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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Feb 28, 2017 22:01:14 GMT
Do these freemason councillors declare this in their register of interests or can they not do that because what position of control they may have in the organisation is secret? In which case, there is the conflict of interest. Not sure how true this is, but I was told that they put The Grand Charity as a declared interest. Indeed - if you see "The Grand Charity" in a register of interests, that councillor is a Freemason. Some councils go further and ask for individual lodge membership to be registered.
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Khunanup
Lib Dem
Portsmouth Liberal Democrats
Posts: 11,530
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Post by Khunanup on Feb 28, 2017 22:18:07 GMT
Nothing wrong at all with individual freemasons being involved in politics (we have two or three councillors across parties on our council who are members) but if you know anything about freemasonry it would be concerning if there became a critical mass of council members, especially in a council which is dominated by one party/been run by one party for a long time. I find you last sentence in this context seriously disturbing and was not aware of that situation before now. Is this a touch of jealousy on display? Why would it be disturbing? I'm going to be generous and presume you know nothing about freemasonary. As an ostensibly good candidate for freemasonary, if anyone outright asked me to join I'd be as polite as I could in rejecting the ludicrous concept...
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Post by gwynthegriff on Feb 28, 2017 22:41:44 GMT
In my councillor days there was one Lib Dem, two or three Tories and several Labour members who were known to be "on the square" (I believe that's the expression). Their identities were generally known.
What we didn't know was which chief officers were masons ...
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peterl
Green
Monarchic Technocratic Localist
Posts: 8,152
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Post by peterl on Feb 28, 2017 22:49:52 GMT
Suppose one of the mason councillors was standing as a chairman of a committee. Did the other masons of different parties back him?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2017 22:59:02 GMT
There was a retired chief inspector I knew who was approached several times to join the Freemasons and he would say "I'm a Catholic" and they'd walk away. Then, he was approached at a barbecue just before he took retirement and, after giving his normal polite answer, was surprised to be told "that's okay, we let you in now", and he said (out loud, according to his brilliant wife): "Damn, now I have to be impolite."
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Post by Merseymike on Feb 28, 2017 23:20:27 GMT
North Wales has always been something of a hotbed of Freemasonry. I don't know how true this anecdote is but I was told of a council meeting where an issue related to the local Masonic Hall came up. One female councillor pointed out that some councillors might need to leave the meeting owing to non-pecuniary interest. All male councillors irrespective of party did so!
When I was on the police authority Norman Bettison was CC. He was vociferously anti-Freemason and didn't believe it was compatible with policing
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neilm
Non-Aligned
Posts: 25,023
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Post by neilm on Feb 28, 2017 23:44:29 GMT
I didn't realise this forum was such a hotbed of conspiracy theory fans.
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Post by finsobruce on Mar 1, 2017 0:12:02 GMT
I didn't realise this forum was such a hotbed of conspiracy theory fans. is that a conspiracy theory?
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Mar 1, 2017 0:13:24 GMT
They just want you to think that.
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Khunanup
Lib Dem
Portsmouth Liberal Democrats
Posts: 11,530
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Post by Khunanup on Mar 1, 2017 0:34:30 GMT
I didn't realise this forum was such a hotbed of conspiracy theory fans. Do you know anything about freemasonry?
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Sharon
Labour & Co-operative
Posts: 2,517
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Post by Sharon on Mar 1, 2017 0:43:21 GMT
Do these freemason councillors declare this in their register of interests or can they not do that because what position of control they may have in the organisation is secret? In which case, there is the conflict of interest. In Southampton, they have to declare they are a freemason on our Declaration of Interests form.
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neilm
Non-Aligned
Posts: 25,023
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Post by neilm on Mar 1, 2017 0:47:43 GMT
I didn't realise this forum was such a hotbed of conspiracy theory fans. Do you know anything about freemasonry? Yes. My perspective is very different to yours, it seems.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2017 0:47:48 GMT
I remember that Mike Russell publicly resigned from the Masons a few years ago when it was suggested that it was incompatible with being Minister in Scottish Government.
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Khunanup
Lib Dem
Portsmouth Liberal Democrats
Posts: 11,530
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Post by Khunanup on Mar 1, 2017 1:09:37 GMT
Do you know anything about freemasonry? Yes. My perspective is very different to yours, it seems. I see. Just to make it clear my antipathy towards the institution isn't merely because of their wilful, erroneous misuse of Ancient Egyptian iconography. Out of respect for people I have a lot of time for I'll leave it at that.
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Post by No Offence Alan on Mar 1, 2017 8:14:58 GMT
North Wales has always been something of a hotbed of Freemasonry. I don't know how true this anecdote is but I was told of a council meeting where an issue related to the local Masonic Hall came up. One female councillor pointed out that some councillors might need to leave the meeting owing to non-pecuniary interest. All male councillors irrespective of party did so! When I was on the police authority Norman Bettison was CC. He was vociferously anti-Freemason and didn't believe it was compatible with policing Yet where else can coppers go for a quiet pint? They can hardly go down their local where they could meet some of their "clientele".
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Post by jonlawson on Mar 1, 2017 12:14:11 GMT
Do you know anything about freemasonry? I enough about freemasonry to know your talking the usual conspiracy guff. How would you feel about it if rather than calling it the Freemasons, they called it the Secret Council, providing a place to come to decisions on voting arrangements before making your view public in the chamber? Of course, councillors can do this sort of thing anywhere, but having a blatant second council for that purpose is slightly taking the mickey, don't you think?
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neilm
Non-Aligned
Posts: 25,023
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Post by neilm on Mar 1, 2017 12:24:56 GMT
I enough about freemasonry to know your talking the usual conspiracy guff. How would you feel about it if rather than calling it the Freemasons, they called it the Secret Council, providing a place to come to decisions on voting arrangements before making your view public in the chamber? Of course, councillors can do this sort of thing anywhere, but having a blatant second council for that purpose is slightly taking the mickey, don't you think? Can you give us a single example of that ever happening? I've never come across it, at least in the UK.
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Post by greenchristian on Mar 1, 2017 19:09:45 GMT
That's never been GPEW policy, although it is SGP policy - different parties. The GPEW or at least individual branches have been known to call for defectors from the party to quit and fight a by-election though. Quite vocally. And individual local parties have the autonomy to decide whether they will allow defectors to sit under Green colours until their seat comes up for election. Exeter has annual/thirds elections, so he could well be due to restand this year anyway. I have no philosophical objection to people defecting in the six-month period as that would also be the period when you are finalising decisions on whether to re-stand anyway, and by-elections are defered to the normal election date. I've never lived in a by-thirds area so forgive me if I'm mistaken, but doesn't the six-month rule only apply to the actual seat vacated and not to any other poll that may be taking place on the same day? That's my understanding.
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Post by tonygreaves on Mar 1, 2017 20:56:48 GMT
Google it. Though the English-language literature on the matter is not much. Put simply it's Pakistani Muslim castes, but more complicated than just that. Not the main issue to hand in Pendle, as far as I can tell.
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Post by tonygreaves on Mar 1, 2017 20:59:45 GMT
At one time in Pendle there were as many Buffaloes as Freemasons but they seem to have gone away now.
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