The Metropolitan Police has launched a consultation on whether officers should have to declare that they are Freemasons. Scotland Yard said concerns had been raised internally that membership of the secretive fraternal organisation could impact “investigations, promotions and misconduct”.

There are around six million Freemasons globally, with 200,000 in England and Wales. Almost all of them are men, although there are two all-female orders.

What did the commentators say?
The decision to launch a consultation follows a report into the unsolved 1987 murder of private detective Daniel Morgan that said police officers’ membership of the Freemasons had been a “source of recurring suspicion and mistrust in the investigations”.

For “absolutely ages it was a given that half the coppers in London belonged to the Masons”, said Melanie McDonagh in The Spectator, “and ditto half the movers in the City”. And transparency is still needed to determine if, for instance, a promotion “could be affected by a superior officer being in the same lodge as the subordinate”. 

Freemasonry is undergoing something of a revival. This “coterie of older men” is trying to “attract fresh blood” and “ensure the survival of ‘the craft’” by reducing the minimum age from 21 to 18 and embracing social media, said The Sunday Times. It seems to be working: “tech-obsessed, socially liberal young people” are “clamouring to join an ancient, all-male society”.

But the idea that the group is “pulling the strings behind the scenes” is “based on a misunderstanding” about Masonic orders, said Adrian Marsh, grand secretary of the United Grand Lodge of England. Comparing the stigma around Freemasonry to that of discussions about sexuality, Marsh argued that “forcing people to declare” they are Freemasons could “breach their human rights”.

What next?
Senior police officers will discuss the proposed policy change with the United Grand Lodge of England, which said it was “looking forward” to the conversation.

The Met said it would also be looking into “other organisations that could call impartiality into question or give rise to conflict of loyalties”.

The public “should be in a state of collective outrage and revulsion” at the crimes of Nathan Gill, said Neil Mackay in The Herald. Reform UK’s former leader in Wales has admitted accepting bribes in exchange for making statements in favour of Russia while he was a member of the European Parliament.

‘In bed with Putin’
The 52-year-old pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery between December 2018 and July 2019 involving payments from Oleg Voloshyn, whom the US government once described as a “pawn” of Russia’s secret services.

But instead of outrage, there’s “a collective sense of ‘oh well, so now we know the rumours were true’”, said Mackay. That “tells you all you need to know about Reform”. Gill may no longer be a member of Nigel Farage’s party, but when it comes to connections between Russia and the British far-right, “there’s much to pick over”.

Farage is “in bed with Putin”, Rachel Reeves claimed at the recent Labour conference. Boris Johnson, a one-time Farage ally, also described his stance on Russia as “extremely dangerous”. The former prime minister recently told the “Harry Cole Saves the West” show that he had “serious anxieties” about Reform’s position on the Ukraine war.

‘Ideological alignment’
Farage has a “long record of falling for even the most inventive of Kremlin cock-and-bull tales”, said The Telegraph. His response to Putin’s first invasion of Ukraine, in 2014, “proved his willingness to believe Russian propaganda”. Even on the day of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, “he could not stop himself from repeating the Kremlin’s cover story that the whole tragedy was a ‘consequence of EU and Nato expansion’”.Until the channel was banned, Farage had a regular paid role on Kremlin broadcaster Russia Today, voicing similar  views. So “is there anything he would not believe if the Kremlin claimed it to be true”?

During the last general election, Australia’s ABC News discovered a “network of Facebook pages” spreading “pro-Kremlin talking points” and posting support for Reform. Some of the posts were shared by Reform candidates.

The Gill case highlights “a consistent alignment between senior members of Reform and Kremlin messaging”, said Byline Times. And as Reform continues to rise in UK polls, that “ideological alignment raises urgent questions in need of answers”.

A model walks the runway at the debut show of Chanel’s fourth ever artistic director. Matthieu Blazy brought Paris Fashion Week to a close with a planet-themed spectacle in the Grand Palais, watched by real-life stars including Nicole Kidman, Pedro Pascal and Margot Robbie. 

Yoan Valat / EPA / Shutterstock

Amateur astronomers, take note: we are in the midst of a “solar maximum”, which means the Sun is getting “super energetic”, said Time Out. This period of heightened solar activity, which occurs only every 11 years, is likely to continue into 2026, making now a great time to spot the Northern Lights.

The auroral zone spans several countries, including Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and parts of Canada, and you’re most likely to spot them between mid-September and April. “As a rule, the farther north you go, the darker it is and the longer the aurora season,” said The Times. Still, there are no guarantees and you’ll “need to be patient and stay up late”.

Iceland is an excellent option for aurora hunting, with many scenic spots. One of the best is the “flat terrain of Thingvellir National Park”, less than an hour’s drive from Reykjavik, said Condé Nast Traveller.

Or you could “live out your ‘Frozen’-inspired Scandinavian fairy tale in northern Sweden”, with an overnight stay at the Icehotel in the small Arctic village of Jukkasjärvi. Drive around 70 miles to Abisko National Park, where the aurora borealis appears on a “near-nightly basis during peak season”. Flanked by two mountains, the park has a microclimate known as the “blue hole” that shields against most clouds and rain, ensuring the skies are often dark and clear.

Or if it’s “pure magic” you’re after, said The Times, it has to be Yukon in Canada’s far northwest. A three-night tour by Discover the World kicks off at a “cosy log cabin” near Whitehorse before offering the chance to try dog sledding and visit the Yukon Wildlife Preserve to spot bison, moose and caribou.

Think twice before giving police more powers
Sonia Sodha in The Times
“Hateful scenes” at pro-Gaza demonstrations after the Manchester synagogue attack have prompted the home secretary to seek “new powers for the police to restrict repeated protests”, writes Sonia Sodha. “Many will be sympathetic to the idea”, but it’s “instructive” to consider the risks. Such powers could be misused by police to “clamp down on legitimate protest”, or “exploited by a government with authoritarian tendencies”. The “fundamental problem” is that “there is no easy legislative fix” for antisemitism.

The Tory conference vibe: sad, empty and haunted by Margaret Thatcher
Rachel Cunliffe in The New Statesman
“It’s the emptiness that hits you,” writes Rachel Cunliffe. Conservative Party conferences were once “packed to the rafters”, but this year’s exhibition hall is an “eerie wasteland”. There are “mannequins” of Margaret Thatcher’s “most famous outfits” and a “CGI Winston Churchill” but “no trace” of this century’s five Tory prime ministers. With “no idea how to escape from the curse of recent history”, this is a party choosing to “back into more comforting times”.

We’re all doomed if English literature students can’t read books
Sam Leith in The Spectator
It’s a “new cause of gloom to discover” that universities are “offering ‘reading resilience’ courses” to help phone-addled English literature students “tackle the unfamiliar task of reading long, old, sometimes difficult books”, writes Sam Leith. Books are the “slow-food movement of the intellectual world” and the “antidote to the hot take, the angry riposte and the overconfident assertion” of our public discourse. If we lose the ability to engage with long and complex texts, “we are cooked”.