From the Fenland Citizen today. I thought this madness was outlawed by the European Union Court on Civil Rights, but apparently England has found a loophole. Apparently it's no longer cops and judges who have to register their Masonic memberships, it's city council members. So it continues…
Cambridgeshire county councillors and officers could soon be expected to declare their membership of the Freemasons.
Leader of the council and March ward member Steve Count has submitted the motion.
The Standards Board for England has ruled that membership of the Freemasons must be declared under the councillors’ Code of Conduct.
Mr Count said the council does not currently have a written requirement for Freemason membership to be declared and is not expecting any opposition to the motion.
He said: “Quite a few people have said over the years that they are Freemasons. They are not fazed by that fact being revealed.
“I think that the public would like to know that we operate in a transparent way.”
Mr Count’s motion, which will go before the next full council meeting on Tuesday, July 21, calls for all councillors and senior officers to include their membership on the register of interest.
It also calls for councillors and officers to declare if their spouse is a member of the organisation.
There has been a large amount of discussion on this on the Metropolitan Grand Lodge Facebook page. The European Court of Human Rights decision does not only cover judges and police officers. It covers everyone.
ReplyDeleteThere is a peculiarly European notion that somehow Freemasons and Freemasonry are men and societies devoted to the aggrandisement of their members to the detriment of everyone else outside the Craft. No amount of protesting that "Freemasonry is not a Secret Society, it's a society with secrets." has been able to shift that very much.
This motion in Cambridgeshire will probably not be passed. I expect that the law officers of the council, being aware of the ECHR judgment, will tell the council that if passed, it will not be lawful to bring into effect.
W.Bro. Chris Hansen
I sent an old apron to the grand lodge in Washington because it needed conserving.
ReplyDeleteIt was fringed with chain made of brass (I think) emboidered with golden thread and hand painted eye of providence.
It may be from a Kentucky Lodge member, and I hope to learn more about it.
If someone wants me to drag and drop a picture of it into an e-mail, I can do that, but I am old and don't do a lot of attachments.
marilynsteber@yahoo.com