United Grand Lodge
of Antient, Free and Accepted Masons
of England


 
Province of
South Wales Eastern Division

Comment

Masons "must declare" ..... 
because they give to charity!

MUCH has been made in recent press reports of the ruling by the Standards Board for Local Authorities in England that Freemasons must declare their membership of the fraternity. Two such reports appear on the right. The decision was based on the fact that a proportion of the annual fees paid by each Mason to the United Grand Lodge consists of a donation to The Grand Charity. Many Masons will have been unaware that part of their subscriptions went to the Grand Charity. It's in the "small print", but they will no doubt be pleased that some of what they perceived to be admin' charges was in fact being donated to Charity. In any event, the vast majority of Members will be making separate additional donations via The Grand Charity. Apart from the National Lottery, the Freemasons' Grand Charity is the UK's biggest charity donor, and is funded solely by donations and contributions from Freemasons themselves. It does not raise money from the general public. It is true that a significant percentage of the Grand Charity's disbursements are to Masons or Masonic causes, but actually the figure is less than 40%. For the year ended 30 Nov 2002, grants to individual Masons in distress and other Masonic charities totalled £1,541,000 and those to charities of the wider community were £2,412,500. Masons are proud of their charitable activities and, indeed, proud to be Masons. They do not object to declaring their membership. They DO object to being discriminated against and ask simply that they be treated in the same way as everyone else. They will be monitoring the situation closely to ensure that subscriptions to all other charities are treated in exactly the same way. This will, of course, apply to donations to churches and any other situation where sums of money are passed directly or indirectly to charitable causes.

Plea to Ombudsman over Freemasons © The Western Mail 20 Jan 2004   AN MP is urging Wales to follow England's lead on a ruling over Freemasonry. Preseli Pembrokeshire MP Jackie Lawrence wants Freemasons to be forced to declare their membership when they become councillors. Her call follows a ruling by the Local Government Standards Board in England, that membership of the Freemasons must be declared under the Councillors' Code of Conduct. Mrs Lawrence, who has long campaigned on the issue, has written to the Local Government Ombudsman in Wales urging him to implement similar guidance. "Government at every level needs to be open and transparent. That is why councillors, AMs and MPs have to declare their interests when they take office," she said. "It seems a major anomaly that membership of a secret society like the Freemasons should to date have been ignored as a potential interest. "This ruling in England makes declaration obligatory. It is a significant step in making local government wholly transparent." Under the Code of Conduct in England, councillors must declare membership of charities - and part of the subscription fees to lodges go to the Freemasons' Grand Charity.

Masonic councillors to be outed by Helene Mulholland © The Guardian 13 January 2004 Councillors with masonic links will in future be forced to declare their membership in order to avoid conflicts of interest in town hall decision-making. The Standards Board for England decision potentially ends a two-year tussle under the new code of conduct over freemasons who stand as councillors. When the code was first introduced in April 2001, an argument erupted over whether elected councillors should be made to reveal their freemasonry on the register of interests. The matter was subsequently left to local authorities, which have the powers to strengthen the code locally. Some councils decided to introduce this requirement, while others declined. There are 300,000 freemasons in England and Wales, although the number of councillors who belong to the organisation remains unknown. The standards board has now issued guidance confirming that membership of the Freemasons must regularly be declared under the councillors' code of conduct, under the auspice of its charitable activities. Under the code councillors must disclose their charity membership on the register of interests. The guidance was issued after the united grand lodge admitted that part of freemasons' annual subscription fee to their lodges goes to the Freemasons' Grand Charity, which ranks as the second biggest charity donor, second only to the national lottery. The standards board issued a statement which states: "Freemasons must register membership of their freemason lodge on the register of interests and, where appropriate, declare their membership as a personal or prejudicial interest before, or during, council meetings." The United Grand Lodge retorted by accusing the standards watchdog of singling out its members. UGL media manager and grand officer Chris Connop, said: "It is more a matter of principle and the fact that we are being singled out and being targeted. There are other organisations that are not being mentioned. You do not have to declare the golf club you belong to, yet a lot gets decided on golf courses. We think this is based on ignorance and prejudice and a misunderstanding of what freemasons stand for. "When we become freemasons, we promise we will not use our membership for professional or financial gain. We can get thrown out for doing it." A legal challenge had not been ruled out, he added. "This has never been tested in court," he said. "I certainly do not think this is something we would let rest."