appealed to a person like Breivik – but what was this stall doing at a quintessential rural English occasion like a country show?
It seems I was quite wrong in my prejudices and assumptions: the pamphlet called “Interested” talked about the clubbiness and conviviality of the Lodge meetings; “Freemasonry is not a secret society”, it declared. OK, there are a few secret signs and passwords used by Masons to identify one another, but these are simply ceremonial. The “Charities” leaflet showed the enormous sums donated by the Freemasons to the victims of hurricanes and tsunamis, local hospices and other worthy causes.
The Partners’ Guide (a very PC phrase) showed pictures of wives and children and again reassured readers that it was not a secret society with secret rituals, but open to men of all religions “who share a concern for human values and moral standards” and who “strive to live by the fundamental principles of integrity, good will and charity.” It also declares that “While every Freemason must hold a personal belief in a God as a Supreme Being, there is no separate theology. Any man who believes in a God, from whatever Faith, will be comfortable with all that Freemasonry is, does and teaches.”
The last pamphlet, “Our History”, puzzled me slightly. I had thought the Masons were sure they could trace back their lineage to King Solomon’s temple and a chap called Hiram Abiff, apparently King Solomon’s chief architect; here I read that “it is generally accepted to be connected with the Stone Masons who built the great medieval cathedrals and castles”. So deeply Catholic origins, then? There seems to have then been a gap until the 18th century when it flourished mightily in Protestant England. Yes, there are funny handshakes but these are only used at Lodge meetings.
It’s amazing how interesting an agricultural show becomes with literature like this on hand. But I still have questions. Why was someone like Breivik attracted to Freemasonry when “it admits all men regardless of race, creed, colour, faith or nationality”? Why are Catholics forbidden to join? What happened to the horrible oaths used in the degree ceremonies and why were they allowed in the first place? What links can there possibly be between the devout Catholic masons and craftsmen of, eg Chartres or Durham cathedral and modern Freemasonry? Oh – and why does the Masonic Hall in Brecon not have any windows on the ground floor?"
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