Masons to be forced to Register
Daily Mail 14th April 1998
Save our Secrecy says judge over ‘list of Masons’ A Senior Appeal Court judge yesterday launched a fresh attack on Government plans to set up a register of freemasons in the criminal justice system. Lord Justice Millett, himself a freemason, said Home Secretary Jack Straw’s proposals were ‘completely wrong’ and an invasion of privacy. The judge spoke out strongly against the plans when they were revealed earlier this year. His new onslaught comes as the United Grand Lodge of England prepares to mount its own public campaign. Mr Straw has said he intends to set up a public register of freemasons in the justice system, covering the police, the judiciary, the Crown Prosecution Service, prisons and probation services. Declaration will initially be voluntary for existing members of the justice system, but the Home Secretary has warned that he will bring in legislation compelling registration if they do not co-operate. New members who are freemasons will be required to register under their conditions of service. Lord Justice Millett, 65, insisted there was no justification for such strong arm tactics by the Government. He said: ‘I have no objection to voluntary disclosure. I object to the State requiring disclosure under compulsion of law. That is completely wrong. It is an invasion of privacy which should not be tolerated.’ He denied the freemasons were a secret society and said that he had always been completely open about his own membership. ‘It is a society with secrets in the sense that there are little passwords, rather childish passwords, which we use during the ritual, but that’s all,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. ‘It is a completely harmless pastime. There is no difference between that and the membership of a golf club.’ The just has long been an outspoken advocate of freemasonry, once saying he enjoyed its ‘fun and play acting’. But Labour MP David Winnick, a member of the Commons Home Affairs Committee which has been investigating the influence of freemasonry, strongly defended the proposed register. He told the programme: ‘Everything should be above board when justice is concerned and for the life of me I can’t see why anyone should oppose declaring membership. ‘I would have thought if there is to be a public campaign, the freemasons will find they are very much in the minority in opposing what the Home Secretary intends to do.’ Last month, after grand secretary Michael Higham endured hostile questioning from the Commons committee, the United Grand Lodge reluctantly named the freemasons among policemen involved in several judicial scandals. The lodge had been threatened with a charge of contempt of Parliament if it refused to comply.Mr Straw won a Government battle with the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, to include judges in the register. He has said masonic secrecy had ‘given rise to suggestions of improper influence – and not just suggestions in some cases.’
Daily Mail Reporter14th April 1998