16 January 2004
Upside-down handshakes and strange thumb signals will no longer be secret signs in town halls with new guidance compelling councillors to register their membership of the Freemasons.
The Standards Board for England has ruled that the Freemasons can be classed as a charity as part of their membership fees goes to the Freemasons Grand Charity.
Under the councillors' code of conduct members are required to register membership of charities and declare this as a 'personal or prejudicial interest' at council meetings.
The board also banned a councillor for three years this week for racist behaviour. Norman Thompson, a councillor at Restormel Borough Council, admitted being a racist and disrupted a training session on race relations being held by the authority.
'Behaviour such as that described is simply unacceptable. It damages the reputation of local government and people's confidence in it,' said Sir Anthony Holland, chair of the board.
PFjan2004
