The increasingly woke National Trust has complained about a member-led backlash against the far-left positions being espoused by Britain’s leading heritage foundation.
In an interview with Britain’s top left-wing newspaper, The Guardian, the National Trust maligned the “extreme” positions of the Restore Trust group, which seeks to return the charity to its roots of protecting British heritage as opposed to the recent trend of embarking on iconoclastic attacks on historical figures and places.
Restore Trust, which has been backed by Sir John Hayes, the chair of the Common Sense Group of Tory MPs, is backing a series of candidates to replace the current leadership of the National Trust ahead of the charity’s annual general meeting (AGM) on October 30th.
The NT has targetted several members of the insurgent movement, for holding such “extreme” positions as opposing the green agenda or promoting traditional Christian values.
“It’s right that we are open to public scrutiny. Our national institutions need healthy and respectful debate if they’re going to thrive and be handed on to serve future generations, as they have served so many in the past and present. They must not be used as a punchbag, to divide people, or led by extreme views,” a National Trust spokesman told the paper.
“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 leftwing.”
“We have always debated openly and freely to overcome differences of opinion, and paid-for campaigns that back candidates with ideologies opposed to our values are new and would be concerning for any charity.”
The state-backed conservation charity — which is the largest such body in Europe, being charged with the protection of nearly 620,000 acres of land, more than 500 “historic houses, castles, parks, and gardens”, and nearly a million works of art — has increasingly drawn criticism over catering to the Black Lives Matter movement and other leftist causes.
In a notable example, the National Trust compiled a shame list of 93 properties including the former home of British wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill for the “uncomfortable role that Britain, and Britons, have played in global history.”
The Trust’s ‘Colonial Countryside project’ has also come under fire after it emerged that primary school-aged children were being tasked with engaging in Maoist ‘reverse mentoring’ of National Trust staff on the alleged evils of the British Empire.
The director of Restore Trust, Neil Bennet, said that he joined the movement because he believed that the National Trust’s management had “lost its way and is failing in its duty to protect Britain’s heritage and present it properly.”
Other heritage bodies in the United Kingdom have also seemingly fallen prey to the fancies of the far-left, including Historic England, which has compiled a shame list of churches, schools, farms, pubs, and other places for allegedly profiting from the historic slave trade.
Historic England has been drifting leftwards for years, with the body openly advertising for training positions in 2018 for ethnic minorities at institutions including the National Trust and English Heritage which, ironically, precluded applicants of English heritage.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.