Austin said (May 12, 2011):

John Wilson is indeed a very brave. I would be very surprised if he didn't come home one evening to find his house had been torched, his car up on bricks with the wheels and engine missing and his bank accounts frozen, pending some lame duck 'enquiry'.
Of course, that's assuming that these things (and more) haven't happened to him just yet...

Two years ago, a contact of mine in the neighbourhood told me of a dinner that he was invited to one evening. This event was held at a prestigious venue, and several hundred people were present. I asked him about the makeup of the crowd, and he told me the following: "They were essentially business people, senior members of the police and politicians, but the most prominent people of all were well known crime figures: from the 'dodgy brothers' right up to organised crime - all mxing and mingling at the one event."

I have no doubt that members of the lodge were there too - representing all three groups!

-Austin in Brisbane

Dan said (May 11, 2011):

Neutralizing occasional public demand for transparency of government official's memberships in secret societies is old hat for international Masonry. Every generation or so enough of the public become aware of the racket that the Masonic governments make a show of requiring disclosure. Then the requirement is revoked later when the heat's off. See below, England just completed that cycle. Considering the facts that Britain was plunged into wars and became the most intrusive Big Brother society in West despite ten years of required disclosure of public 'servant' Masonic membership, the issue is actually a hoodwink.

The 'blue lodge' organizations memberships aren't where the 'action is' anymore. The real secret societies moved into government 'security' agencies over a century ago. Association with those agencies is "protected under national security".

1998 - UK: Politics New judges must declare masonic membership - March 5, 1998
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/politics/57381.stm

"Freemasons who join the police or judiciary in England have to declare their membership of the ancient fraternal society.

The move, which was introduced last month by Home Secretary Jack Straw, means serving judges will also be asked to make a voluntary declaration but will not be compelled to do so."

2009 -Jack Straw's decision to no longer force applicants for the judiciary to declare if they are Freemasons was today branded a "disgrace" by a Labour MP. - November 2009
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/anger-at-cloak-of-secrecy-for-freemason-judges-1818043.html

[Gordon Prentice (Pendle) said there would again be a "cloak of secrecy" following the move by the Justice Secretary.

Mr Straw said last week that a review had shown no evidence of "impropriety or malpractice" as a result of a judge being a Freemason and it would be "disproportionate" to continue with the practice, introduced in 1998.

The United Grand Lodge of England made representations to ministers in May and indicated it might seek judicial review of the policy.
At Commons question time today Mr Prentice asked: "Is it not a disgrace that you have decided to allow judges no longer to have to declare if they are Freemasons?"We know that one in 20 of our judges are Freemasons. Why on earth the cloak of secrecy?"

Mr Straw replied: "There was no secrecy about my announcement, I made the announcement by way of written ministerial statement last week in the light of a European Court of Human Rights judgment against the state of Italy, which was made in 2006, and to which our attention was drawn by the Grand Lodge of Freemasons.

"It suggested that a continuation of a compulsory register...was likely to be unlawful. After legal advice I accepted that. It is open to any judge to declare that they are Freemasons."
He added that there had been "no evidence" of any "unacceptable behavior by Freemason judges.
Ministry of Justice figures indicate there are 3,808 judges in England and Wales and 205 or 5.4 per cent are Freemasons. There are also 29,702 magistrates, of whom 1,900 or 6.4 per cent are Freemasons.]