The witch hunt will continue until further notice, I'm afraid.
The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE), the Order of Women Freemasons, the Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons, and two London Metropolitan Police(Met) officers who are Freemasons have had their request for judicial review rejected by the High Court. Their challenge targeted the Met’s Declarable Associations Policy, introduced in December 2025, which requires all officers and staff to confidentially declare past or present membership in “Masonic orders or appendant bodies” — or any similar organization with confidential membership, hierarchical structures, and mutual support obligations.
Officers not complying can be dismissed for misconduct.
The policy was driven by recommendations from the 2021 Daniel Morgan Independent Panel report into the unsolved 1987 murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan and long-promoted concerns about "public perception" of police impartiality among Masonic cops. Although the panel found no evidence that Freemasonry influenced the murder investigations, it described Masonic membership as “a source of recurring suspicion and mistrust.” The Met argued that requiring declaration of Masonic membership serves the purported goal of maintaining and enhancing public trust in policing.
Claire Darwin, a lawyer arguing for the plaintiffs, said the Met's decision allowed it to create a "black list," calling the move an "institutional signal of suspicion" which breached Freemasons' human rights and was based on 'limited, opaque and heavily perception-driven' evidence. She added the police appeared to rely on 'long-standing conspiracy theories and/or prejudicial tropes about Freemasons' as a reason to introduce the measure.
Regardless, Mr. Justice Chamberlain ruled on Tuesday that the measure is proportionate and that fears of discrimination and human rights breaches against Masonic officers were not "reasonably arguable." In his 17-page ruling on Tuesday, he claimed the policy's purpose was "eliminating the potential for actual bias, where officers discharge their functions improperly, and perceived bias, where there is a perception or suspicion that officers are discharging their functions improperly."
Perception. Potential for. Perceived. In other words, imaginary.
Says the fellow whose reputation isn't at risk purely because of his private membership in the world's oldest fraternal organization that stresses honor, adherence to the cardinal virtues, square dealing, and acting on the level.
A lopsided survey taken in January of a small proportion of police officers in the Met showed concern that involvement in the Freemasons could "compromise impartiality or create conflicts of loyalty." After publicly flogging this nonsense for decades now, I'm not surprised. But not a single situation investigated by authorities over the last 50 years has ever proved that Masonic police officers have conspired to cover up misdeeds, promoted each other, or engaged in any other kind of improper behavior. There have only been assertions and allegations by non-Masons that never pan out to have any merit. But someone always runs to the press with their allegations of imaginary horribles and the headlines trumpet the claims in 96 pt. type with plenty of exclamation marks.
In the UK, many Masons do not publicize their membership in professional settings to avoid unfounded prejudice or baseless assumptions from fellow colleagues. In this atmosphere, stoked by the media and a sensationalistic press that has promoted Masonic conspiracy theories for almost a half century now, any police officer who declares himself to be a Mason is immediately regarded with suspicion for... something. From now on, any criminal who wants to allege that he was framed or mistreated by a Met officer need only find out that the poor plod is a bloody Mason to get an early release. Any fellow officer who gets passed over for promotion need only discover that the guy who DID get promoted rolls up his trouser leg and straps on an apron on Thursday nights to immediately lodge a discrimination complaint. And any fool can see this is exactly what will begin happening.
UGLE has announced it will not appeal the judgment, saying, despite what it views as legal and factual errors in the ruling, an appeal would not be in the best interests of Freemasonry.
#EnoughIsEnough
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