For a famously small-c, conservative institution which has traditionally avoided controversy over the years unlike other national treasures - BBC, NHS

What's happened to the National Trust

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2021-06-18 08:30:03

For a famously small-c, conservative institution which has traditionally avoided controversy over the years unlike other national treasures - BBC, NHS, what have they been doing to upset the sensibilities of middle England?

They've resisted renaming buildings unlike my daughters old academy comprehensive in Bristol, Colston's Girl's now Montpelier High School, a reaction to Edward Colston's statue being unceremoniously removed.

Whatever they’ve done, it hasn’t stopped 26 MPs and a couple of peers forming Common Sense Group, who have accused the trust of being, “coloured by cultural Marxist dogma” and in the grip of “elite bourgeois liberals”. I even found a campaign group web site called Restore Trust.

For years I thought the National Trust was an institution exclusively for parents and grandparents to love. During childhood, even though my parents weren't members (yet), it didn't stop them including an excursion on holiday when the weather was typically English - not warm enough for the beach, perfect for stately homes.

Mother cunningly chose places for their wonderful gardens, Capability Brown's landscapes, lost ones miraculously found, and those with high walled, red brick enclosures, market gardens where lunchtime salads for the restaurant were harvested. Me and my sister, after initial enthusiasm on arrival in the car park, soon groaned and moped, dragging our sandals around the gravel paths, waiting for the bombardment of beauty and Latin names to stop.