This article is taken from the February 2023 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issues for just £10.

Another BBC cover-up

Your excellent article by Tom Mangold (THE BIG LIE: THE INSIDE STORY OF THE BBC’S BASHIR COVER-UP, DECEMBER/JANUARY) brought to mind another, and arguably more outrageous, cover-up by the bosses at the Beeb because they used at least £330,000 of taxpayers’ money to do so.

The Balen Report was commissioned by the BBC to put paid to constant complaints of anti-Israel bias. The moment the report was delivered it was buried. 

When asked, the BBC refused to say what was in it and refused to publish any part of it. When a Freedom of Information request was made, the Corporation immediately put in train legal action to prevent publication of any part of it.

When the Freedom of Information Act became law in 2000 it gave the press a nice little exclusion clause that it was OK to refuse a request for journalistic reasons, but did not define what these were. 

The BBC used the “journalistic reasons” excuse to refuse to publish and pursued this action right up to the Supreme Court.

This whole farrago was a virtual admission that the accusations had been correct and the commission did indeed find evidence of anti-Israel bias. However, until it is published the BBC can continue business as usual and Israel continues to receive a raw deal.

Carol Caplan

London

Breaking the bank

Hats off to Jon Moynihan (HOW THE BANK BROKE THE GOVERNMENT, DECEMBER/JANUARY) for explaining so clearly the five “strikes” by the Bank of England that contributed to the downfall of the Truss government. As he says, the episode will raise many people’s concerns about the state of democracy in this country for decades to come.

But Jon’s article leads directly to a new question. Is it time to end the Bank of England’s independence over monetary policy, and revert to its pre-1997 relationship with the government?

Tim Holman

St Albans, Hertfordshire

Past masters

Jessica Douglas-Home (A GRAND OLD DUKE, NOVEMBER) expresses surprise at HRH The Duke of Kent’s role as Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of England (not “Britain’s Grand Master Freemason” as there are separate Grand Lodges of Ireland and of Scotland). The Duke is not the first member of the Blood Royal to be a prominent Freemason. There have been a further 19 members.

The first was King George II’s eldest son, Prince Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales (1707-1751) and Frederick’s younger brother Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1721-1763). 

Among the 19 were King George III’s eldest son, George, Prince of Wales (1762-1830), later King George IV, who was elected Grand Master of the “Moderns” or Premier Grand Lodge in 1791. In 1812 upon his appointment as Prince Regent, he resigned as Grand Master and took the title of Grand Patron, so setting the precedent by which a monarch retires from active participation in Freemasonry on his accession to the throne. King George III’s other sons followed, including William, Duke of Clarence and St Andrews (1765-1837), later King Willliam IV.

Queen Victoria’s eldest son, later King Edward VII, was initiated by the King of Sweden in Stockholm in 1868. He was elected Grand Master in 1874 until his accession in 1901 when he was succeeded as Grand Master by his brother, Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (1850-1942). 

In the next generation of Freemasons were Edward, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, and his brother, later King George VI, who in addition to being the Grand Master of the English Constitution was also Grand Master Mason of Scotland. 

Their brother, George, Duke of Kent (1902-1942), the father of the present Grand Master, was installed as Grand Master in 1939 and was killed on active service in August 1942. The present Duke of Kent was elected Grand Master in 1967. His brother, Prince Michael of Kent, was elected Grand Master of English Mark Masonry in 1982. Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was a Mason for over 50 years.

I hope this list of Royals who have played leading roles at the head of English Freemasonry will help to diminish Jessica Douglas-Home’s suspicions of the Craft.

Archie Walls

London

A fortifying glass …

This amateur sommelier concurs with Henry Jeffreys (HOW TO DRINK PORT WITHOUT THE STORM, DECEMBER/JANUARY). And there’s more.

Kopke ten-year-old tawny port is matured in wooden barrels. Making fortified wines is a life-long passion crossing generations and continents. Starting its journey fiery and purple, it is softened and mellowed to a copper-colour russet gently turning to amber nectar. Cool cellars and old wooden casts barely disturbed over time are characteristic of Kopke which, founded in 1638, is the oldest house of port in existence. Consummately rich, it blends resins, warmth and the freshness of cherries, redcurrants and autumnal berries. 

Look at sketches by George Chinnery (1774-1852), an English painter who spent most of his life in Asia, to see Portuguese Kopke lowered gently into the hulls of East India Company ships. What’s more, Henry, I’ve cut Gaviscon dependence. Raise a fine, crystal glass of Kopke. 

Emeritus Professor Kit Thompson KC, FRSE, OBE