Scientology in the United Kingdeom
by Chris Owen
| From | ronthewarhero@yahoo.co.uk (Chris Owen) |
|---|---|
| Subject | Scientology in the United Kingdom: Introduction |
| Date | 9 Oct 2001 17:39:53 -0700 |
| Msg-ID | <f758becc.0110091639.27f586c5@posting.google.com> |
| Newsgroups | alt.religion.scientology |
Over the past few months, I've been piecing together the "inside story" of Scientology in the UK, using a combination of publicly available Scientology materials, internal Scientology documents and recently released British government files. It's a big task, simply because of the sheer volume of material, but it's already turning up some interesting results.
Scientology's claims that it was the target of a psychiatric conspiracy is, not unexpectedly, readily disprovable. On the other hand, its complaints that the government was secretly briefing the press against it turn out to be accurate and justified. Also apparent is how British officialdom, right from the start in 1952, regarded Hubbard as "a Californian quack of the typical type and of dubious character" and Scientology as a "racket", as one civil servant put it. A particular surprise is the high level of political support which Scientology appears to have received; Hugh Gaitskell, the leader of the Labour Party, in the 1950s, and Margaret Thatcher in the 1960s — then an obscure Tory backbencher but later to play a crucial role in overturning, in as yet unexplained circumstances, long-standing restrictions on Scientologist immigration. A consistent theme throughout is how the government acted with considerable delicacy, seeking to restrict Scientology's activities effectively with the minimum possible level of coercion.
It will inevitably take some time — months, possibly even years — to complete this research. In the meantime, I will be posting the results here, divided up by decades. It will eventually be webbed, although the webbed version will almost certainly be revised from what is posted here. At some point in the future I intend to use the fruits of the research to write a guide/case study to how government have dealt, and can deal, with Scientology and the issues which it raises. Any comments would, of course, be very welcome.