Frankly the subject is not important enough to me to be @rsed to dig through the morgue and quote specific cases. I don't claim or want to be an expert on Freemasonry. I'm a specialist aviation/defence writer, and that's where I do my research and work. I comment on the Masons in the Forces as an interested onlooker, not as a journo. I'm not remotely interested in covering the subject in print, nor that of lesbian nuns slaughtering cattle (but I'll have a pint of whatever you've been drinking).
Nor do I deny that there are some worthy chaps and notable names who are masons, and nor would I have them all executed (or whatever else I'm supposed to be in favour of). I'm not comparing Masons with child-molesters or Combat 18, I'm arguing from an extreme in order to make the point that Human Rights legislation can't be used to protect any behaviour (and especially not by an organisation which discriminates on the grounds of gender). There are plenty of honourable Masons out there, and I wouldn't want to be that offensive to them.
But I do think that membership of a secret society which has been tainted by the widely held suspicion of mild (and sometimes less mild) corruption is inconsistent with military or police service, and I'd rather see it eradicated from the law, too. I wouldn't want serving officers to be active in political parties, either, though I find that fractionally less worrying.
A quick word with the crime correspondent on one of the broadsheets reassured me that there is plenty of evidence of Masonic corruption, large-scale and small, with instances in recent criminal cases. Please don't make me spend time dredging through it - I'm told that there's plenty on the web, for and against, if you're that desparate to trawl through the "Yes he did"s and "No he didn't"s of the argument.
It's not a charity. It's not a golf club. There may be plenty of genuinely altruistic Masons who just want to give something back, but some other members regard it as a useful covert networking opportunity, and a legitimate means of ensuring self advancement and business success. Why else would you join, instead of joining the Rotary (now that's a charity) or the Golf Club (now that's a golf club)? It's not dangerous in civilian life, but I don't happen to like it.
But in the forces, it's a different ball-game. As has been better expressed by others, it's a secret organisation which could bypass the chain of command and could influence promotion, discipline, etc. After all, Masons do swear oaths of loyalty to their brother Masons, don't they?
Adastral: You don't know who I am. You don't know what I do (though I'm flattered that you think I'm a "narrow minded biggots who scrawl for the tabloids"). At the same time you don't know "what kind of reporter I am, but it patently doesn't involve any serious research". "The press has far more power, and corrupting influence, than the freemasons will ever have". Interesting that the press and publishing industries have plenty of practising Masons..... perhaps if I was one I'd earn myself a little less venom and odium. Or perhaps not.
And who are these poor innocents who've been so destroyed by the press? Neil Hamilton? The Maxwells? Archer? And isn't it atrocious that the press have drawn attention to the Chinook crash, Blair's lies and spin, etc. Don't push me into defending the tabloids - much of what the press does is shabby and shoddy, but much of it is well-meaning, and most journos do what they do in the misguided belief that they might do some good. (Not me mate, I do it for the money and the fame).