The National Trust culture war has just stepped up a gear. Ahead of the Trust’s AGM on 30 October, the Trust has launched an extraordinary attack. Its target appears to be Restore Trust, a new body trying to rein in the National Trust’s political obsessions.
‘Our founders set out to protect and promote places of historic interest and natural beauty for the benefit of the nation. That means we are for everyone. Whether you’re black or white, straight or gay, right- or left-wing,’ the National Trust has said.
This implies that Restore Trust (of which I am a member) is against individuals from different backgrounds. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Restore Trust simply wants to do exactly what the Trust spokesman advocates: protect and promote places of historic interest and natural beauty for the benefit of the nation.
What Restore Trust objects to is how that simple aim has become increasingly politicised in recent years: a drive that has eclipsed the Trust’s central role of protecting and promoting those places.
For 20 years, the Trust has been on a non-stop mission to dumb down its properties
The National Trust spokesman goes on to say that institutions like the Trust ‘must not be used as a punchbag, to divide people, or be led by extreme views’.
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