God help the National Trust, said The Guardian. Ever since it published a “sober” academic report last year, detailing its properties’ links to slavery and colonialism, it has become a battleground in a vicious “culture war”. The Trust’s critics believe it has become too “woke”, and should stick to looking after Britain’s historic homes and gardens. Restore Trust, a rebel alliance of 6,000 current and former National Trust members, has been formed, and is seeking to take six vacant seats on the charity’s council at its annual general meeting next week. The group, backed by right-wing Tory MPs and including one fundamentalist Christian lobbyist, claims that it wants to return the Trust to its founding principles. It is vital to see this for what it is: a small group of unrepresentative obsessives trying to “push a reactionary agenda”.
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