The culture war comes to the National Trust
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2023
⏱️ 28 minutes
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Summary
Tomorrow is the Annual General Meeting of the National Trust - and battle lines are being drawn. Over the past two years, a protest faction called 'Restore Trust' has emerged to challenge the UK's biggest charity. They accuse the organisation of playing politics by highlighting links to colonialism and slavery. But The National Trust says that the history of Empire needs to be part of what we preserve and document. So, can the most quintessentially British institution weather the storm of the culture wars?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In case you've somehow missed it, tomorrow is the big showdown. |
| 0:07.0 | The annual general meeting. Big Showdown. |
| 0:17.0 | The annual general meeting of the National Trust. |
| 0:22.0 | Now, I know what you're thinking. The National Trust? |
| 0:25.9 | How does such a quintessentially genteel organization become a hotbed of rage. |
| 0:33.0 | Well, it's been brewing for a while. |
| 0:37.0 | You can't turn the history back. |
| 0:40.0 | After all, are we going to blame the Romans for invading us? |
| 0:43.5 | I am very grateful to the Romans. |
| 0:45.3 | They gave the straight roads and central heating. |
| 0:48.1 | So you had this feeling, very, very difficult feeling for a great heritage organisation that the people in charge of it actually don't like their properties |
| 0:56.4 | and that's very demoralising. |
| 0:58.8 | One thing I have learned is you can't please all of the people all of the time. |
| 1:03.4 | But we do our best, our best to make sure |
| 1:06.6 | that we are staying true to our charitable purpose |
| 1:09.7 | and charting a course that goes down the middle. |
| 1:19.0 | The battle lines have already been drawn, and the charity's annual general meeting is where the two sides will come face to face. |
| 1:25.2 | In one corner we have the National Trust, the Gardens of the UK's historical houses, |
| 1:31.6 | heritage and countryside. |
| 1:34.8 | On the other, you have Restore Trust, a protest group who accused the National Trust of becoming |
| 1:40.9 | too woke. |
| 1:45.0 | So how did we get here? How did the largest conservation group in Europe |
... |
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