On Monday a report by the Rowntree Foundation attacked lottery distribution bodies for giving more money to rich communities than poor ones.The ROH is particularly vulnerable to the accusation of social elitism, and its bid for pounds 78.5m has been hotly debated ever since its director, Jeremy Isaacs, delivered the application for funds to restore the Floral Hall, give the Royal Ballet a home at the Covent Garden site, and create a second auditorium.Although the institution initially claimed it had asked for more than pounds 50m, it emerged later that it had also requested a further pounds 23m to pay for previous development schemes.. The final ratification is understood to have come from an inner group, including Lord Gowrie, Mary Allen, the secretary-general, and Peter Gummer, chairman of the lottery panel.It remained unclear last night whether the announcement would be made at a press conference to publicise the fourth round of Arts Council lottery grants scheduled for this morning. In a move expected to unleash a storm of protest, senior members of the Arts Council agreed this week to give the ROH the go-ahead to redevelop its Covent Garden site with lottery funding. But in an attempt to mollify its critics, it is believed to have decided to give the Opera House only pounds 50m of the pounds 78.5m it asked for in January. The decision was made at a meeting of the Arts Council of England on Monday, with the chairman, Lord Gowrie, arguing persuasively that the prestigious institution should succeed. The Arts Council has agreed to give the Royal Opera House millions of pounds of National Lottery money despite claims that the lottery is milking the poor to fund the hobbies of the rich.
He was taken off the case, he said, after discovering two suspects were in the same lodge as two of his colleagues.. Membership of the squad, which was established in December 1993, was restricted to officers who declared they were not Masons.This limitation, imposed directly by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Condon, followed the case of Chief Inspector Brian Woollard at Hendon, who went public with accusations that a corruption inquiry at a London council had been obstructed by Masons. A confidential copy of the Masonic Year Book for 1991-92 named 20 judges.The society's love of secrecy and the solemn oath by members to help each other have fuelled the corruption claims.A 44-man squad at Scotland Yard is investigating accusations that officers in the South-East Regional Crime Squad were being bribed to help criminals win bail and to destroy evidence. Others are restricted to local police stations and the Inns of Court.In his best-selling book a decade ago, The Brotherhood, the author Stephen Knight reckoned as many as 33 of the 50 chief constables at that time were Masons.
For the first time, senior Masons are expected to be called to give evidence in the Commons about the controversial order, its rituals and practices.For years, allegations of corruption have surfaced among the estimated 500,000 members, especially those in the police, law, civil service and local government. Headed by the Grand Master, the Duke of Kent, they are organised into more than 8,000 lodges. One lodge, the Manor of St James, is mainly confined to senior officers in the Metropolitan Police. The cross-party Home Affairs Select Committee, chaired by Sir Ivan Lawrence, voted to launch the inquiry - the first by such a highly placed body. Its scrutiny is likely to pre-empt the Nolan inquiry into standards of public life which has also indicated it wants to examine the secret society. A powerful committee of MPs decided yesterday to launch an investigation into the influence of Freemasons in the police and judiciary. They said the Serb general "seemed content" to allow the safe departure of 79 Ukrainian peace-keepers from Zepa and 300 Dutch from Srebrenica."There have been talks in Sarajevo between Smith and Mladic and they were aimed at working out how to save the civilians who are under threat," said one UN official in Bosnia.Stakes raised, pages 10, 11Letters, page 14Andrew Marr, page 15. Sources said Gen Mladic, who held a secret meeting with Gen Smith in Sarajevo, seemed amenable to Gen Smith's requests that international aid workers be allowed to deliver aid to Sarajevo and the other enclaves and to visit Bosnians detained after the fall of Srebrenica last week.