It was back in 2018 when The Guardian reported that it has learned that “two Freemasons’ lodges set up more than 80 years ago for members of parliament and political journalists are continuing to operate.”
The title of the said article was not the original one as stated in the article itself as the article was the subject of a public complaint by the UGLE and thus it had to be amended so to “remove a misleading impression conveyed by the original headline subheading and opening.” The original title was “Two freemasons lodges operating secretly at Westminster” which was changed to “Two Freemasons’ lodges set up at Westminster are continuing to operate.”
According to Freemasonry records these two lodges are the “New Welcome Lodge” which was set up to recruit MPs peer and parliamentary staff and “Gallery Lodge” which was established for members of the political press corps. “The New Welcome lodge was set up following the 1926 general strike to admit Labour politicians who had previously been refused entry to Freemasonry.”If they were refused entry why are more lodges set up to accept such politicians?
“The United Grand Lodge of England says that no MPs or lobby journalists are members of those lodges. However it has confirmed that several MPs are Freemasons.”
“A third lodge called the Alfred Robbins Lodge which was also set up for journalists also continues to meet regularly in London.”
“The identities of the members of these three lodges remain unknown outside the world of Freemasonry.”
Do we have local journalists recruited in freemasonry too?
“One current member of New Welcome told the Guardian that its members keep Gallery Lodge masons at arm’s length on the grounds that while they are fellow members of the brotherhood they are still journalists and ‘they wouldn’t want journalists listening to their conversations’.” Why?
“The disclosure that both journalists and politicians are Freemasons comes after the outgoing chair of the Police Federation allegedthat Freemasons were blocking reforms in policing and thwarting the progress of women and officers from black and minority ethnic communities.”
“After three years as the chair of the PoliceFederation Steve White said: ‘I found that there were people who were fundamentally against any kind of change and any kind of progress and they always happened to be Freemasons.’”
“The Guardian understands past members of Gallery Lodge have included former journalists at the Times the Daily Express the Scotsman and several Hansard reporters.
The New Welcome lodge has 22 members. Most of the members of the lodge are former MPs parliamentary staff or police officers who have served at Westminster. MPs who are Freemasons are members of other lodges however.”
Can we rely on such a statement and statistics?
Do you see integrity or influence?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/feb/04/two-freemasons-lodges-operating-secretly-at-westminster